#started listening to the audiobook and honestly I’m so glad it’s the wrong book

[what-even-is-sleep]

Finally got off the looong-ass Libby hold list for the audiobook of Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros only to realize it was not, in fact the no. 1 book in the Temeraire series that I thought I was waiting months for…

[carriagelamp]

Well, if nothing else I read a shocking number of B books this month. I felt very fortunate this month -- I've been listening to a lot of audiobooks lately because of general stress and a lack of free time, but I managed to settle into quite a few physical books over February. It's honestly been a bit of a relief to have the time and headspace to curl up with a book.

A Boy Called Bat / Bat and the Waiting Game / Bat and the End of Everything

I read this trilogy because I had heard some pretty positive reviews for it. The story is about an autistic boy called Bixby Alexander Tam, nicknamed Bat. He has the nickname for a few reasons besides for the acronym — Bat feels it’s appropriate because he also: loves animals, has very sensitive hearing like a bat, and will flap his hands like wings when he’s excited. The story starts when his mom, a vet, brings home an orphaned skunk kit that needs caring for and Bat falls in love with it. The trilogy extends over the rest of Bat’s school year, a budding new friendship, and how he helps raise the kit and tries to convince his mom that he doesn’t need to be released into the wild but instead would make a perfect pet.

I felt… lukewarm to it, honestly. I think my problem is I went into it with the wrong expectations. The way it had been described to me, I thought it would be one of those more “artsy” ““highbrow”” children’s novels but it really reads more like a pretty standard fare Child Animal Story. Which is fine! A standard animal story is appealing to kids, and having some autistic rep in a basic book instead of exclusively in more artsy stuff is great. It was just a bit of a disappointment after I heard it so hyped.

It did have some interesting parallels/symbolism, but over all the plot was rather meandering without any real upticks, and the language was fairly plain and uninteresting. And the ending fell completely flat. It felt like the few themes the book was clinging were just completely dropped in the final yard. I would totally recommend them to an elementary kid that wants a cute animal/school story, but that’s about it. 

Ballet Shoes

This book I had a great time with. I’m reading a completely different novel that referenced back to this classic children’s novel and I ended up needing to detour to read this first so I could get the references. I’m glad I did! Normally I’d be put off by the title/aesthetic, because I’ve never been a kid into “ballerina stories” but I ended up really loving it. It made me think of similar books from the earlier 20th century, like A Little Princess or The Secret Garden or Anne of Green Gables, all of which I love.

Ballet Shoes is about a trio of adopted sister: Pauline, Petrova and Posy. Their guardian does their best to make ends meet and ensure the girls get an education, but the household funds are gradually dwindling and they’re soon struggling. Luck strikes though when they decided to let out rooms of their home for borders, and one ended up suggesting all three girls join a local ballet school — there they can train in dance, but can also start earning money at the age of twelve if they get cast in productions. The girls take to this training with varying degrees of enthusiasm, each one being a very unique, enjoyable character, and the book follows the different misadventures they have as they grow and enter the entertainment industry and continue to fight to make ends meet.

Despite how heavy that might sound, it was ultimately quite a charming, feel-good novel. It was perfect for a cosy blanket and a cup of tea.

Bedknob and Broomstick

I had watched the movie a number of times growing up but never once read the novel, so I finally remedied that. Did you realize that what we know as Bed-Knob and Broomstick is actually a compilation of two separate books, The Magic Bed-Knob and Bonfires and Broomsticks? I hadn’t! And I have to say, I think I enjoyed the second story more than the first.

For those who haven’t heard of the story at all, it’s about three children who are sent to the country to stay with their aunt, and during their summer they end up meeting a neighbour called Miss Price. Miss Price is a rather regular, proper young woman, with the added detail that she’s learning to become a witch through correspondence classes. When the children promise not to reveal her secret, Miss Price gifts them an enchanted bed-knob, one that will take them anywhere in place or time they would like to travel. The first story is about the places they adventure too. The second is some time later, when they are able to visit Miss Price once again, and are horrified to discover that she has given up witchcraft for good. The kids however are determined to use the bed-knob once more, this time to venture back into the past.

In all honesty, I was rather neutral to the book, especially given how racist the first half is. I was happy to have read the classic but I wouldn’t go out of my way to read it again.

The Boy in the Dress

Now, caveat right at the top: this book isn’t explicitly queer. At no point does anyone come out as gay or trans. But I do consider it queer in that the entire narrative is an ongoing conversation about what the gender binary means, and how one’s own identity, passions, and presentation can challenge that, and how people respond to those challenges.

The story follows 12 year old Dennis who lives in a very ordinary, plain household with his older brother and father, who attends a very ordinary, plain school, in a very ordinary, plain town. He loves playing football (soccer), hanging out with his friend, and he also loves dresses. He loves how bright and colourful and joyful they can be, when his life feels very bland. Dennis struggles with figuring out how to explore the interest while contending with the other people in his life who clearly disapprove. 

It’s a really earnest, heartwarming story.

Dogsbody

Ah, I love Diana Wynne Jones’ books, they’re always completely buckwild. This book was a ton of fun; as always with her books it really felt like I was reading something different and quirky and attention grabbing.

The main character of Dogsbody is Sirius — yes, the star. The story opens with him being put on trial, accused of killing another luminary and losing a powerful instrument called a Zoi. His sentence for this crime is to be stripped of his powers and cast down to earth, to spend one lifetime living in a humble, mortal form. If he can survive and find the Zoi within that lifetime, he will be welcomed back to the cosmos. 

Sirius is reborn a regular puppy, one with no memories of his previous life or powers or mission. The novel follows him gradually growing up under the care of a young girl and her cruel family as he attempts to regain his memories and figure out how to find his lost Zoi.

Dragon Rider

I haven’t read Dragon Rider since I was a kid, but I realized they had done a film of it… and man, that adaptation was not great. I remembered the book being better so I had to investigate. And I was right, the book is a really cute, enjoyable adventure with some charming characters.

The adventure starts when the hidden valley that Firedrake lives in is threatened by humans. The dragons have lived in small, hidden pockets for years, and now that it seems that the constant tide of humanity is pushing towards them they have no idea what to do. Only Firedrake takes up the challenge of venturing out of the valley in the search of a legendary place called the Rim of Heaven where dragons allegedly live in safety. Along with his dear friend the brownie Sorrel, and a young human they run into, they must plot of course that will take them across the globe, while avoiding an ancient, fearsome, dragon-hunting monster which has been without its preferred prey for centuries.

Grandpa’s Great Escape

I’ve been meaning to read David Walliams books for ages, ever since I saw them beginning to pop up in our local bookstore. I finally bought one on a whim, and wow, I was not disappointed. It reads exactly like a Roald Dahl novel, which is about the highest praise I can offer — I don’t think I’ve ever read anything that satisfies in the same way as Dahl before.

This novel follows Jack and his grandfather, a retired RAF pilot from WWII. His grandfather has become increasingly confused as the years progress, and often finds himself mixing up the present and his past glory days as a pilot; Jack is one of the few people who still finds it easy to talk to his grandfather because he is completely willing to meet him at his level, talk to him as if he really is still the Wing Commander. When his parents can no longer handle it though, they’re duped into send Jack’s grandpa to the wicked Twilight Towers. As the only one who can see how sinister the place really is, Jack is determined to save his grandfather.

It’s a truly hilarious story, since it’s written very much to read like a RAF pilot trying to escape from a Nazi concentration camp… except set in a nursing home! I can’t recommend this book enough, between the silly, heartfelt story, the occasional tragedy, and the fun illustrations, it’s such an addictive read.

I Think Our Son Is Gay v3

I read the first book of this series last month (whoops, I skipped 2… my library just happened to have the third in) and decided to try another. It’s a cute little series about a teenage boy experiencing his first crush. Though he hasn’t come out to his family yet, he’s a boy who seems incapable of lying, who has a face that gives him away easily, so his mother (the main POV character) is quite certain he’s gay and that he has a crush on his best friend. She is determined to be quietly supportive of her son until he’s ready to come out. The series is predominantly sweet and supportive little episodic stories, but it also layers in some of the everyday homophobia and microaggressions a gay teenager might experience in a homophobic society, even when people around him don’t know he’s gay. It’s a very worthwhile read.

Socks

This was a book that I read over and over in grade 2 and I had forgotten its name until just recently. I never read many Beverly Clearly books as a kid, since I preferred genre fiction over stories based around the real world / school, but I loved the silly story told from the pet cat's point of view.

The story is about Socks and the perfect family he’s adopted into… perfect until a new baby comes around and suddenly Socks is competing for attention.

The Squirrel, the Hare and the Little Grey Rabbit/ Hare Joins the Home Guard

I mentioned in my review about Ballet Shoes that I read it because another novel I’m reading referenced it: same for this book! The Squirrel, the Hare, and the Little Grey Rabbit is one of the picture books the main character of the other book often alludes to so I decided I needed to read it as well. This book was a cute, standard fare little picture book from that era. It’s about the very gentle, virtuous Grey Rabbit, and her rather bossier, lazier housemates, the Hare and the Squirrel. It was cute and the art was lovely, though I can’t say much beyond that.

I also read Hare Joins the Home Guard mostly because I was stunned and baffled by a Cute Animal Story explicitly jumping into WWII… though I suppose it makes sense! It came out in 1942 and it’s a pretty gentle way of holding a mirror up to some of the things children were certainly hearing about and experiencing in their real lives. In this, the various animals join the “home guard” in different roles (such as taking up arms, becoming a Red Cross nurse, digging shelters to protect children, or knitting for the “troops”) in order to fight off invading weasels. I would say it was also fairly “basic” were it not for the fact that it was hilarious to see this next to titles like Little Grey Rabbit Makes Lace. How often do you see Cute Lil Animals preparing gas masks for their chemical warfare plans?

[otgwbgyu]

ig i should start doing full entries again esp bc school’s starting and ill probably being feeling way worse

in chicago like THE big city today. and for the next couple of days. trying to enjoy vacation but summer reading haunts me everywhere i go. it’s so unfair that we have to do school work during the summer. like i’m not gonna become illiterate over the summer…. chill…. but it’s just something i can’t shake and will always worry abt. like during the game i started listening to the audiobook bc i got so anxious over it 💀 ik it’s kinda on me for not reading earlier but like…. the books r mid NOBODY actually wants to read a how-to on reading 😕😕 i do get random bursts of motivation tho when i fantasize abt being a productive, straight-a honors student with a national merit scholarship like my dad, and i also kinda get competitive with my friends. bad for r relationship but good for my grades and sanity for sure

i kinda snapped yesterday too lmao. like i joined call w sarah and she was being so uninterested and unresponsive while begging others to join call and the minute ava joins she’s all happy and conversing. like damn ok?? u can be closer w others but presenting it like that hurts lmfaoo. after 5 min I left bc i just wasn’t having it tbh. it rlly stung and pissed me off

o yeah i finally finished catcher in the rye OMGG… i honestly dunno how to feel about that book. like i get holden but at the same time i dont?? i can be angsty like him but he’s like my angst on steroids. that guy cant find any enjoyment anywhere he goes and it pisses me off. i may seem grouchy and miserable on here but im more friendly irl. remember this is primarily a VENT acc where all my dark thoughts go, the main ones aka the happy ones stay in my head or get shared with others. and hes so pessimistic, not like MY type of pessimistic where i think everything’s gonna fail or go wrong, pessimistic as in everything sucks and theres nothing to enjoy in life. like omg aren’t u just a bundle of sunshine!

i feel bad bc he is just a kid and has trauma, but that doesn’t give him the right to make others miserable. like humanity sucks yeah but u gotta learn to deal w it man. ur not gonna like everyone and not everyone’s gonna like u, it’s just something u gotta live through bc at the end of the day there’s a good bunch of ppl who do care abt u, and that love, even divided, should matter more to u than the hate others feel towards u. bc why r u concerned abt strangers’ hatred and not your own family and friends’ love? but he’s a teen whose mind is clouded by depression and angst, so i can’t be too harsh. and even i catch myself acting like him so it’d be kinda hypocritical. still think he was an asshole sometimes tho, nothing’s changing that

biden dropped out the race in the middle of a baseball game (minor league) mom and i BOLTED and did r research. the democrats r in flamesss 😓😓 republicans next 🤞🤞 glad biden is out, hated his ass, kamala surely will redeem us 🙏🙏🙏 she’s no saint ofc, she’s a politician, but compared to trump she’s jesus the messiah himself. i’d vote her if i could 🥥🥥🥥

[lizziestudieshistory]

Books of 2022 - September

Had a very slow reading month as I’ve started a completely new postgraduate course and shifted to full time education again. Needless to say, I’ve had a lot less time and it has been very draining. I’ve not necessarily read that much less by numbers, but what I did read was smaller – plus I didn’t love anything that I did read…

La Dame aux Camelias by Alexandre Dumas fils – this was a disappointing read, not necessarily because it was a bad book, but I couldn’t connect to it. This is definitely a personal problem as I, occasionally, gain the morals of a middle class Victorian – it’s a personal problem, not much I can do about it – and that occurred here, so I struggled to truly connect with most of the book. This is very much on me and is not a comment on a book because, clearly, I’ve developed something against stories around prostitutes (I blame the Victorian novels). The book itself was fine, I’m not sure how I feel about the translation, but the characters were well realised for the length of the book and the plot was engaging enough by 19th century standards.

Honestly, if you’re interested then give it a go, it just clearly hit me at the wrong moment in time and I didn’t love my experience reading it. It’s definitely one of those I’m glad I read it moments, but I’m also glad it’s over…

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien – this was my only reread of the month, which is a huge improvement from August, and I read it to continue my year of Tolkien. I think I’ve mentioned before that The Hobbit is not my favourite of Tolkien’s works, however, I enjoyed it well enough. I read most of The Hobbit through the new(ish) Andy Serkis audiobook, it was my first time listening to this version in full and I really enjoyed it. Serkis really elevates the book and animates it in a way I’ve never really experienced before, particularly as I’m more of a Silmarillion fan.

Warhost of Vastmark by Janny Wurts – I’m really struggling with the Wars of Light and Shadow series by Janny Wurts, it’s not so much that I don’t like it because there are elements that I absolutely love. However, there is something about it that I can’t quite pinpoint that keeps me from truly enjoying myself when I’m reading them. Some of this I think comes down to Wurts’ writing style, it’s overly dense so it can be difficult to fall into the book and forget the rest of the world for a bit. I’m always hyperaware that I’m reading rather than just experiencing a world or story. This just means a lot of the charm is now lost for me because I can’t just fall into the book without being aware of words on the page.

I’ve already said a lot about this series, so I don’t want to go into any specifics as the same problems keep rising up. I’m now wondering whether I should abandon the series or not. I’m going to give book four a shot as I do really love Lysaer’s plotline, but only enjoying about a third of the series is not fabulous when the books aren’t short and there’s currently 10 of them (soon to be 11!)

The Vampyre by John Polidori – I don’t have anything to say about this. Short stories don’t really do it for me, but I was stuck in the university library with nothing to do, so I thought I’d check it out.

[mycomfortblanket]

Written in Ink chap 4

Toph isn’t completely sure what makes her wake up so early, but she knows it’s going to be one of those mornings where she can’t go back to sleep no matter how hard she tries. She can feel Aang’s body pressed up behind her and judging from his deep and even breaths that she can feel on the back of her neck, he is still asleep.

Turning her face more into the pillow, she inhales his scent from the fabric, and hopes that she can maybe pass out from lack of oxygen by doing this so that she can go back to sleep.

Pushing her head further into the pillow is when she feels it. The hardness that is pressing just below the swell of her ass. When she had leaned forward to push her face more into the pillow, it had caused her hips to move back slightly and brush against him.

Her face stills in the pillow, she bites back a grin. Toph knew it is something that normally happens in the morning, but for some reason, it gave her a strange sort of satisfaction.

Moving back to her previous position- pressed against his chest- she brushes against him once more and a hand quickly reaches out and grips her hip, “God, quit doing that,” his voice sounding strained and still rough with sleep.

Toph lets out a snort, “Didn’t realize you were that into me,” she says with a slight wiggle of her hips. Another groan comes from his lips and his fingers dig into her skin.

“Don’t flatter yourself, it’s morning. And you doing that isn’t making it any easier,” he says, rolling onto his back, away from her slightly.

Toph pouts slightly as he pulls away taking his body heat with him. She turns around to face and pulls the blankets up to her chin, “What’s for breakfast?”

“Funny that you think I’m making breakfast after what you just did.”

She laughs under her breath, “Well, when you take me home, can we stop somewhere and get something to eat? I would kill for some hashbrowns.”

An hour and a half later, they were sitting in a booth at their nearest Ihop looking through their menus. Well, Aang was looking through the menu. Apparently, Toph comes here so often she already knows what she wants.

He looks up at her and can’t help but blush more. They definitely look like they’re an awkward one night stand couple. Her hair is messy and unbrushed and she’s wearing one of his hoodies that is way too big for her.

Every time he glances at her, he can’t help but remember how he was taken out of his dream by the brushing of her ass against him, and then she had the audacity to do it again. He knows it’s wrong to say this, but he’s glad she is blind so that she can’t see the blush that hasn’t left his face since they got out of bed that morning.

“You know, I can feel you blushing from here,” she says with a smirk, reaching out for her drink.

“Urgh,” Aang drops his head to the table, “Why did you do that to me? I am a good man, and it was just cruel.”

Toph laughs and cuts into her pancakes, “Whatever, it was funny and you know it.” The sleeve of the hoodie slides back just slightly and he is able to catch the sight of his Name on her skin and he sucks in a breath.

“What?” she asks. How she heard that, he doesn’t know.

“Uh, nothing. Your Name is all.” It’s Toph’s turn to blush as she pulls the sleeve down and pulls it into a palm to hold it there.

It’s a moment before she raises her face to him and the blush starting to recede. “Where… Where is yours?”

Aang looks down at his plate, biting his lip before glancing back up at her. Her face is guarded and her eyes are casted downwards. He can feel her building up a wall between them for some reason. He doesn’t think this conversation is too personal, considering what she did this morning, but he can feel her distancing herself.

“It’s on my chest, just under my heart along my ribs,” he says in a low tone. All he gets is a nod in response. He stares at her for a moment, gathering some courage to ask his next question, “Why don’t you like the Names?”

Toph’s eyebrows fly up for a second before she drops into a neutral face, “What, are you wanting to do the soulmate thing now?”

“No, I’m not ready for that. I just want to know your perspective of it.” He can see her clench and unclench her teeth a few times, trying to figure out what words would be appropriate for this.

Aang thinks she is just about to tell him off right when her shoulders slump down and she lets out a deep breath. “All my life, things had been decided for me because I’m blind. What school I went to, who my friends are, what I wear, everything. I barely got to move out… actually I wouldn't have been able to move out if Zuko didn't kidnap me. The Names are just another thing that has been decided for me, and I can't stand it. I should be able to choose who I want to be with and when I want to be with them.”

Aang nods his head slowly and takes a bite of his eggs, “Yeah, that makes sense.”

Toph jerks her head up a little, completely surprised by her answer. Most people tell her that it’s stupid, that she's missing out on the greatest feelings. But, instead, he seems to understand.

“What about yours?”

He snorts a little, “Eh, we’ll get to that another day.”

“Little too depressing for you?”

“Ha. Yeah. You could say that.

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

Katara walks into the living room to see Toph lounging on one of the couches, her earbuds in, most likely listening to an audiobook.

Walking over to her, she nudges her leg to get her attention. Toph hits the pause button on her headphones and pulls one out.

“I noticed that you didn't come home the other night,” Katara asks in a teasing tone.

“Oh, uh, yeah. I slept over at Aang’s.”

Trying not to be too forward and scare her off, Katara walks into the kitchen and grabs a bottle of water before returning to the couch. “Well, what did you guys do all night?”

Toph doesn’t answer immediately which makes Katara automatically assume, “Oh my god, you didn’t.”

“Didn’t what?”

“You slept with him! You totally slept with him! Tell me everything, was he any good?”

Toph sits up in shock, “Dude! What the hell? No, I didn’t sleep with him, it wasn’t like that.”

“Where did you sleep then?”

“Uh… in his bed? But we didn’t do anything, it was just platonically sleeping next to each other.”

Katara crosses her arms and sits back into the couch watching Toph, looking for any signs that she may be lying. “If you guys didn’t have sex, then what did you do?”

“Er… he- uh. He read to me.”

“He read to you?! You don’t even let me read to you! That’s totally not fair,”

“Yeah, well, you know. Heat of the moment and everything,” she says with a wave of her hand and moves to put her earbuds back in.

“You like him.”

“What?” she asks, stopping just before she is able to push play.

“I said, ‘You like him’”

Toph lets out a snort and settles back into the couch, “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Plopping down on the couch, practically smooshing Toph’s legs into the cushions, Katara’s face is pure giddy, “Oh my god, you totally do! You didn’t even deny it!”

Pushing Katara off, Toph gets up and makes her way to the kitchen, hoping that the conversation won’t continue. But, knowing her roommate, that’s not likely, “Come on, T., just admit it!”

“There’s nothing to admit,” her voice low and solid.

“Yes, there is! Come on! It’s not the end of the world? What’s so wrong about liking him?”

Toph opens the fridge and grabs one of her smoothies and leans back against the fridge, thinking about the conversation. Even if she does like him, it’s not like she is about to admit that, especially out loud.

“I’m not confirming or denying anything, Princess. We’re just two people that hung out last night who just so happen to have each other’s Names on their bodies. It’s fine,” she says, pushing off from the fridge and walking towards her room.

“Whatever! I know you Toph, and you can’t lie to me!” Katara calls out just as she is shutting the door to her room.

Dropping onto her bed with her head hanging over the side, she chews on her lips considering what Katara had just said. She goes over her feelings for just a moment and as soon as she starts feeling that fluttering in her chest, she rolls over onto her stomach and grabs her phone.

“Siri, call Aang.”

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

Sitting on the sofa with his laptop in his lap, Aang attempts to work through some homework problems, but the motivation is just not there . His phone starts ringing, and honestly, it sounds like it’s under his butt, lodged into between the cushions.

He shoves a hand underneath him and feels around for the phone but isn’t able to get to it in time for the phone call. Looking at the screen, he sees that it’s Toph who was calling. He raises his eyebrows in confusion but swipes to call her back.

“Hey. You going to bring me some chinese?” is her immediate answer to the phone.

“Uh, no. Was not planning on it. I’m doing homework.” She lets out a very exaggerated groan at this.

“Just bring me some chinese and your computer and you can do your homework here.”

“No, I can’t.”

“And why not?”

Aang smiles slightly, “Because, knowing you, you’re going to talk nonstop and distract me from homework and then I won’t get anything done.”

“Please, you barely know me.”

“Am I wrong though?” She doesn’t answer immediately but instead, grumbles something out unintelligible.

“Fine, whatever.”

“What are you doing, though?”

“Well, I was listening to a book before Katara interrupted me with probing questions about our sex life,” she says nonchalantly. Aang chokes on air for a second before he realizes she’s kidding.

He doesn’t say anything for a moment, “I didn’t realize we had a sex life.”

“Oh, but we do. Very kinky. Surprised we didn’t break the headboard,” she says, still pretending to be serious.

“Oh, yes, you are right. Very kinky and very lavish, exactly what we are.” He can hear her laugh through her nose which makes him smile. He loves her sense of humor, the dark and sometimes explicit things she says always keeps him on his toes.

“You want to go do something later? I hear that there is a silent movie playing at the theatre,” he asks.

“Ha-ha. Funny.”

“No, but seriously, there’s a movie that just came out that I want to go see, do you want to go?” He knows this is dangerous territory; going to the movies is a typical first date kind of move. She is silent for a moment, and he swears, he can hear her thinking through the phone.

“Yeah, sure. But, you’re buying.” A breath of relief escapes him and a tiny smile plays on his lips.

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

“Now, I know that I missed some parts because of the whole not seeing thing, but that movie sucked.” They’re walking out of the theatre, the bag of popcorn is still clutched in Toph’s hand while her cane slides in front of her, occasionally tapping the concrete.

“Yeah, the trailer seemed so much better. Although, seeing Blake Lively in a bikini for most of the movie was pretty nice.”

Toph snorts and elbows him in the side, “Perv.” As they get settled into the car, her phone starts singing ‘ Holding Out For a Hero’ .

“Yell-o” she says in greeting, putting the call on speaker.

“I’m going to Zuko’s for the night, I left some dinner in the fridge for you,” Katara’s voice comes through the speaker.

“Ahhh, thanks, Mom. I’ll be sure to eat that."

“Where are you?”

“Aang and I went to a movie- which sucked by the way- but we’re on our way home now,” she says, shoving a handful of the popcorn in her mouth.

“Ohhh, you and Aang went on a date?” Katara says in a suggestive way.

“Hell no, I just didn’t want to go to the movie by myself,” Aang pipes up from the drivers side.

“Oh, shit. Am I on speaker phone? That’s my bad.”

Toph snorts a little and says through the popcorn, “Anyways, I’ll be home soon. I’ll make sure to lock the door so the big bad men don’t come and get me.”

“Alright, have a good night and make sure to use a condom!” Katara shouts before disconnecting the call.

Toph groans and drops the phone into her lap, “She’s so irritating.” Aang’s shoulders are shaking with laughter.

“I’m not going to lie, it’s kind of funny. You make jokes about it all the time, but the moment Katara says something about it, you’re all ‘She’s so annoying, why does she joke about it, it’s not even funny’,” Aang says in a high pitched voice trying to mimic Toph.

She lands a punch on his arm, “Whatever, I do not sound like that,” she says with a huff and crosses her arms over her chest.

A few hours later, they’re laying on her bed listening to some music and jumping from topic to topic about everything and nothing. Aang sits up slightly and turns on his side, resting on his elbow, “What’s it like being blind?”

Toph lets out a snort at the question, “What the hell do you mean ‘ what’s it like to be blind’? How am I supposed to answer that? What’s it like being able to see?”

He shrugs a little at her answer, “Yeah, but like, how did you learn to do stuff?”

“The same way you learned to do stuff, dipshit.”

He laughs at her abrasive answers, “Never mind, you’re not getting what I’m trying to say.”

Toph turns her head towards him, “Well, try and explain what you’re wanting to know better and maybe I’ll answer differently,” she challenges.

Huffing, he drops back down to the bed on his back, their shoulders just barely touching. “Okay, fine. I guess, what I’m trying to say is, Do you feel like you’re missing out on things because you’re blind?”

A thoughtful look passes over her as if she hadn’t ever actually considered the question, “I mean, not really. Although, lately, there are some things that I wish I could see. I don’t feel left out, if that’s what you mean. Everyone includes me in everything and they never mention my blindness so it doesn’t feel like it’s really an impairment. It’s just… somethings, I guess, would be nice to see.”

“What do you want to see?” His brows coming together in confusion. He never considered her wanting to see certain things but not care about others.

She takes a deep breath and turns her head so that her eyes are trained towards the ceiling, “Nothing, it doesn’t really matter.”

“No, come on! Tell me,” he asks, his voice low and coaxing, as if trying not to scare her off.

Toph purses her lips in thought and closes her eyes, and for a moment, he doesn’t think she is going to answer. “I’d like to see you,” her voice is low, barely even a whisper. The breath in Aang’s lungs is immediately stolen.

“Me?”

“Yeah,” her voice stronger now, more sure, “I’d like to see what my soulmate looks like, if you’re really as attractive as everyone says you are.”

Aang laughs lightly at her answer, he really was not expecting this. He turns his head to face her and looks at the slope of her nose, the freckles that dust across her cheeks, the beauty mark just under her jaw, her ink black hair.

“Here, sit up, let’s try something,” Reluctantly and with a groan, she sits up and turns to face him. He takes her hands in his, and slowly brings them up to his face and rests them on his cheeks.

“You really want me to feel out your face?” her eyebrow quirking slightly.

“Yeah, you can’t tell me you haven’t done this with other things.”

“I- I mean, uh yeah, I have. It’s just, this is a little personal, feeling someone else.”

Aang shifts closer to her until their knees are touching, “Well, have at it.”

Toph takes a deep breath and swallows visibly before her fingers slowly skirt over his skin, fingertips just barely touching him. He stays as still as he can while she maps out his face. She traces over his cheekbones, his jawline, the hair on his head. While one hand is, once again, tracing his cheekbone, her other hand slowly goes down his nose until it drops off at his lips.

She stops there for a moment, almost as if asking permission to touch his lips. She swallows again and feels along the bow of his top lip and the plumpness of his bottom. He smiles slightly at her, and she feels the creases of his cheeks as he does so.

Her fingertips linger just a second longer on his lips before moving down to his jaw and skimming over his throat and neck to the expanse of his shoulders. She feels how broad they are and how his collar bones are hard beneath his skin.

The whole time she is mapping out his face, Aang keeps a close eye on her own face, watching the small expressions that flicker across her face as she goes over the dips and edges of his face. When she came to his jaw line, her mouth quirked up in a small smirk, and since then, he hadn’t been able to take his eyes from her lips.

He is fascinated with how they move. She would occasionally bite the inside of her cheek which would shift them just slightly and his eyes tracked their every movement.

Neither of them realized how close they had leaned into the other until Toph dropped her hands from his shoulders, “Hey, Aang?”

“Yeah.”

“Can I try something?”

He doesn’t even answer her, but instead leans forward to push his lips against hers.

[lily-mj-fae]

ACOSF Spoilers Elain and Nesta

They’ll be below the cut. And I’m not done yet. According to the audiobook i still have 15 hours. And I can only listen for about another hour before work. So this is just a so far thought. 

I am LIVING for this desolation of Elain and Nesta’s relationship. I AM LOVING EVERY SECOND OF IT. I am living for seeing Nesta struggle with the wanting to push Elain away, do everything in her power to destroy that bond, and then yet still feel that need to protect her. I love that it’s beginning to remove the favoritism. And I love that it’s clearly made Elain reevaluate, and even grow some more too.

I want Nesta to reach that point where even that snaps though. I want Nesta to stop being over-protective. Throughout ACOTAR, we see Nesta protecting Elain from danger and even from consequences. Which, explains why Elain is the way she is. She can always rely on someone else, and she doesn’t have to deal with the potential consequences of her own actions. I’ve kind theorized a bit about things that could have happened even before where the books begin. 

And obviously, I understand why Nesta (And even Feyre) is so protective of Elain. They love that she’s so easily able to find the bright side. They love that she is able to find light. And when that goes away, I think it scares them. More than they even realize. So they’ll do anything to protect her from that. And I think in Nesta’s case, it’s because Nesta is Elain’s opposite. She sees more of the bad, more of the way things could go wrong. And I think Nesta wants to be like Elain in that way.

Whereas I think Elain wants to be more like her sisters. She wants to be able to protect and even provide. She wants to be helpful. She’s a people pleaser, and one of the easiest ways to please is to help. (I’ve also discussed how this is affected in the series previously as to why things in the shack might have been that way). That’s why she stabbed Hybern. Because Nesta had always been there to protect her and save her. And she needed, wanted to be able to do that for Nesta. That’s also why we see Elain learning to cook, and see her doing that for everyone in the house. That’s why we see her start to push her own sisters away (When they’re trying to protect or even perhaps coddle her) and lean on Nuala and Cerridwen instead. 

And of course, now both of them have to deal with all the trauma from the war, from the cauldron. And they have to find their place in this world now that they aren’t humans. 

Now we see the way Elain still loves Nesta. She came to visit. We hear about the passing in the market where Nesta was sure Elain wanted to say hi, wanted to talk, but Nesta kept on walking right past and ignored her. And of course she’s there. She’s asking how Nesta is doing. She cares if Nesta is finding any joy up in the house of wind. She didn’t want Nesta to be completely miserable. And even at that point, we as readers know, she’s not entirely miserable. And in fact, she’s doing better. Maybe in baby steps, but it’s there. And of course then we see Nesta spit those hateful words at Elain. And I’m so glad we see in the inner dialogue with that. The admittance that she’s trying to hurt Elain. She’s trying to push Elain away. And so she outwardly, puts the blame on Elain. But internally we know she blames herself. 

And then later, back at the river Manor, we see a return of protective Nesta. As Elain steps forward, once again offering to help. Once again, offering to partake and do something to help. And we see Nesta once again, immediately reject that and try to refuse. Wanting once again to protect Elain from a potential danger, even though it was Elain who stepped forward to offer it. Only difference, is now Elain is standing up for herself. She is still quick to tears (with the scene in the house of wind, and honestly though, me too), but she’s learned to stand up for herself. Nesta pushed her away. That hurt. But it means Elain has had to come to realize she can’t just depend on Nesta anymore. And so now, when Nesta tries to push her back into the box of protection, Elain doesn’t want to be there anymore. She’s tasted freedom. 

And Nesta upon seeing this, instead of thinking it’s good, is hurt by it. And tries to not Elain down, still driving that wedge between them. But once Elain is gone, and she learns Feyre can’t be the one in danger, Nesta still chooses herself to be in danger over allowing it to be Elain. She’s still protective. And we know that most of the inner circle is the same way. They’d sooner let themselves be the ones in trouble than let any of those they love be in danger. So it makes sense.

But I want there to be a moment where Nesta either won’t or can’t do that for Elain. If not in this book, then in Elain’s. I want there to be a moment where Nesta’s protectiveness is just gone. Or just unavailable. And i want to see what happens.

And i still want their relationship as it is to break. It’s not a healthy relationship. It needs to break.

And then I want to see them rebuild.

[tact-and-impulse]

With These Hands Chapter 11

Look, I say we’re ending 2020 with affection and fluff! Also, now that I know what it’s like working in a hospital, I can write this AU better, and this episode has heavy influence from my first night call shifts. For my fellow healthcare workers, because this was...a year. Here’s to staying safe in 2021!

The rest of this chapter is under the cut or on FF.net and AO3

Chapter 11: Endurance

Admittedly, Kenshin’s stomach dropped when he saw her. She was limp in her chair, arms dangling at her sides and her face turned away.

“Kaoru-dono?!” He rushed to her desk, panic overriding sensibility. But before he could touch her, her eyes snapped open and her right fist lashed out in a glancing blow that brought him to his knees. Acting on instinct, he latched onto the edge of her desk, elbow colliding with the hard surface. “Oro!”

At the contact, she blinked away her drowsiness. “Ken…shin? Oh, no! I’m so sorry! Are you okay?” She sat up, her fingertips brushing his aching cheekbone. The pain was already fading, and he resisted leaning in.

“This one is fine. It was this one’s fault, surprising you.” He managed to answer. Despite how his skin was buzzing, he was not going to behave like a hormonal teenager.

“I still shouldn’t have punched you.” She withdrew, her voice full of concern. “I hope it won’t bruise.”

“There have been worse hits that this one has taken, so don’t worry.” And on that same side as well, he ruefully thought. “Are you still working?” It was already past seven.

“I’m on night call.” Her explanation contained no small amount of misery. “And I had a meeting in the afternoon, so I only got an hour of sleep before I came here. It’s going to be a long Thursday night; at least, I have the weekend off. What about you?”

“This one is also in the same situation, filling in for a colleague who was supposed to work tonight. There was a family emergency, so this one is here instead.”

“Oh, good. Not that you have to work on short notice,” She hastily added. “But we can keep each other company.”

“That’s true. It will be easier to stay awake.” He would have been content to stay at her desk; he had nothing urgent at the moment. But she did, as signaled by her blaring pager. She mouthed an apology, before taking the call. Leaving her to her responsibilities, he drifted back to his spot across the room, to print his list of patients.

***

He was reading the interim notes on his patients when she commented.

“By the way, I forgot to mention earlier. I like your scrubs.”

“Oro?” The faded magenta met his downward gaze. “These are very old.”

“But you look so cheerful! The other male doctors stick to blue or black.”

“So did this one, in the past. However, brighter colors can be comforting or distracting for the children, so that’s something this one can do for them.”

“You also can pull it off, because you’re an attending.” She pointed out, and he laughed.

“There’s nothing wrong with navy either.”

“It’s not navy, it’s indigo.” Grinning, she tugged the front of her scrub top. “But it’s my favorite color.”

“It suits you very well.” Belatedly, he wondered if that was harassment, but she didn’t seem to mind. In fact, she blushed. At the sight, his own face warmed.

“Thanks.” For a heartbeat, the only sound was the humming of their computers. Abruptly stretching her arms over her head, she declared. “I need coffee. The cafeteria’s closed, but do you want anything from the vending machine?”

“This one can join you.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to bother you if you’re busy, and you can just text me.” They had already exchanged numbers, thanks to the group chat Misao had started for the workroom.

“No, it will be a long night and this one prefers not to stay in one spot.” He pocketed his pager and stood from his chair.

Her smile widened. “Yeah, I won’t argue with that. And I’m glad! It’s more fun with you.” Her blush had not faded, and his cheek tingled.

He replied honestly. “This one feels the same way.”

Unfortunately, the closest machine had its interior lights off and the glass front bore a paper sign. ‘Out of Order’ was written in large block letters, punctuated by a frowning face. If he had to guess, it appeared to be the handiwork of either Sano or Misao, perhaps even a joint effort.

“That’s a shame.” He said. “Should we search for another?”

“Sounds like a plan! Let’s hope the others are still functioning.”

Their workroom was at the injunction between the main building and the children’s hospital, so they had options. He allowed her to decide, and she headed for the pediatric side. She swiped her badge to access a corridor that was glass on both sides, from ceiling to floor.

“This part is one of the best, in my opinion. Well, at least during the day.” Outside, it was dark, except for the street lamps. Occasionally, a car zipped past on the road below, illuminating the surrounding greenery. But he understood her. When it was sunny, they were provided with a scenic view of the city beyond.

“Yes, it’s the closest we have to stepping out. It’s important to have something to look at, other than the interior of the building.”

“Right? I always feel more rejuvenated when I go through this way. Although, I do love the murals in the children’s hospital.”

“Which do you like best?”

“Hmm. I think the bamboo forest, on the sixth floor. The animals are cute, the pandas and the tanuki.”

“Also, because that is where shinai come from?” He innocently referred to her love for kenjutsu.

“Okay, a little bit.” But she laughed. “Well, which is your favorite?”

He already had an answer. “The fourth floor, with the countryside motif. It reminds this one of his childhood.”

“You were a country boy?”

“In the Kansai region, yes. However, it has been almost twenty years since this one lived there. This one doesn’t even remember the closest town. We did grow rice and vegetables, and there were some chickens.” He pieced together the fragmented memories. “But it was a very long time ago.”

“It must have, I couldn’t tell at all.” She was thoughtful, and he realized he might have shared too much. But she didn’t pry, instead asking. “Did you have any baby chicks?”

“Not that this one can remember.”

“That’s too bad.” Disappointment showed on her face.

He smiled. The image of Kaoru, cradling fluffy chicks in her arms, was sweet.

In a corner near an empty waiting area, they finally found a working vending machine. Kaoru cheered at its presence, peering within to decide on her snacks. She was terribly adorable, depositing her change and punching the buttons. Holding her coffee and a package of chocolate-covered biscuits, she beamed. “Alright, your turn!”

As she walked past, he caught the scent of jasmine flowers. Too subtle to be perfume, it must have been her shampoo. He thought it was pleasant.

“Kenshin? Aren’t you going to buy something?”

He jolted, realizing he hadn’t moved. “A-ah, yes.” Breathing deeply to settle his nerves, he chose a bottle of green tea, and the same cookies she picked. She had already opened her drink and sipped it as they walked back.

“Whew, I feel a lot better.”

“That’s good. You need your strength for the hours ahead.”

“Yeah. I still wish I had more sleep, but I just remind myself that at least, I’m not in one of the hospital beds. That was much harder.”

“And now, you’re here. Your patients are extremely fortunate to have you, because you understand what it must be like.”

Her blush had returned in full force. She nodded, before her brows drew together. “Wait-”

Overhead, the loudspeaker crackled, calling for a medical response team. They both stopped, listening attentively. The alert meant that a patient’s condition was deteriorating. He checked his list as the room number was announced. It did not belong to any of his charges, and judging from how Kaoru exhaled, it wasn’t any of hers either. But elsewhere, someone was struggling and their colleagues were doing everything they could to save them.

As they approached familiar walls, it was his pager’s turn to vibrate, and reluctantly, he excused himself.

***

After midnight, he had one emergency surgery, for a patient that had gone into hemorrhagic shock. Two hours later, he emerged from the operating room, the worst outcome kept at bay. He ordered for two units of blood, to be transfused if the patient was anemic, and headed back to the workroom.

Kaoru had her earbuds in, obviously engrossed. Upon his entrance, she removed them and greeted him. “Hey, Kenshin. How’d it go?”

“Well enough. The patient is stable for now, but this one will keep a close eye. Did you have any new admissions?”

“Just one in the emergency room, who’s waiting to be placed in a room, but it seems like a straightforward case. History of glycogen storage disorder, so I’ve been reading up.”

“This one didn’t realize articles were accessible on CD.” He had noticed the small player next to her keyboard, that had appeared in his absence.

“Oh, no, this is an audiobook. It’s an old one, I already know all the twists. I only replay it because of the narrator.” Her expression became very fond.

“Ah.” Inwardly, he was caught off guard, but he maintained a neutral face. “Is he a good actor?”

“I think she was. This book is one of my mother’s recordings, after all. Would you like to hear her?”

Somewhat embarrassed, he agreed, and she transferred the CD to her computer. Momentarily, a woman’s gentle voice filled the air. Her cadence and intonation were similar to Kaoru’s, and she switched between characters with impressive ease. It seemed to be an anthology of short stories.

“You were not wrong; her performance is wonderful.”

“I’m glad you think so! She’d be happy to hear that, if she were alive.” Kaoru clarified. “She had lupus, and she passed away from kidney failure when I was young. She couldn’t get a transplant in time. The Mirror Wing in the main hospital is named for her.” The dialysis unit was located there.

“You must miss her.”

“I do, but at least, I have Okaa-san in this way. Not many people can say the same.”

He definitely couldn’t. Then, the staccato beeps of her pager interrupted them again. He was beginning to dislike that particular ring.

By three in the morning, Kaoru was starting to falter. She was continuing to type on her computer, but her head nodded and she occasionally jolted, unconsciously trying to stay awake.

“Kaoru-dono.”

“Hmm?” Her gaze lifted, though not quite focusing.

“Please, get some rest. The work can wait.” He gently said. “This one can turn the lights off, if that would help.”

“Would you? That’d be really nice.” She murmured.

He flipped the switches, leaving the glow of his monitor. “If there was a bed, that would be better.”

“It’s okay. Hospital beds aren’t very comfy.” She certainly spoke from experience. She opened one of her desk drawers, taking out a spare surgical mask. “Please don’t tell anyone else in your department.”  Before he could inquire further, she proceeded to wear it over her face, and it was large enough to cover her eyes.

He had to stifle his laughter. “This one promises.”

It was uneventful afterwards, without beeping pagers or loudspeaker announcements. He lasted another hour and a half, before he felt the familiar pull of exhaustion. He logged off and sat back in his chair. He could never fully sleep while on the job. That was especially true now, with Kamiya Kaoru in the same room, softly breathing.

It was Director Kamiya who had offered him a place at Kamiya Kasshin, while he was still working for Katsura. He had been disillusioned and burnt out, entertaining ideas of quitting medicine. He was too ashamed to talk to Hiko, but he caved to the “fates” as his guardian liked to refer to them. Akane, Kasumi, and Sakura had sat him down, persuading him to take the new job before deciding anything further. Akane was particularly fervent, she had never liked Katsura.

So, he had accepted the position and adjusting to the new work environment occupied him. Then, the accident happened. It was on a night not too different from this one, and he had also been on call. He heard there was a group of people, on the phone with the director at the crash site, trying to obtain details. He had run to that desk, preparing to encourage the man who had helped him so far. It was at the other end of the hospital and he was relatively late, everyone else mobilizing for the victims’ arrival. When he picked up the phone, he was out of breath. “Kamiya-dono?”

Instead of Director Kamiya’s voice, there was a young, feminine one. Choked with tears, but still strong. “Hello? Please, can you hear me?”

One fateful conversation, and she reminded him of what he loved about his profession. But she didn’t seem to remember. That was alright, the memory was wrapped up in tragedy, and he didn’t want to hurt her. Getting to know her was enough. Even after six years, she was very much the same woman he had spoken to. Compassionate, brave, honest.

Hiko, being his usual infuriating self, had accused him of having a crush, although Kenshin was disgruntled. Not that Kaoru wasn’t attractive, but it was not the point. It wasn’t a crush, he was immensely grateful to Kaoru as well as her late father, for his current life. Originally, he was trying to repay their kindness, in what little he could manage on his part. So far, he enjoyed spending time with her, even when on call. Around her, and for that matter, their other workroom colleagues, he felt at ease in a way that he hadn’t experienced in decades.

But if she asked about him…? He hadn’t decided what he would do yet.

***

Kenshin slowly emerged from his trance. The blinds had been opened, the sky pink with dawn. He clicked his mouse and the monitor lit with the time. Just past six. Night call was almost over.

Kaoru’s chair was empty, and he drowsily recalled her rummaging about, before the door closed. She must have gone to pre-round on her patients, to check on them before meeting with the rest of her team. He hoped they would let her go before noon.

He relayed the night’s events to the day shift’s surgeon, who insisted that everything would be taken care of and please get some rest, Dr. Himura. But he went to check on his shock patient, who was thankfully stable. Then, the parents arrived in the waiting area, and he took the opportunity to speak to them. By the time he returned to retrieve his things, it was already ten. Kaoru was also there, greeting him as if she hadn’t spent the night at the hospital.

“Morning, Kenshin!”

“Good morning. How were your rounds?” He inquired, clearing his desk.

“Quick, thank goodness.”

“And how are you?”

“I feel fine. Well, I know it’s fake, I’ll probably crash once I get home. I’m just going to submit my notes, and then, I’ll go.” She didn’t sit down, her eyes glued to her screen as she logged in. A few clicks, and then, she grabbed her bag. “Done! Geez, I’m ready to leave.”

“Good work, Kaoru-dono.”

“You too.” Despite how little she must have slept, her smile was as radiant as ever. “But you’re still here? I thought you would have been out by now.”

“This one had a few tasks, but this one was just about to leave as well. After you.” He urged her ahead of him. They shared an elevator down, luckily without any stops.

“Have you already eaten breakfast?” She asked.

“This one had a leftover rice ball. The cafeteria is…” His weary mind searched for a word that would be appropriate.

“I know, I really want Tae to expand her hours, but she can’t while she has her regular job. I think I have cup ramen in my pantry.”

“Next time, this one will bring enough onigiri to share.”

“Next time?” She repeated, emphasizing the implication of another call shift in the near future, but she was laughing. “Would they have caffeine in them?”

He smiled at her. “For you, this one will make an exception.”

Her cheeks grew pink. “Thank you, I’ll look forward to it.” After a pause, she added. “What would even be inside such onigiri? Instant coffee?”

Matcha powder actually, but he needed to perfect that recipe. “It would be a surprise.”

“Geez!”

They passed the lobby, and bright sunshine filled his vision. After spending so long in the hospital, it was a relief to be out in the open again. The cloudless sky was an immaculate blue, the fresh air crisp. Beside him, Kaoru sighed, her lips curving. The wind tossed her ponytail, and she shoved her hands in her pockets, continuing on. Suddenly aware that he was staring again, he picked up his feet. Then, they were already at the garage and had to part ways. Work had truly ended.

“Drive safe and sleep well! I’ll see you on Monday!” She waved and he did the same.

“Take care.”

There was no traffic, and his empty apartment was cool. It was quiet as he meticulously cleaned his belongings. As he walked to his bedroom, he barely made a sound. The shower seemed too loud, and so did the hair dryer. Slipping between his clean sheets, he noticed the lack of scent. After leaving his glasses on his nightstand, he checked his phone again. Nothing new, which was supposed to be good. He hovered over Kaoru’s name in the group chat. Well…it wouldn’t hurt. His thumb pressed down, and he began to type.

This one hopes you returned home without issue and that you have a relaxing weekend.

With the message sent, he locked the screen. She could reply on her own time.

And at last, he closed his eyes.

[courtneystriker]

My Thoughts on the HG Prequel

I just finished reading The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and I got to say, my feelings are mixed. Below I have an entire review  for the story which included how I felt, the expectations, the biases I had going into the new book, and how I felt after reading. Please note there will be spoilers. Also this review isn’t meant to hurt anyone and if you absolutely love the book so far...good! Enjoy it fully! As an aspiring writer myself and someone who studied in college/loves creative writing I’m well aware that people just have different takes on writing. Glad you are enjoying it :)

Anyways, here it goes…

The Expectations

As the Hunger Games series is one of my favorites of all time, I had a strong bias to like this book. Since it was first announced, without knowing any details, I was extremely excited and optimistic. I re-read the entire Hunger Games series twice beforehand in preparation; once with my fiancé and once on my own. The only thing I really wanted, knowing that it took place during the tenth hunger games, was that the arena reflected how new the hunger games were. Then, when we learned what the series was about, people started voicing some concerns or were disappointed by the plot, instead wanting it to be something like Finnick’s arena, Haymitch’s, Mags’, etc. etc. I was not among this group. However, I understand where they were coming from, because I always thought the idea of the first Quarter Quell (the one where the districts voted for the tributes) was an extremely interesting concept. 

Yet I think these things are best left explored in fanfiction as they add nothing to the series and Suzanne Collins did an excellent job just giving us enough information to get the idea. At that point it’d just be a book on details, which could fall short or be a gimmicky, cheap way to keep people reading the series and keep her name relevant. And wasn’t that part of the message in her series, the thing Katniss so heavily criticized that gave a great irony to the books? Who would watch children killing each other for entertainment? Meanwhile, we as the reader are reading these books as a form of entertainment. Plus, Suzanne Collins so skillfully painted the illusion of knowing but not fully knowing their stories that it’s haunting, and I think that is one of the many reasons (along with the battle royale trope being naturally compelling, liking the characters, etc.) that a lot of us are more drawn towards these stories rather than (at least for me)  a book on Snow. 

That being said, I was not against the idea of a book on Snow because I find villain characters, especially grey ones, to be very interesting to read about, and I was pretty certain Suzanne was going to handle this beautifully, especially since you could already feel this atmosphere coming off of Snow in the Hunger Games series. I know some were really concerned about a Snow redemption arc, but to me it felt very obvious that it couldn’t be and it would be more of him sliding into evil.

I did have other concerns when I read the description for the first time. I could not believe they went with the whole tribute from District Twelve thing again. I loved Katniss and District Twelve, but I did not want Katniss 2.0. I said right from the beginning to my fiancé that she’d have to make the tribute from District Twelve extremely different for me to get on board (though I was holding on faith that Collins would). It just felt cheap and gimmicky to rehash the District Twelve thing, it sort of made me feel the same way I would have if she had written about one of the games I mentioned above. Sure, it’d sell, but it wouldn’t add anything to the series. I was thinking she better not hunt, sing, or have any qualities resembling Katniss really.  

Another thing I worried about was the love story they hinted at in the description. It just didn’t make sense to me. Because how was Snow going to ever support the games if from an earlier age he fell in love with a tribute and vowed to protect her? Then later he’s all like pro-hunger games? Just this itself could weaken the entire series if done poorly, because it would weaken the main antagonist’s motives for not only the prequel but also the Hunger Games series as well. I kept thinking either the girl has to die in the arena betraying Snow somehow (which is what I was hoping for), Snow will have to betray her, or perhaps he would have been faking love for her for some sort of personal gain I couldn’t imagine. Either way, I thought it weakened the story's appeal to me. Yet overall I was still excited, desperately waiting for the book’s release. 

And now that I have read it, I have to say it felt forced at a lot of parts and lackluster overall…

*Spoilers start here*

My Review:

Suszanne Collins’ writing style is one I’ve always loved and has consistently appealed to me. Even though this book is written in 3rd person (which some may like less if you don’t particularly like third person) it holds up well against the original series. So I really had no complaints in this regard besides the excessive use of songs (felt like fanfiction a bit). I think if you liked the original series and don’t mind third person you’ll feel right at home with her style.

The concerns others had about Snow’s redemption are completely dismissed in this book. Like I had predicted, she writes about his fall into evil, and although it’s not black and white evil (as I don’t like anyways) you can very much tell he’s a bad guy and that the hardships he faced in life only further pushed him towards obtaining status and power. Overall, he feels true to the character when we end up seeing him in the Hunger Games series, and his journey to power fits the images Finnick painted in Mockingjay. He is very well characterized in the book and perfectly unlikable while maintaining an intriguing internal dialogue (although it does occasionally feel tedious, but not enough to bother me; others may feel differently).

 The way he is written is very much in line with Collin’s great characterization, one of the reasons I always loved The Hunger Games. All the characters felt like real people. They all had an extreme depth to them and I felt they all resembled people I had actually met in real life. There were little to no characters that relied solely on gimmicky personalities to get by. Even very minor characters that seemed depthless and swallow at first--like Katniss’s prep team--had more to them. So I thought going into this book I had nothing to worry about in that regard. I didn’t even really spare it a thought, but boy was I wrong. 

I think Snow and Lucy Grey were the only characters that had (at least partly) the depth that the original Hunger Games cast had. I’ll discuss Lucy Grey later but first let me talk about some side characters. Where to even begin really? There’s a LOT of characters in this book. Frankly, way too many, which I think contributes heavily to the lack of depth in the characters. Honestly there’s so many that the names of characters were hard to keep track of while listening to the audiobook (my hard copy of the book was still in the mail and I didn’t want to wait). Things got a bit clustered in my mind quickly. There were twenty-four tributes, twenty-four mentors,  Snow’s family, The Dean and Drs at the university, Snow’s Peacekeeper crew, and the Covey, and those are just the groups that I can cluster together. At least, the ones I remember having names and getting introduced, but I think that’s everyone really important. There was no real time to develop or get to know them really, which made the tributes’ deaths more meaningless as I could barely recall their names. It caused impactful scenes to weaken significantly overall and it made characters serve only to characterize and amplify Snow’s fall into evil. 

Here’s what I mean by that. The head Gamemaker, Dr. Gaul, really was the character I hated the most while reading this. She was just evil without reason (one of the weakest villain types with little to no personality besides being evil). She even made creepy rhymes as if she was in some sort of horror movie, and the entire point of her character was to contribute a lot to some of the forced plot points driving Snow’s moral decline. For example, there were all her tests, which seemed contrived and all directly connected to getting Snow to think the Hunger Games was a good idea. She was seemingly supposed to be a Dr. Mengele type character, as this book has a lot of Holocaust-esqe imagery. I’m fine with irredeemably evil villains, but instead of getting the depth that a Dr. Mengele character could offer (as some may know, many children that were part of his experiments actually said he was kind and gave them candy, and I find that deeply haunting to this day.) She is a flat, one-dimensional character whose entire personality could be described with one word: sociopath. Evil people are master manipulators, which is how they get away with evil things. I think at one of the funerals she puts on a good public face, and she seems to have power, money and influence. Yet the book doesn’t show this seemingly present quality nearly enough to make her a haunting character. Instead we get nursery rhythms and clearly driven lessons towards evil at are contrived. Like “Write about what you most liked about the war” or the assignment to improve the hunger games? Like what class is this? Why are they taking it? And why are the young kids of the influential deciding this instead of the influential people themselves?

Another character I feel was just there for Snow’s development and to represent an opposite viewpoint but lacked Collin’s usual depth is Sejanus Plinth. As a District 2 citizen whose family got rich off the war and moved to the Capitol, he is the main opposing viewpoint of the book, presenting Snow with a chance to do the right thing. I’ve seen people say he’s a Peeta-like character, but I completely reject that idea. He lacks in the charm Peeta has, relishes in self-pity (although he’s completely justified in his sadness and has a right to be upset), and while he has a heart like Peeta, he ultimately doesn’t know how to use it. Instead of working within his position to get influence like Peeta so masterfully does, he’s hot-headed and continuously makes poor decisions that ultimately don’t help anyone. It’s like he wants to help but doesn’t know how as he’s driven completely by emotion without reason. He too contributes to some forced scenes, particularly my least favorite in the book; when they sneak into the arena. Overall, he just falls flat for me. Again, I feel I don’t know anything about him beyond what he contributes to Snow’s story line and he doesn’t come across as realistic. It’s like Collins just wrote how someone would normally react to the hunger games, slapped a district number on him and went on her merry way. 

I just wasn’t prepared for these sort of characters when the Hunger Games series made even the smallest of characters stand out dramatically. I feel neutral to annoyed by most characters in this novel. I could expand this portion, and maybe if people inquire I’ll elaborate on some of the other characters as I have strong opinions on them, but this post is already getting long, so I’ll move on to Lucy Grey.

Lucy Grey is by far my favorite character even though she is bordering towards being a character from a fanfiction. Not quite a Mary Sue in my opinion but there is a certain connection to fanfiction I made with her. You may have guessed some issues I had with her by reading my expectations earlier in the post, but that has not displaced my love for her. Her personality is very different from Katniss’s, or even Peeta’s or Haymitch’s. She had a different type of charm than all of them, is a natural performer, and seemed more extroverted. Also, the whole idea of the Covey and her “not really” being district was intriguing. It really highlighted the displacement that war can cause and how people can just be in the wrong place at the wrong time. (Although I was confused on how much mobility between the districts there were….and did District Twelve have a fence or no?) It really emphasizes one of the main themes of the book, extreme prejudice against both Capitol and District. Her spot sort of in between really drives home the point that there's literally no difference except extreme poverty, and even then there was poverty in the Capitol, only better hidden. Her bright mood (and clothes), her poised attitude, and her optimism made her endearing. She was confident in her skin yet still held the fear of a sixteen year old going into the hunger games.

There were only two main things that bothered me about her, which was of course the direct connections made to Katniss (which I’ll elaborate on) and the forced “love” story between her and Snow. I suppose that has less to do with her and rather more to do with my dislike of that subplot. And I'm a sucker for some good romantic subplots, but yikes!

I think having one strong connection to Katniss was all that was really needed in this book. I really liked the idea of that connection being the Hanging Tree Song, as I can only imagine how it made Snow feel watching “The Mockingjay” sing it in the propo. Despite me not liking that fact that Lucy Grey is also an enchanting singer as that felt like directly stepping in Katniss’s territory, I did enjoy the little twist of Lucy Grey writing the song. Yet the connections between the two when the plot took us to District Twelve went too far. It felt like it took away all of Katniss’s special places and things. The lake, her katniss roots, her gift towards music, her fondness for the meadow, sneaking into the woods, etc. I think one solid connection would have solidified their bond beautifully. Having so many seemed like it was really trying to force the reader to make the connection when it was already painfully clear I guess? Plus, having Lucy stand out at her reaping ( the whole song part read like a bad, contrived fanfiction bit to me) and having people care about her in the Capitol while moral questions of the hunger games were still surfacing made me start to think...isn’t this how the rebellion for Katniss got started? At least partly. I get it’s a different time. Too close to the war. It just felt way too similar. I guess Collins was going for the idea of a lost rebellion that in a way Lucy Grey started that Katniss later revives. Yet it feels like that invalidates the specialness of what Katniss does in the original series as it’s already happened; it just got erased. I guess history repeats itself, but I really just didn’t like it. I could see the appeal to some extent, and it could be a beautiful connection, but it just wasn’t for me.

Now on to the plot, which is the last thing I’ll talk about as this post is getting ridiculously long. A lot of the plot felt very forced or contrived, which was another shocker coming from Collins because her pacing and plot was done really well in the original series. Of course, a lot of this was driven by Dr. Gaul and Sejanus Plinth as the entire plot hinged on the moral debate of the hunger games these two represent. Other plot points just hinged on what happened to establish the games. I mean the rebel bomb explosion seemingly only happened to change the terrain so Dr. Gaul can then bring up the idea of the different arena and how that made the tributes act differently, thus creating the crazy arenas we see later in the series. I do have some praise for how Collins established the disparities between the earlier hunger games and the ones we see in Katniss day. From the way they lock the tributes up, don’t feed them, the spotty coverage of the arena, etc. All of that was exceptionally well done. The only complaint I have was that so many tributes died before they even got to the arena (though not because I wanted to see them fight). I had been expecting one to escape or something to further establish that this was new territory and was waiting to see how they handled it in earlier times, but I wasn’t expecting that many to die before the arena got started. It just seemed like a huge Capitol failure that they advertised loudly. I really wasn’t expecting that level of incompetence, just an escaped tribute that threatened to embarrass or harm the fragile beginnings of post-war Panem. Instead, most of the pre-arena stuff felt disastrous. A lot of the mentors' deaths felt forced, and it was weird that the academy never really came under fire at all from all the rich and powerful parents whose children were getting killed because of the mentor experiment. Like it seemed there should have been some interaction there, but there wasn’t. Maybe some was passively mentioned but still, it could have been a whole subplot that further established the debate of the hunger games.

While the pre-arena up to the break-in to the arena felt like the most forced part of the book and certainly I felt it needed more workshopping plot wise, it also harbored some great and powerful scenes, like Arachne pulling the sandwich away from the tribute while she was starving and laughing about it. Basically, all those interactions of poverty and captivity meeting the citizens of the Capitol were done well, but nothing spectacular (unlike the scene of Katniss screaming at Buttercup at the end of Mockingjay which is heart wrenching.)

The last plot point I’ll talk about is the “love” story. I wasn’t a fan, but it was sort of what a lot of the plot hinged on and led to the great scene at the lake between Snow and Lucy Grey. How easy it was for him to betray his “love” for status. This led to some of the most interesting and evil internal monologue Snow had in the entire book. I honestly feel the ending scene, the interaction Snow had with the jabberjays and Mockingjays in District Twelve, and the lynching scenes were among the strongest and most memorable.

The love story again felt forced (sorry I’m using that word so much it’s just so accurate) into the story. This hindered the book from having a strong plot in the same way the weaker characters caused forced interactions and plot points to move things along. Yet at the same time the kind of abusive and lackluster nature of their relationship throughout the book fit perfectly with the ending. Unfortunately, it didn’t really make it very compelling for the reader. Luckily Lucy’s  personality kept my interested during these parts. I wouldn’t say their relationship was poorly written at all; in fact the way it was written makes perfect sense. I just think the plot relied too heavily on their “love”, which was gross because of the way Snow is, and the reader knew it had to inevitably end in some kind of betrayal or reveal that there was no love at all. This creates tension for the reader, but I kept wondering: if the love plot had been ditched could we have gotten a stronger plot altogether?

So overall, like I’ve said I’m really conflicted. I know I focused heavily on things I didn’t like, but honestly the book was well written in some regards, plot bouncing between really compelling and a little contrived, the two main characters being written well enough but other characters not so much. Some connections between Lucy Grey and Katniss made at the end were powerful, I loved the Covey, Collins still excelled at writing a lot of the social issues/scenes in the book, and honestly the idea of Lucy Grey being completely forgotten in the Districts that hurts my soul a little. Nothing compared to the feelings I got in any of the Hunger Games books but there’s still something there.

I really hope someone made it through this long ass post. The book was entertaining. I mean I listened to all 16 hours of the audiobook in like a day. I can’t wait until my hardcover comes so I can look through it. Maybe once I know what I’m getting into I can enjoy the book a little more than I did, because right now it’s sitting at very average for me. Maybe I went in with my expectations too high? I certainly like the Hunger Games a lot more and probably always will. Honestly, I love new content, but I’m also the type that likes firm, planned endings to stories (even though it hurts to let things end and the fandoms can suffer from lack of content). I think fans can oftentimes get caught up in what they want and pressure the writer into writing more, which ends up a disappointment since it wasn’t originally planned in the series from the beginning. While I don’t think this is by any means the case with Suzanna Collins or that Lionsgate even pressured her to write this book (I don’t like conspiracies of that sort of thing as a writer myself that plans to have a series in which a book comes out many years after the original part of the series is released), I do wonder if this is the end of the Hunger Games for good. I sure hope so, especially if she would be writing about the other victors. I love them too much and really don’t want to feel similarly about their books, and like I said at the beginning, it wouldn’t add to the series just to my guilty pleasure lol.

Hope you all have enjoyed your reading of the book more than I did :) Again sorry if I wrote anything to upset you! Please if you loved this book ENJOY IT! I’m actually kind of jealous if you did. Feels like missing out on something special.

[perseusjackson-jasongrace]

Empires on the Horizon VIII

Jason is a CEO: Part VIII

Push (should defs listen with earphones at an insane volume at 1am- i’m not talking from experience)

Here’s my masterlist for the next part and my other stuff

This is a helllllaaaaa long chapter y’all. I just couldn’t bear to cut it. Please enjoy.

push it

push it

back up on me

make me believe you want me

-Enrique Iglesias and Lil Wayne

Friday arrived with bright blue skies and an icy winter wind. Jason breathed in the crisp air, letting it flow through his lungs as he slowed to a walk. He hadn’t gone on many morning runs since, well since Luke, and he missed the quiet of the streets and the fresh smells of Bakery Avenue. His anticipation for the night was lightning crackling under his skin. They had signed the contract with Harley Davids yesterday, but today he would have to call Octavian and break the news. He didn’t want to have that conversation but being the CEO of the company meant dealing with the highs and the lows. He was buttoning his shirt when his phone dinged on the side table, so he abandoned the task, letting it fall open, and opened his messages.

Zoe: open up ;)

Jason: Like emotionally?

A knocking echoed through the apartment and he raced to open the door. Zoe stood on the other side laughing so hard there were tears in her eyes. She looked ethereal. A white dress hugged her figure and the gold jewellery hanging from her neck rivalled her glow. He just stood there watching her, enraptured in everything that she was. Finally she stopped giggling, taking deep breaths to calm herself, and looked up to see him staring.

“What?”

“You’re gorgeous.”

She smiled at that, “And you’re hilarious.”

“What are you doing here?” He grabbed her hand and pulled them together.

“I came to visit before you rushed into work. I’m off today because your lovely assistant is taking me out before tonight. I don’t have party clothes,” She scrunched her nose.

“Oh Haze didn’t tell me she was taking today off?” He frowned.

“I think she’s playing hookie.” Amusement danced on her lips.

He laughed at that, “I don’t think you’re supposed to be tell her boss­–”  He gasped, “Your hands…”

Zoe looked up at him innocently, fingers roaming distractedly on his bare torso, “My hands are what?”

“Cold,” He breathed, “Your hands are cold.”

“You don’t seem to be that upset,” She said cheekily, looking down at his rising evidence.

“Little minx!” He wrapped his arms around her waist and hauled her into the house.

Her laugh was music in his ears, a song he wanted to hear on repeat. She threaded her fingers in his hair and tugged gently so he was looking up at her.

“You’re cute.”

He buried his nose into her neck as she slowly slid down his body and onto the fleece rug of his bedroom, “You’re cuter.”

“Wanna play a game?”

He raised an eyebrow, suspicious of the gleam in her eye, “What game?”

“How late can we make you for work?”

His eyes blazed, blue becoming impossibly bright, “Let’s find out.”

And then his lips were on hers, like the beginning, middle and end. She was soft and supple and melted against him in a way he had never known. A low moan dragged from his throat as she sunk her teeth into his bottom lip, and then eased the sting with a swipe of her tongue. They explored each other languidly, relishing in the feel of whatever bloomed between them. Without breaking contact they moved towards the bed and fell onto those white sheets, smiling into each other.

Jason walked into his office building with a Cheshire grin on his face and the halo of someone who had been properly–

“Mr Grace!”

He turned around to see a girl coming towards him, sneakers squeaking incessantly against the marble.

“Yes, can I help you?”

“I’m just passing on a message from Aphrodite’s Armour. Drew and Silena would like to take you up on your offer to find them a replacement for the time they’re gone.”

“Oh of course! I’ll call them immediately. And your name Miss?”

“Lacy,” She beamed, “Nice to meet you Mr Grace. I’ve heard so much about you.”

He smiled, studying the girl, who was starting to look younger and younger with every passing second. “All good things I hope?”

“Absolutely. Drew and ‘Lena talk about you all the time. They say you’re the nicest man they’ve ever met.”

“Well thank you kindly. How do you know the ladies?”

“Oh I’m Drew’s little sister. Well half-sister on my mom’s side but you know what they say, ‘the blood of the convent is thicker than the water of the womb.’ She honestly means more to me than just a sister anyway.  I’m visiting them before school goes back next week. They’re a little busy today. Two ladies, oh they were gorgeous you know,” She nodded her head vigorously, “Anyway they came into the shop about a half hour ago and they’ve been there ever since.”

Jason had a feeling he knew who it was, and a lopsided smile crept onto his face. “Thank you very much Miss Lacy. Please tell your sister and her fiancé I will get on finding them a temp as soon as possible. Do you need a ride back to the shop?”

“Oh no thank you sir, Drew’s allowed me to explore the city for a little, while they’re busy.”

“Oh,” He looked at her thoughtfully, “Well do you need a guide?”

Her eyes lit up, “Mr Grace but aren’t you so busy?”

“I am busy I’m afraid, but I was thinking of someone more your age who can show you all the cool spots.”

“Oh,” She hummed, head tilted in consideration, “Okay Mr Grace. Who is it?”

“Why don’t you come up to my office and I’ll give them a call. You can also call your sister and tell her the plan?”

“Sounds good! Do you really have candy in every office? And do you always celebrate valentine’s day by giving all your employees roses? Isn’t valentine’s day just the loveliest concept Mr Grace? A whole day dedicated to anything and everything you love. There is only one happiness in this life, to love and be loved. George Sand. Delightful isn’t it? And did someone really bring a pinata to work to hit whenever they were stressed? And do you always wear fancy clothes? Do you like jeans Mr Grace? Oh I have so many questions.”

And before Jason could answer any of them, she was already onto the next.

“Oh wow is that a whole room just for board games? And how come this room is green and this room is red? Why do you have a wall of hand-prints? Do you celebrate Easter by hiding eggs? You know, Mr Grace, I’ve always admired you. When Drew told me you were starting a business to help communities, I immediately wanted to use you for my project at school. I’m taking economics you know?” Her brown eyes looked up at him then, and he opened his mouth to answer her, only to be led astray.

“I want to start a dance school when I’m older. I believe dance is the movement of the soul. Isn’t that the most lovey thing you’ve ever heard? When you dance your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It is to enjoy each step along the way. Wayne Dyer said that. Dancing is a bit like life isn’t it? In that funny way that it’s not about the end it’s about the moments, the journey.”

“Indeed Miss Lacy.” He nodded at her, thinking about the words.

“Wow Mr Grace,” Her eyes were wide as she took in his office, “This is beautiful. I don’t know how anyone can be unhappy when you have a view like this.”

“It’s certainly difficult,” His lips twitched as she walked around the room; dragging her fingers across the white couch and studying the bookshelf opposite with trinkets from his travels and various books, both fiction and non.

He sat down at his desk and quickly called who he needed to before handing the phone to Lacy to call Drew. When that was done, she went back to looking at his things.

“Books are mirrors; you only see in them what you already have inside you. That’s from The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruis Zafon. Do you like to read Mr Grace?”

“Yes, do you?”

She nodded, then shook her head, then scrunched her nose and flopped down on the couch. “I love the idea of reading, you know the cup of tea, and the rain, and getting lost in a completely different world, but whenever I sit down to actually do it– I just can’t seem to get past a couple sentences before my brain is thinking about something else. Silena, oh I adore her Mr Grace. She’s just the nicest lady and she’s so patient with me even when I ask her a million questions, I’m so glad I get to call her my sister-in-law. Anyway she tried to sit down with me and read but I just couldn’t do it. Even Uncle Charles has tried, and you know he has all the patience in the world, but I think after twenty minutes even he was starting to lose it. So you see I think there may be something wrong in my brain.”

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with you.” He gave her a small smile.

She sat up suddenly and looked directly at him, “You don’t?”

“Not at all. Some people can sit down and read for hours and some people can’t, that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with them.”

“Even if they’re like me and they want to read?”

“Even then,” His smile was wider now, “Have you tried audiobooks?”

“No?” Her cheeks were flushed with excitement as she hung off the edge of the couch in anticipation.

“A narrator reads the books and you just have to listen to them. Like how people told you stories when you were younger.”

“So you mean I can listen to them and do other things at the same time? Like dance? Or draw? Or schoolwork?”

“That’s exactly it. People listen to audiobooks on the train, in the car, when they’re exercising.”

“Mr Grace!” She jumped up and slammed into him, “Oh you truly are the most wonderful man! I am so glad I met you. To think if I hadn’t, I’d be suffering forevermore.”

“I’m glad I could help,” He laughed, returning her hug. “And look here are your personal tour guides now.”

In walked Jake Mason and Kayla Knowles, two of the students in a school he funded and some of the brightest kids he’d ever met.

“Oh wow, I love your hair!” Lacy exclaimed, pointing at the green streaks in Kayla’s bright red locks.

“And your shoes are to die for!” Kayla squealed, pointing at Lacy’s sneakers, decked in paint splatters and writing over every inch of the canvas.

Jake Mason, a usually shy person immediately gravitated towards Lacy’s bubbly aura and in a matter of moments the three were chattering away.

“Alright little ones, I’ve got work to do. Don’t get into too much trouble and if you need anything you call me okay.”

“Sure Mr Grace.” Came the chorus of replies and then the young teens were bounding out of his office and into their adventure.

Jason on the other hand had a less than ideal quest to complete, and traitorous Hazel had ditched him for a shopping spree. He had a good mind to hide her stash of chocolate as payback.

He took a deep breath and dialled the number to Titan Industries.

“Titan Industries, Mr O’s assistant, how can I help you?”

“Hello sir, it’s Jason Grace from Anemoi Empire. Could you put me through to him please?”

“Just a moment.”

And then he heard a click and the oily voice of Octavian crackled through the phone.

“Ah Mr Grace, I was expecting a call.”

“Octavian, I hope you are well. I’m just calling to say we won’t be contracting with you. It has been a,” He swallowed, forcing the next words out, “A pleasure, but we have found someone who better suits our interests.”

“Well,” the sharpness is a knife Jason can feel resting on his cheek, “I certainly didn’t expect this. I hope you know what you’re doing Grace.”

“Yes Octavian. Again thank you for your patience and I wish you all the best for the future.”

“Goodbye Grace.” Was the icy reply and then his phone beeped with the end dial-tone.

He rubbed a finger across his brow and took a deep, steadying breath. At least that’s over. Now to finish up some admin and get out of here. He had friends waiting for him.

***

“Jason!” Zoe squealed, crashing into him.

“Hello my stella,” He hugged her and then pulled her back to stare, devour.

A soft-cream satin dress draped over her, like it felt privileged to be there. It cut off at mid-thigh and left you no choice but to drag your eyes down till you were met with the ribbon straps of her matching shoes. She had taken out her braids, and her hair, tightly coiled, was now cropped closely to her head. She looked unbelievable and he told her as much.

“You ready to go?”

“Hell yes! I want to meet your friends.”

“I’m glad you’re excited. I’m sure you’re going to hear embarrassing stories about me all night.”

She grinned at him, “All the better.”

They arrived at Trepsichore, or Treps to the locals, where the lively sound of chatter and music were already weaving through the atmosphere. The gang had started coming to this place the day it opened, and they still haven’t found a better club; although they could be biased since it was owned by Connor Stoll, a good friend of theirs.

“Oh Leo, I am leaving you for Jason’s lady.” Annabeth Chase stood up from her stool and walked around to greet them.

Zoe laughed, and embraced the blonde, “Jason would it be rude if I agreed. You won’t take offence, will you?”

He feigned hurt, pouting at them and pulling Leo towards him, “I think they’re dumping us Firefly. Wanna get married? At least we won’t break each other’s hearts.”

“I’m down buddy, anything for you.” Leo cupped his cheek and brought their faces together.

“Didn’t we promise we’d never do this again?”

“Yes but that was before our girlfriends decided to leave us for each other.”

“Are we interrupting something?” Hazel Levesque giggled, as she and Frank saddled up to their table.

“Annabeth and Zoe are leaving us for each other,” Leo sighed.

“Oh yes I do agree. Frank darling you wouldn’t mind, would you?”

Frank gave her a sordid smile, “Please leave me, wouldn’t mind a bit.”

“Oh gods we’re going to be all alone because our girlfriends love each other more than us.” Jason groaned, looking between his friends.

Annabeth swung her arm over Zoe’s shoulder and grabbed Hazel’s hand, “It was inevitable; you can’t expect me to give up my chance with someone who looks like they could murder me and kiss me with the same degree of passion.”

“Hello, hello everyone!” Reyna waved, tugging Percy behind her.

“Hello babe,” Hazel kissed her cheek, and hugged her counterpart.

Everyone took their turns saying hello and just as they were settling in the last of the group made their way to the table.

“Di Angelo,” Leo spotted them first.

“Sorry we’re late everyone. School meetings ran a bit overtime.”

“Is that code for you two were fooling around in the supply closet again?” Jason teased.

Nico blushed a bright red and Will laughed.

“We aren’t teenagers anymore Grace.” Black eyes narrowed at him.

“Oh to be that young and free again,” Leo sighed, flinging a hand over his forehead.

“What on earth was going on before we got here?” Percy asked, motioning between them.

“Annabeth and Hazel are leaving us for Zoe,” Frank said, rolling his eyes teasingly.

Reyna pouted. “You guys started a girl gang without me?”

“It’s more like a cult if you ask me,” Leo mumbled.

“A sapphic group is the preferred term,” Zoe interjected.

“GAY!” Nico grinned at them.

“Well that’s not a surprise to anyone.” Annabeth laughed, “And of course you’re part of it Reyna. These boys can form their own group if they want.”

“How is it six against four and we’re still losing?” Percy mused.

“It always happens like this.” Leo flashed him a look, “Their badassery outweighs us ten to one every time.”

“And don’t you forget it Valdez.” They all chorused.

The night went much the same way, ribbing at each other, reminiscing, telling embarrassing stories. Jason couldn’t help but stare at his friends, at these people who he loved with every part of him. They all burst into laughter at something Nico said, and he felt his soul bloom, felt his lungs expand, and his heart grow to the point of pain. Besides his sister he did not have any family so to have found one, chosen one, was a feeling he wanted to immortalize in his bloodstream, let it be the magic that sparks the stardust in his veins.

“You ready to dance pretty boys?” Reyna smirked, grabbing Zoe’s hand and sashaying to the floor.

Leo’s excitement was infectious, “Coming? My Latino ass needs to move.”

Frank started saying no almost immediately and Nico firmly agreed but Will insisted they at least hang around on the side of the bar closest to the floor. Jason followed the rest of them to where the life of the club was thrumming between writhing bodies. A bass boosted version of Push by Enrique Iglesias started playing and the roar that went up was deafening. Annabeth grabbed Hazel, Zoe and Reyna and started dancing– grinding on each other and body rolling. Their hair was wild, their cheeks flushed, and their bodies moving to every beat. Jason stared at Zoe, her head thrown back as she grabbed Reyna’s ass and pulled it flush against her. He realised with jarring clarity that he was starting to fall for her, fall deeply, exhilaratingly.

Before he could think on it, Percy grabbed his hand and pulled them together. Those green eyes, bright with laughter and alcohol, looked into his as they matched each other hip for hip, step for step. That swimmer’s body rolled into him and he laughed, gripping the man’s hips and swaying them.

Percy grabbed his neck, half whispering half shouting into his skin, “You got moves, white boy.”

“Years of spending time with Leo.” His lips brushed against his dance partner’s ear.

Percy’s smile was wicked as he turned around and pressed his ass up against Jason’s front. Their friends hollered, pretending to throw money and wolf whistling as they writhed against each other. Gods Jason loved to dance. The strobe lights flashed across his vision as his eyes fluttered. The music raced through his blood, setting everything on fire. He could live in this feeling. Liminal space.

When the song transitioned to the next Zoe pulled him away and they had their own session. Mostly it involved being pushed up against the wall and devouring each other. He really shouldn’t have had this much tequila, but Hazel’s puppy-dog eyes were impossible to say no to.

“Seeing you and Percy was hot as fuck.” Zoe breathed, chest heaving.

“You enjoyed it?” He smirked, grabbing her hips and flipping their positions so she was against the rough brick. He marvelled at the difference between her and Luke. Luke who would have been angry, jealous, hateful; who would have dragged them home and lectured him about it. He banishes those thoughts. Tonight was about having fun, about celebration, about the goddess in front of him.

“Hell yes! And your friends are pretty cool.”

“I think they like you better than me.”

“Well I like you better than them,” She winked.

“Good to know,” His smirk was delicious, “Now, where were we?”

“As lovely as this is, I really need to go to the bathroom before I burst.”

He laughed into her, and let her go, watching as she murmured something to the girls before they all traipsed off.

“They seem to get on,” Nico observed, nodding as they disappeared behind the doors.

“I’m glad. I knew they would, but there’s always that little seed of doubt, you know?”

“Yea,” His friend nodded, floppy black hair falling into his eyes, “She’s great. We all love her.”

“I think me too.” He confessed.

“Really?” Nico peered at him then, trying to gage something under the streaking lights, “Since when?”

“Since a couple hours ago maybe,” He laughed, “I don’t know. It may just be the tequila talking.”

“Alcohol doesn’t create feelings, just amplifies what’s already there.”

Before he could reply a heart-stopping scream sounded from the far side of the club, near the bathrooms. He flashed a look at his friend and then they were both sprinting towards the source where a crowd was forming. He pushed his way to the front and nearly hurled as he took in the scene.

There lying on the floor in a growing pool of blood was Zoe Nightshade.

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

I’M SORRY PLEASE FORGIVE ME?!?!??!?!

Tags (if you want to be added to/ taken off the tag list just let me know, all my channels of communication are open):

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@msdrpreist​

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@nishlicious-01​

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[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

Shadowhunters Chronicles Re-Read, The Mortal Instruments-City of Bones

So I have been woefully neglecting The Shadowhunters Chronicles series over the past couple of years. Really since Queen of Air and Darkness released, and I only got about halfway or so through that book, I’d kind of stopped reading the series despite always wanting to pick QoAAD back up again and finish it. But with it being a while, I knew I would need to probably re-read the series to get back into the mood but the trick was also just trying to find time to do it so that kept on deterring me. But I finally cleared enough space on my phone again to at last re-install the Audible app. So I’m going to be listening to the audiobooks for the books in the series I’ve already read, to get me into a proper mood and mindset to catch up on the series. I’m listening to the audio books while I’m at work or when I’m doing house chores so really, I can get through a book in about a couple of days.

But I just finished the first book in the series, City of Bones and I’m so glad that’s over with. To be clear, I’ve never hated this book, it’s not my favorite in the series but it does have its merits, it’s heavy on the world-building, large portions of it is just characters telling stories of the past so that can get a little boring but it’s also a super essential and necessary part of the book so I don’t fault it for being there. But was dreading listening to the audiobook for this one because I have listened to the audio book for this particular book a couple of times in the past. I just don’t really care for the narrator for this book. I have nothing against Mae Whitman as an actress or a voice actress or anything else and this could simply be an issue of what she was directed to do by the directors and producers of this audiobook, but I really do hate the character voices she gives the other characters besides Clary in this book. I think she has a good Clary voice but giving all the shadowhunters these terrible fake-sounding British accents can really take you out of the story. I’m so glad that this is the only audiobook that really does that (at least with the characters that are not expressly from the UK).

But while listening to this audiobook, I don’t know if its because of the distance I’ve had from the series but I don’t know, I found myself just really enjoying this book moreso than I think I ever have before. I can’t really explain it. You would think that with me being older, Clary’s bratty behavior might weigh on my patience a little, but actually it’s the opposite. I’m finding this behavior of hers kind of endearing in a way? Maybe it’s because of the Shadowhunters TV series making show!Clary so damn perfect, thereby making her really insufferable and boring, I’ve grown to appreciate book!Clary that much more. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always appreciated book!Clary, in fact I may be in the minority but as far as the main heroines go, I much prefer Clary over Tessa from The Infernal Devices and Emma from The Dark Artifices. There’s just something that’s raw and real and enjoyable about Clary that you just don’t get with Tessa and Emma (at least in my mind). In the past, I always saw Clary’s brattiness as kind of annoying but she was still a character I could enjoy despite it. She wasn’t my favorite character but I didn’t necessarily mind hanging out in her head within the narrative.

Most of the time, in my re-reads of this book, this book while enjoyable, has always kind of been the book I feel I have to force myself to get through to get to the better stuff. Such as getting to see the other characters more like Isabelle and Alec and Magnus. And even though, like I said, I really enjoyed this book more than I ever have before, anything with Isabelle, Alec, or Magnus, I was woefully wanting more of them. So for me, only because I’ve read these other books and know these characters so well, and I know that Cassandra Clare in later books will learn to write in other characters’ perspectives as she goes on, it just makes it even more apparent that you just feel like you’re missing something when you only get these small moments with the Lightwoods or Magnus or Raphael or Lily. You just want more of them.

Unfortunately, a drawback to re-reading the series is now that as I’m re-reading the books, my mind is starting to remember all the cringy, cheesy, and just plain bad stuff the show adaptation did. I’ve said this time and time again, my problem with the show has never been that it didn’t follow the books, my problem with it always being that it’s just a bad show on its own and I would really prefer not to remember all of its cringy moments but as I’m re-reading these books, scenes from the show and what they did differently just flashes in my head and I really wish it didn’t. I honestly would prefer to not remember the show at all. I gave up 3-in-a-half years of my life sticking with that show hoping it would someday become a legitimate show that I would want to introduce to my friends, but alas, it never became that, and its now just something I wish I could erase from my mind. Maybe in the next 10 or 15 years, they’ll try again with another adaptation that might do better.

But overall, this book definitely got me into the Shadowhunter Chronicle mood, bad accents and bad adaptations or not. So time to move onto the next book, City of Ashes.

[rachaelslibrary]

Let’s Talk Books - The Duke and I by Julia Quinn

I don't know why I keep doing this to myself.  I've never really liked romance, but I've also never read it as an adult reader, I've just steered clear of it since middle school.  Also, I really did like Bridgerton the show despite its problems, so I decided to try to broaden my horizons into a new genre by starting with something that I felt like I would like already.    Holy shit was I wrong.  It feels like this book took the problems that I had with the show and amplified it a few hundred times.  And maybe it was just because I was listening to it on audiobook, but the sex scenes were pretty cringey.  I enjoyed the sex scenes in A Court of Silver Flames, which was part of the reason why I thought I might warm up to romance, but these just felt extremely jilted and awkward and were definitely not for me.

  I'm not going to summarize this book, because I feel like everyone and their mother has seen the show by now or at least has some idea of what it's about, so just know that this book coincides with the first season of the show, and tells the tale of Daphne and Simon's relationship.    I'm really not going to have a pre-spoiler section for this book just because I'm worried about what would spoil the show if you haven't seen it, so SPOILERS AHEAD.  But also know I graded this 2/5 stars.

Alright so let's get into the nitty gritty here.  A lot of the problem I had with this book was the society's attitude towards women.  Don't get me wrong here, I understand that that is how it was in the regency era and for several generations afterwards but I didn't like it at all.  Maybe I need some unrealistic historical romance, I don't know.  But there's a line in here where Simon tells Daphne that he owns her and like...I don't even know what to say I fucking rolled my eyes so hard.  Gross.  In that scene it also seemed like he was pretty close to physical violence with her, which frankly to me is unacceptable no matter what time period you live in.  I'm glad that the show left that part out because I probably wouldn't have continued with it afterwards.    The other main thing that I think the show did a lot better than the books is fleshing out Daphne and Simon's relationship.  In the show they get like four episodes of flirtiness and sexual tension where the viewers can really see how much they like each other.  In the book they get maybe two scenes, a dinner party and an outing and then Daphne is basically dragging Simon in the garden to make out and that's when they're forced to get married.  I understand it's because the show had much more time for everything whereas the book only had about 350 pages, but it was still more enjoyable on the show.    Also in the book Daphne is basically viewed as this "not like other girls" girl that is friends with the guys and that's why no one wants to be with her.  There was a few hints of people not wanting to have to deal with her older brothers as well, but I liked that the show made her out as the diamond of the season who everyone wants, but they don't want to have to deal with Anthony.    Anthony is a major douche pretty much for the entire book.  He's a dick to Daphne and a dick to Simon and it honestly doesn't feel like they were ever friends because of how much of a jackass he is to him.  Although towards the end there's a scene where Anthony, Benedict, and Colin all show up at Simon and Daphne's house and refuse to leave until they're convinced that Simon actually loves her.  That was pretty cute.    I also want a drinking game where we take shots every time Daphne says she has four brothers for an excuse as to why she knows/can do something.  I'm glad that that's a trope that today's authors have sort of steered away from.    And finally, I have to talk about how Daphne rapes Simon.  Basically, if you don't know, Simon uses the pull out method to not get her pregnant because he doesn't want kids and when Daphne realizes this he forces her to finish inside her even though he pleads with her to get off him.  In the show, after that happens they have a big fight where Daphne explains what she learned and how she feels lied to and deceived.  I do kind of understand where she's coming from, but it's no excuse for what she did, and the story still would have been compelling if she had just confronted him verbally and that was the conflict, but she took it too far.    The book does it even worse.  In the book, she confronts him and they fight about it, which is what I wanted in the first place.  BUT then, DESPITE already having had the conversation and arguing about it, DESPITE knowing that he doesn't want children, she STILL rapes him anyway because he's basically too drunk to say no.  I never thought I would like how the show handled that situation, but compared to the book they did it soo much better.  Book Daphne is absolutely diabolical in that scene and it was really hard to read/listen to.    The book ends with Simon caving and deciding to have kids to make her happy, and as someone who doesn't want kids myself I had a really, really hard time with that.  Why should one person have to change something so drastically for their relationship to be happy?  While Daphne was slightly deceived, she also knew what she was getting into in their marriage.  I just wish there would've been some kind of compromise and they would have adopted a long lost cousin or something instead of Simon basically flipping a switch on what he has wanted to do his whole life.

   I'm sure I could talk about this book all night, but those are my main thoughts and feelings.  I'm debating on if I want to read the second book, just because I would like to know what will happen in the second season of Bridgerton, and maybe I need to give historical romance a second chance.  If you have read the second one, please let me know if it gets better and if I should continue. Until next time :)

[theastrophilearchitect]

February 2021 wrap-up.

Every book, audiobook, tv show and movie I consumed in February.

The phrase ‘wrap-up’ is so boring. I want to talk about books, TV shows and movies, so I can’t even call it a ‘reading wrap-up’, however pleasingly alliterative that sounds despite the fact that ‘wrap’ actually begins with a W. One of my favourite YouTubers, polandbananasBOOKS (that capitalisation is loud) calls her wrap-ups ‘Stories I Ate This Month’ which I love, but using exactly that seems wrong. I genuinely debated calling this ‘My Media Diet’, but the word ‘diet’ has so many negative connotations to me, so I dropped that. Besides ‘wrap-up’ all in lowercase followed by a full stop is aesthetically pleasing.

The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (audiobook) I’ve read this series countless times. I read the series first time through six years ago, and, after finishing it, I just kept rereading it during silent reading time at school, so God only knows how many times I’ve read it at this point. This is actually the second time I’ve listened to this audiobook, and I still, of course, love it. When I first read it, this book stuck with me. It was the first teen book I ever read and, most unfortunately, put me into a dystopian phase. However, we got over that. I’m good now. I promise.

You know what this is about, but here it is anyway: in a dystopian future (of literally just North America, it never mentions what’s happening anywhere else), a country called Panem (literally the whole of North America) is divided into the luxurious, utopian Capitol, and thirteen districts, all of which gather or produce something for the Capitol. Some of the districts live in poverty, while others are afforded some luxuries but nowhere near those of the Capitol. It never really explains how this system came to be, but then there was a rebellion against the Capitol in which District Thirteen was destroyed, and every year two teenagers from each district are chosen to compete in the Hunger Games, where twenty-four tributes are put in an arena together to fight to the death, and the last person standing emerges victorious. It feels so strange to talk about the basic premise of this book without going into the rest of the trilogy, but I’ll leave it here.

I hate how the media washes this book out and plays it off as just another love triangle, which it barely even is. It has such an important message about society, and the fact that the media does that just proves how accurate it is. I can’t believe when I first read it I was actually Team Gale, but in truth I think that was just because I liked Liam Hemsworth better than Josh Hutcherson, which I still do, but not the point. Anyway, the narrator is excellent.

I’m not giving these booksa rating, both because it’s a reread and I like to base ratings off my initial opinion, and because the first time I read this book I was literally a small child, and part of my love is the nostalgia.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab

This was the first book I read with my eyes this month, and I ended up getting the ebook because it was just so much cheaper than getting a physical copy - I may have invested if I loved the UK cover as much as the US, I’m ashamed to say (above is UK). It was not what I was expecting.

This book was much more contemplation-heavy than I was expecting and actually very light on plot. In 1714, Adeline LaRue runs away from her wedding and prays to Gods, wishing to be free, and is answered by the darkness, who makes her a deal: he grants her immortality, and she promises him her soul when she doesn’t want it anymore. He, wanting her soul, twistedly grants her freedom by cursing her to be forgotten by everyone she ever meets. Three hundred years later, she meets someone who remembers her.

It’s really about life, freedom and time - there’s no direct message or moral, at least not that I picked up on, but it really makes you think. I do enjoy that in a book, but not as much as one where i just love the story. I generally prefer books where I’m rooting for the characters, and it’s full of ships - the kind of stories you would write fanfiction about, but this is the kind of book that I think will stick with me. I take issue with how cliché the ending was, though.

Anyway, I’m not actually sure how I want to rate this. As a British teenager, I’m not actually that familiar with lettered ratings, and I don’t really want to use stars, but I think I’m going to suck it up. Maybe I’ll think of something else eventually.

Rating: 4.5 stars - books that get five stars from me are generally based on the enjoyment factor, but this book deserved more than four.

Arrow Season 1

I’ve been semi-interested in the Arrowverse/DC TV universe for a while, and finally took the opportunity to delve in. This show is so insanely CW - everyone has that look, it has that tone and it takes itself way too seriously. By the 23rd time you’re hearing it, the recap becomes painful to listen to.

This was the first show in DC’s saga - the show picks up as Oliver Queen returns home from being stranded on an island for five years after a cruise ship sank. When the ship went down, his billionaire father sacrificed himself to save Oliver, and left him with a list of ‘the people poisoning [his] city’. Upon returning home, Oliver becomes the vigilante who will eventually become known as ‘Arrow’ or ‘Green Arrow’ (currently unclear; I’m not a comic book person) but is currently dubbed just ‘the Hood’ or ‘the vigilante’, with the goal of taking down the people on the list. It’s very intense.

It took me about ten episodes to actually get invested - which is nearly seven hours watch time - but, ultimately, I’m glad that I did. Aside from the excessive CW-ness of this show, I love the characters and I want to see what happens.

Still, why is everyone so obsesses with Laurel? What’s so great about Laurel? I don’t get it. Felicity is 10000% the best character - she’s relatable, cute, and I high-key ship her with Oliver.

This little rant of mine was unintelligible.

Rating: 4 stars

Guardians of the Galaxy

I’m not explaining what this movie is about. Honestly. This was just a rewatch: I’m currently rewatching every MCU movie in chronological order (as in, starting with Captain America: The First Avenger instead of Iron Man). For every TV season I finish, I watch a a movie, and I alternate between movie series, one of which is, at the moment, MCU films. It’s hard for me to briefly explain my weird watching patterns.

I love this movie so much. It was the first really upbeat MCU movie, and I love the characters.

I don’t really have much to say about this, but if you haven’t watched MCU movies, please watch them. Even if you don’t want to, this movie is absolutely worth watching and you don’t need to watch any other MCU movies for context.

I Am Not Okay With This Season 1

I’m reeling from this show. I literally can’t tell whether or not this is getting a second season; it seems like it was meant to, but then got cancelled, and now I can’t tell.

This show follows a high school student named Sydney. She’s your typical outcast, and isn’t interested in getting ‘in’ - she’s best friends with a girl named Dina; they both came to their school around the same time and ended up friends, though Dina is your typical pretty girl. Then Syd discovers she has powers that operate based on her emotions, and I really don’t want to say anything else. But it does star Sophia Lillis and Wyatt Oleff, who you likely know as two of the kids in IT (the clown movie, not like computing).

Honestly, episodes 1-6 were very chill, more focused on teenage life than her powers, then episode 7 brought it. Up until the end of episode 7, I enjoyed the show and would be happy to watch a second season, but I wasn’t particularly invested or excited by it. Then episode 7. I would love a second season of this show. I have to at least know where the writers were going with it.

This show came out last year, and I only just got to it, but I can’t believe I haven’t heard anybody talking about it. It’s intense, it’s entertaining, and the first season will only take up about two and a half hours of your time (it’s seven 19-28 minute episodes).

Rating: 4 stars

Blue Lily, Lily Blue and The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

I listened to The Raven Cycle audiobooks in 2019, and I’m not sure why because I didn’t even enjoy them that much. I did, however, decide I wanted to read Call Down the Hawk, the first book in the spin-off series, and that meant I had to reread The Raven Cycle since I had paid so little attention to the audiobooks, which I started in January and I love this series. Not what I expected from a reread of a series I paid virtually no attention to, but here we are.

This is book 3 in The Raven Cycle series, book 1 being The Raven Boys, which is a paranormal book in which the protagonist Blue, is the only non-psychic in a family of psychics, and has been told her whole life that if she kisses her true love, she will kill him. Then, on St Somebody’s Eve (Mark’s? I want to say Mark’s but I’m not sure), when she goes with her aunt to see the spirits of the people who will die in the next year, she sees one of the spirits, a boy from Aglionby Academy, the local private school, meaning he is either her true love, or she is the one who kills him, which in her case, could very much be both. Then that boy schedules a reading with her psychic family to help him find an old Welsh king, and there is so much more than that to this glorious series, but I’ll stop here.

I think my main thing in books and general media is the characters. They have to follow some kind of sensible plot, but if I’m not invested in the characters, I can’t get invested in the story. I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever been so in love with a cast of characters, not even in Six of Crows - this story is so character-driven, and I can’t get enough. This was an excellent continuation, and so much happened, but it did feel like its purpose was just to set up the final book, so I didn’t enjoy this one quite as much as the previous two.

Rating: 4 stars

As for The Raven King - this was the last book I read this month, finishing it on the morning of the 27th because I knew I would have very little reading time from mid-afternoon until twenty-four hours later.

In complete honesty, I found the climax of this book to be a little rushed - we spend the whole series aware that Gansey’s looking for Glendower, but it never seems to be more prevalent than just their general investigations as to what the hell is happening. As a result, when it came to that in this book, it felt a little out of the blue (no pun intended).

Regardless, this series so well balances strong characters and strong plot where so many others fail, and I love it.

Rating: 5 stars

Fate: The Winx Saga Season 1

This show is a live-action rated-15 Netflix adaptation of one of my favourite childhood shows, Winx Club. And, honestly, you can tell.

I tried to watch this objectively, instead of complaining about how they cut some of my favourite characters and changed so many (Tecna, Riven, Beatrix, Stella, Brandon etc.). While I was upset about some of the cuts, I can agree that they were best for the story. Where in the original, every fairy had their own unique powers, this adaptation splits it into five elements: fire (Bloom), water (Aisha - on another note, screw Aisha, honestly), air (Beatrix), earth (Terra) and mind (Musa), though Stella still has light powers? Which is never explained?

Anyway, this follows teenage Bloom as she discovers she’s a fairy and goes through her first year at a fairy school called Alfea.

I’m not going to go too deep into this because I have so much to say about this show that i think I’m going to make a whole separate review rather than bore you with it now. 

Quality-wise, this show was mediocre, but enjoyment and nostalgia raise its rating for me because I’m biased.

Rating: 4 stars

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

This is both Bardugo’s first adult novel and her first novel not set in the Grishaverse. I read the Grisha trilogy for the first time years ago and didn’t like it that much, but followed that right up with the Six of Crows duology which I loved. I read King of Scars in 2019 when it came out, and started listening to the King of Scars audiobook just before I started reading this in preparation for Rule of Wolves at the end of March.

I loved this. I don’t think I have anything to criticise quality-wise - the characters had depth, there were plot twists and strong subplots, the world was incredibly well built, and the only thing that got me to put this book down was taking a week to start working on my own writing project (post coming soon). Because I took that week completely off reading, this book took me about two weeks total from start to finish, but it was so worth it.

This novel follows Alex Stern, a twenty-year-old whose friends have all been murdered. She was found beside one of them who died of a overdose, with the same drug in her system. But Alex can see ghosts, and, soon after her friends’ deaths, is consequently offered a scholarship to Yale University, on the condition that she works for the ninth House of the Veil to monitor the activities of Yale’s secret societies.

In complete candour, I found this book somewhat convoluted, though most of that was probably mainly my own poor reading comprehension. Regardless, I loved the plot, and am very highly anticipating the eventual release of its as-of-yet unnamed sequel.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

So I actually finished this audiobook briefly after finishing Blue Lily, Lily Blue, but I’m tacking it on here because I forgot to add it to the list and already explained my Grishaverse experience in my Ninth House comments.

So, yes, I love this duology, and it really opened a new compartment in my writing brain, even though I haven’t really taken advantage of that writing brain until now (again, post coming soon).

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

I am realising I’ve read eight books this month, and nearly half of them were by Leigh Bardugo. Which makes sense, considering how much I enjoy her books.

This book is slower-paced than most of hers, but it does follow two (one of which splits again) completely separate storylines, and is still excellent and entertaining.

I listened to this for a recap before Rule of Wolves is released on March 30th.

[onwardintolight]

In which Onward rereads the Thrawn Trilogy and writes a massive review (and some other related stuff)

Alright, so I know I said that the characterization vs. plot thing in new canon vs. Legends was a rant for another time, but I’ve been thinking about it nonstop since and I really need to get a few thoughts out, so I guess this is that time, lol.

I’ve recently been diving into some of the Legends books for the first time in years. Partly because I’ve started listening to audiobooks and can get a whole lot more reading done in a day than I was able to before, and partly... well, I’m just curious to revisit it. I read a number of books from the old EU as a kid, and I definitely had mixed feelings back then. On the one hand, I was delighted—more Star Wars! Yay! On the other hand are the mixed feelings, which have so faded from memory over time that all I can remember anymore is that I didn’t like how the books portrayed Leia.

So anyway, I’ve been curious to give some of them a shot again, and see what I think now (all except COPL. I’m never going back to that one). I started with two that have come on my radar through the Han x Leia fandom, Tatooine Ghost and Razor’s Edge. They were wonderful! I absolutely loved Tatooine Ghost, especially. Razor’s Edge was super fun and had some truly fantastic moments (including some unforgettable shippy ones), but it felt more plot-driven than I tend to prefer (give me ALL the deep character stuff!). Despite that, I still loved it. I already own Tatooine Ghost and I plan to get my own copy of Razor’s Edge, too.

Then I decided to revisit the Thrawn trilogy. 

Oh boy.

Before I dive into that, though, I first want to say that I have many friends on here for whom the old EU is their Star Wars. I have the utmost admiration for you all, and I mean no disrespect. I support you in this being your Star Wars 100%. I’m not seeking to get into any big arguments or flame wars. In fact, I will put most of my ranting about Heir to the Empire et al under a cut, so please feel free not to engage if that sort of thing bothers you. 

Honestly, I’m a big fan of focusing on positivity in fandom, of focusing on what I love and not harassing others who enjoy things I don’t. That being said, I do support a good critique. I guess what I’m saying is that I’m not trying to force my views on anyone, but I can certainly express them in my own space and support other people’s right to express theirs in their space. What better space to do so than on my tumblr?

Before I go under the cut, I have one last question for my old EU stans. Based on my enjoyment of Tatooine Ghost and Razor’s Edge, and knowing I’m a particular sucker for character-driven stories, especially if they involve Leia and Han (and/or their ship), are there any other Legends books you’d recommend? Please let me know because I would love to discover more of that goodness!

Now, onto the Thrawn trilogy....

(It probably goes without saying, but major spoilers ahead)

.

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Disclaimer: I’m sorry if I get some of the details wrong; I listened to the audiobooks and don’t have access to the books themselves right now so i’m writing out all these thoughts from memory

About Leia

So, it turns out that little me was right. Older me had the exact same reaction upon reading the Thrawn trilogy. What the heck did Zahn do to Leia? She seemed so diminished, shrinking. Hardly like Leia at all. If I had been reading a physical book, I would have been tempted to throw it numerous times.

First of all, she was set aside almost entirely for the first book. Despite the fact that the Empire was looking for Luke too, Luke got to be free and keep roaming the galaxy, doing his thing, and Leia was forced into hiding. If I remember right, it wasn’t really her choice (I believe it was Han who refused to take her no for an answer), nor did she argue it much. She just kind of followed the men in her life and let them do all the leading and galaxy-saving. Sounds a lot like Leia, right? *rolls eyes* Overall, she didn’t do much, and she didn’t have any part in the big climactic battle. 

(On another note this reminds me a little of one of Zahn’s new canon books, Thrawn Alliances. SPOILER ALERT: at a key moment, Thrawn pleads with Padme to talk with Anakin and try to convince him not to do something really terrible and disastrous that probably will result in people dying, and Padme basically just sighs, throws up her hands and says something like “It’s no use. When he gets this way no one can convince him of anything” and I just want to SCREAM BECAUSE NO THAT’S NOT THE FREAKING PADME I KNOW AND SERIOUSLY???)

Anyway. *calms down* 

In Dark Force Rising, Leia had a much more interesting plotline as she wins the allegience of the Noghri. I liked her better here, and she seemed a tiny bit more like the Leia I know. But it still just felt... lackluster. 

In The Last Command, she’s once again pushed to the side thanks to the men in her life making the decisions in the name of protecting her. True, I understand that for the majority of these books, she’s been pregnant, and so it’s not just about protecting her, but about protecting the twins. But that didn’t stop her from doing what she felt she needed to in Dark Force Rising. And in this book, she’s already given birth. Winter’s there; she can take care of the twins (as she eventually does). When the heroes assemble and go to Wayland for the big climax of the trilogy, she’s convinced by the men to stay behind (*cue me throwing imaginary book across the room*). Honestly, it felt contrived for the sake of the plot (she has to be there for what happens next) and more than a little bit sexist. 

She does eventually go, however, which made me want to cheer. I would have hated it way more if she hadn’t gotten to participate in the big last battle with C’baoth, particularly in light of the way the books had set her up as a Jedi-in-training (not very far along, but still). I was excited because surely this must mean she plays a big part in that, right? 

...She does not. She basically shows up and then gets trapped, doing hardly anything. Plot-wise, she’s pretty much there to provide an extra lightsaber and moral support of the Force-user variety. I’m glad she got to be there, but... yeah, overall, I’m really not happy with how these books treated my favorite character, and one of the actual main characters of the OT. It kind of felt like she was replaced by Mara, tbh. Which leads me to...

About Mara

Mara, like Leia used to be, is a very angry person, and for good reason. But her anger came off in these books as rather petulant and irrational. Once again, it felt a bit sexist. I hope I’m wrong, but the trajectory seems to be a trope that Leia has already been subject to (in ROTJ, as much as I love that movie, and with the job finished in this trilogy): Soften the angry woman. Make her pleasant and pliable and a little bit subservient. Legends fans, PLEASE tell me this doesn’t happen to Mara. I hope she continues to be a sarcastic, independent woman who takes no sh*t. I hope she loses none of her power, even as she loves and marries Luke. 

Mara had probably the biggest character arc of this entire trilogy. Unfortunately, that isn’t saying much. I really felt like her story had a lot of potential and could have been really compelling, but Zahn just doesn’t seem to know how to write characters with depth. In the end, her big moment of throwing off the Emperor’s power over her honestly just felt kind of contrived and shallow. Oh look, here’s a clone of Luke she can kill instead. That will magically make it all go away. Convenient. 

I wanted to love her. I think I probably could love her, if I read good fanfic. The problem is that the source material leaves all depth to the imagination.

About Everything Else

I mentioned that Mara seems to have the biggest character arc, but that wasn’t saying much. I had a lot of trouble distinguishing any other character arcs at all. The characters all seemed to be caught up in this big plot, carried along with it and deposited victorious at the end, without any obvious growth or change (except, again, for Mara). 

I suppose you could say that Luke learned to stand on his feet without the help of Ben’s Force ghost. But that was given such minor emphasis that I didn’t even think of it until this moment, weeks after finishing the book. 

Aside from my rage at the misogyny, I think this gets to the heart of why I disliked these books. The motivations and emotional/personal journeys of the characters are of utmost importance to me. To me, they’re the whole point. When a book is all plot and little character, I just... don’t care. It doesn’t feel real or relevant. It doesn’t show me that I can slay dragons, too.

I know that theoretically, I could imagine those character journeys. I could fill in the blanks in my mind, or through fic. I have a big imagination; I’m really pretty good at such things.

But tbh, when it comes to these books, I don’t even want to. To me, the plot itself felt pretty lackluster. I keep using the word “contrived” but it fits so well. Things happened and decisions were made that didn’t make much sense, just so the plot could go the way Zahn wanted it to. Now of course the same argument could be made for new canon (particularly, imho, the ST movies), but at least with new canon, there’s a deliberate and largely persistent focus on character. (And less sexism.) 

Other complaints: 

- I got sick of C’baoth in the first book. His villainy was not the least bit fearful or intimidating. His nearly prevailing over the heroes at Wayland felt more accidental than anything.

- Don’t get me started on stupid Bel Iblis and his stupid hurt manly pride that the women in power have to coddle and bow down to before he will lift a finger to help during a genuine EMERGENCY when he was desperately NEEDED (*cue me throwing the imaginary book across the room yet again*) (I think Leia would have had a few more choice words for him than she did in this book. They instantly presented themselves to my mind, at least)

- I can understand why Thrawn was such a big deal when these books first came out, but I think Thrawn is kind of oversaturated these days, and tbh I’m kind of sick of him (I’m going to blame the more recent canon Thrawn trilogy for that). While I like a good Sherlock Holmes mystery, I’m not too big on admiring that sort of “man as a machine” type character. Rationality is not everything, not by a long shot. It is empty and, frankly, shortsighted on its own. The best part about Thrawn’s story in these books for me was seeing him make mistakes (actual mistakes! yay!) and meet his end, perhaps in part due to that over-reliance on rationality and arrogance in his own abilities.

A few things I did like:

- another main female character, yay! Two if you count Winter

- I thought Talon Karrde was an enjoyable character and I’d love to see more of him

- I remember loving the vornskrs as a kid and a little bit of that adoration returned when I read this, bringing with it all sorts of happy nostalgia

- some parts of the plot were fun and exciting, and I could understand why they might feel iconic and Star Wars-y to others

Overall, however, I think Thrawn as a character kind of represents these books as a whole. It’s all very cerebral and practical. There’s art but it only serves the purpose of the rational. To me, these books felt like they were all mind, no soul.

I know that those of you who hold these books dear may disagree, and that’s fine. Honestly, despite my serious problems with them, I don’t hate these books. I might even read them again someday, maybe. I may be convinced to appreciate them more once I read people’s headcanons and hear what people love about it. So with that said, what DO you love about it? Where do you see these books’ soul?

[brynwrites]

Bryn’s 2018 Reading Recap.

In 2018 I finished 23 books (well, listened to most of them).

I also started reading 8 others which I put down before the halfway point because I don’t hate myself enough to finish something I’m not at least mildly invested in.

My favorites:

Keep in mind these are not my favorite books published in 2018, but my favorites of the books I read in 2018, which were all published at some point after the stone age.

The Martian Chronicles

I did not expect to love this book the way I did, as I'm not really a big fan of (a) old books (b) anthologies and (c) poetry, but I'm so glad it proved me wrong. Beautifully lonesome and thought provoking. My heart felt things.

Children of Blood and Bone

The character development in this book was so spectacularly complex, it made my cry. I’m not even joking, I was half-way to work, on the freeway, with gentle tears trailing down my cheeks.

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

My official goodreads review still says “This book is amazing, and I have nothing more to say because my brain just keeps screaming incoherently about how much I love it.” And honestly, two months later, it’s equally true. 

Warbreaker

This magic system killed me and then reanimated my corpse. The beauty and the beast retelling I never knew I needed (probably because it doesn’t actually know it is a beauty and the beast retelling...?)

Till We Have Faces

I just really liked our fierce morally grey lead queen and her wild philosophical life, okay.

The Color of Magic

Such a fun, witty read. The only thing I'm disappointed with is the fact that it took me so long to finally start this series.

How to Cheat a Dragon's Curse

All the How To Train Your Dragon books are fantastic kid’s stories, and the audiobooks are read by David Tennant which makes them even better. I especially loved the twist in the end of this one. Also that Mythical American Vegetable: Vegetable-That-No-One-Dares-Name.

Cinder

A fun example of what YA (with all the teen emotions and first loves and themes of finding oneself) should be. It’s an easy read, and like... cyborg Cinderella. Cyborg Cinderella.

Honorable mentions:

Spinning Silver

I found the themes and worldbuilding in this story to be absolutely gorgeous, with such strong female leads and a lovely twist of fairy tales spun from an intriguing angle. It only gets an honorable mention though because the entire thing is written and told in the least convenient way possible and despite loving the story, I hated the act of reading it.

Empire Ants

I had the privilege of beta reading this novel and I have to say that the un-finalized version was one of the best things I’ve read this year (and only goes in the honorable mentions section due to not actually being published yet). It was a blast to read, with a cast of fantastic, funny, diverse characters, and hilarious, lovely writing, with a good plot that only gets better the farther in you read.

Our Bloody Pearl

I read this book a solid six and a half times this spring... so it must be good... right... right?

What were your favorite books this year? So I can read them in 2019 =D

[daynamartinez22]

Weekly SEO Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 324

Click on the video above to watch Episode 324 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

Full timestamps with topics and times can be found at the link above.

The latest upcoming free SEO Q&A Hump Day Hangout can be found at http://semanticmastery.com/humpday.

Announcement

We’re live. Oh, there we go. I see it now. So regardless, we’re live. Welcome to Hump Day Hangouts. Today’s the 27th of January 2021. And we’ve got some good stuff for you guys today. As usual, we got a few quick announcements and then we’re gonna jump into answering your questions. But real quick, just want to say hi, looks like we got most of the guys here today. Let’s see. I’m gonna start with her Nan today. How are you doing, man?

Dude, I’m good. I’m good.

I’m just melting down here. It’s really hot and humid, but it’s okay, man.

We’re supposed to have rain tomorrow. So gonna cool off. Happy to be here.

Nice. what’s the temperature there in Celsius?

And Celsius is like 36. I think so. 36. See, it’s pretty warm. Yeah.

Yeah, that’s 96 points, 97.

All right, that’s getting up. Yeah, that’s on like, maximum temperature scale. So I know you’re a hardware guy. But yeah, some rain on top of that. That sounds nice and humid. So you enjoy that. Yeah. Awesome. Marco. How are you doing today?

Um, I mean, what can I say? Groundhog Day. If you guys understand how it is that you can take $1 and change it into a million dollars. Give me one. Give me a hill. Yeah, let me see. Fuck. I hate those cheesy markers, man. Look, hard work. You gotta work. You gotta do the dude, you got to pay your dues. It’s very people who hit on that one idea with absolutely nothing. But sweat equity. Turn it into a billion-dollar idea. The rest of Us to get to anyone, whatever. I gotta work. I don’t just sit here and do nothing. I yeah, it’s beautiful. It’s a great place to work. I step outside. It’s sunny. It’s warm. It’s beautiful. Got the sun? Got him. Got this. When did my hair look, man? Come on, man. Very few things require no work as most people tell you to should is hard work. And it’s not easy. It’s not easy, but it’s not complicated. It can’t be simplified, which is what we’ve done for you. Alright. So if you want to know how, and you want to know why we’re in the middle of our charity webinars, Bradley killed it on Monday. With his ads for branding. And entity Monday, I’m gonna call it what it is entity manipulation. It was fantastic. A lot of great ideas, a lot of information that literally I’m telling you on Monday would have cost 1000s of dollars anywhere else. You got it for free. Next Monday. What’s the Dixon Jones, internet legend Dixon Jones is coming to show you how to do entities and content. And so this is going to be a recurring theme entities entities entities, brand new entities brand. I wonder why I wonder what’s working in SEO, what has been working, what’s working out what will be working. Anyway, I don’t want to take too much time. Thank you to those of you who donated if you haven’t, then I posted a how-to on the page. I know the information is there. Again, I don’t want to take too much time. And even if you did and you did not register, you won’t be able to access that page. Now. Because that page is gone. We moved it, you can still contact the email that I’ve set on there and you will get access. If you’re given the note no donation, you will get access to the replay. And if you haven’t donated, send proof of the other donation to the email and get access guys’ information. I’m telling you, you would end up paying I know barely one time paid nearly 20 K. And the information was nowhere near as good as the shit that we give away for the price of a donation. I can guarantee it. He told us what the information that he got not that it was useless. But the information that we’re giving away for a charitable donation. I’d be dead. There’s no comparison anywhere. Guaranteed.

Outstanding Marco, something you said at the beginning. I’m just gonna ask you and for those of you watching, I didn’t ask Marco this earlier or anything. But the something you said kind of tickled something in my head. I was wondering Have you read the book The Art of contrary thinking?

Of course.

Okay. I had never heard of it until a couple of weeks ago. And I just picked it up and started going through it. And anyway, I was like, You know what, I bet this is a book Marco would recommend. And just this is a total tangent, but would you recommend people to read it because I’m like 10 pages in and I’m like, I can tell this is gonna be a big one.

I mean, I recommend that you read period, right?

Yeah, read it.

And not just that it’s not just reading that one book but this other but Well, when everybody thinks, Oh, here we go, let me see if I get the quote, right. When everybody thinks the same when everybody thinks alike, everybody is likely to be wrong. Think about that. Think about that. All right. So the art of contrary thinking, Humphrey, was a Yo, yo,

yeah, Neil.

Yeah. Yeah, guys, read the book, read the book. Go read the art of war. Mandatory, mandatory. And then read the commentaries on the art of war. Don’t just read it. Try to figure it out while you’re like trying to read the Bible without the commentaries, right? Without going into the original text. But yeah, definitely, if you can, like a book a week, by all means, for those who can’t just listen to it, listen, listen to books, all the audiobooks are everywhere. But yeah, absolutely recommended.

Awesome. All right. The library tickled something else too. I just put the link down for anyone interested. We should probably we could update this year. We’ve got a recommended reading list which I don’t think the art of country thinking is on my add that on, but I just put it at semantic mastery comm slash books. So go check that out if you’re watching and interested in some of these we’re mentioning so. Okay, sorry, a little bit of a tangent there. But last but not least, Bradley, how are you doing today?

Doing great. Busy as all hell as usual, but doing well. Glad to be here.

Sounds good. All right. Well, I got a little thing to get through here. I wanted to let people know because we do have new people watching every week people coming in on YouTube are catching the replay. So first of all, thank you for watching. You’re in the right place.

Hold on a minute. Did we forget Chris, didn’t we?

Is Chris here. Chris is here. Oh, man. I’m sorry. Well,

I can go again as well. If you don’t like me here today. Chris snuck in the back door when Adam wasn’t looking.

That’s good. I feel bad because we got the little strip up at the top and zoom. So Chris, how are you doing? Man? My bad.

Yeah, doing well here. I didn’t know.

I was wondering because now I wish the most.

Sorry, what are you saying?

I don’t know. I’m shorting the markets, especially on the SEO niche. Not having anything else. Alright, well stay away from GameStop. So that’s already? Yeah. All right, well, let’s get into it. So like I was saying, if you’re here and you’re watching live, let us know how you’re doing. Even if you don’t have a comment, just say hello, get let us know where you’re at, or how you’re doing. And if you’re new to semantic mastery, you’re new to MGYB you’re new to heavy hitters club, the best place for you to start find out how to shield your sites don’t have to worry about algorithm updates again, and it’s a free training that’s available at the SEOshield.com. That’s the word, the SEOshield.com. And you’ll hear us talking about all the stuff that’s involved in that. So if you’re not familiar with words, like SEO shield, that’s a great place for you to get started. From there, definitely recommend picking up the Battle Plan. Alright, that’s step by step processes. So you can get SEO results. And it’s how we do things and the tools we use and the services we use. And you can get that at Battle Plan dot semantic mastery.com the next one after that we also get questions about right as consultants like myself, agency owners like Bradley, people who are, you know, wanting to get more clients who want to grow the revenue, they want to scale the team, they’re still you know, grow at still in growth mode. It’s hard to get that one out of the mouth. And you know, before they’re big enough, they’re thinking, How can I do this? How do I do these three really important things so Bradley and Hernan a little bit, they’ve put together this training last year, that is just amazing? It’s called 2xyouragency, 2xyouragency.com. Just head over there and you can find out more. And for those of you who are serious about growing your digital marketing business or the digital marketing side of your business, and you want to be part of the experienced community, then the mastermind is definitely for you. And that you can find out more at mastermind.semanticmastery.com. And now I mentioned MGYB if you’re not familiar with it, it’s mgyb.co. Alright, that’s done for you services, things like the SEO shield that I mentioned, syndication networks, link building press releases, and a ton more. I believe we’ve got an update coming soon. Right Marco we’ve got a kind of an overhaul on the system coming down the pipeline, right.

We have a complete overhaul of the system. But I mean, Bradley’s in there. So you can tell. He can tell me but I mean, we’re doing several things right. So it’s not just that syndication Academy. Right, that’s coming guys, that’d be an overhaul. And then, of course, we’re gonna have updates and is going to be a new person who just wants to be friendly more time, honestly, than what he could then want to get dedicated to it. It needs more time. So It can work the way that it should. Bradley couldn’t dedicate the time to it. So we just brought someone in. She learned the way. And she was here. I mean, you guys met her, you guys met SC, she’s the one that that’s redoing, syndication Academy, she was doing updates, she’s going to be going into a whole bunch of new profiles and websites that we can use to manipulate the entity. Remember, entity-based, worthless SEO. That’s what this is about the charity webinars are about that, how we’re winning today’s we’re manipulating the entity and showing Google what we want. And we’re getting Google to do what we want Google to do. That’s how we do the dope.

Outstanding. Well, like Marco was saying earlier, if you haven’t yet, you can still get access to the charity webinars highly recommend you do that that is on the page. If for some reason you’re watching this, you can’t find the link, you’re not sure what’s going on. But you know that you want to get in on that you can just send an email to support at semantic mastery comm we’ll get you sorted out and gets taken care of. So with that said, Guys, anything else before we dive into it?

All right, we’re good.

Right, grab the screen.

There it is. Alright,

so it looks like the first one is from mini min. Rob. Hey, guys, I’ve received my order from MGYB. But I don’t know how it works. Well, which order? Is he? Which order? Is he talking about? SEO SEO. But I don’t know.

Rob, if you’re here mini broad. I’m just gonna call it mini Rob. Sorry, man. This may be your actual name. But it makes me think of like a little tiny version of Rob. Yeah. If that’s the case, we need to know more information, right? We can’t tell you what’s going on. We don’t know if you ordered a press release or a link building order or keyword research. So we’re kind of stuck here. So if you let us know, we could probably help you. And then I would also say you probably want to talk to us first and come to Hump Day Hangouts. And if you’re like, maybe I should use this SEO shield thing or the press release thing. If you ask that first, we could definitely explain it. But since you’ve got it now, let us know exactly what you’re doing. And then that’s how we can help you I guess.

That’s good. Okay. All right. So yeah, we can try to answer a few. I’m sorry, I just got was looking at an email that just came in what’s the next question is what’s the best way before? Before you go to the next question, the SEO shield comm if you got an SEO shield, right, the seo.com is the place to go for the training. It’s free. And at the end of that, we even throw in a coupon for you to order whatever it is that you need.

How Do You Push The Link Juice To Power All PDFs In The Entire Amazon S3 Folders?

Beautiful. Okay, so the next one is what’s the best way to push link juice through entire Amazon s3 folders to power up all PDFs within? Also, is it possible, like Google Drive to embed folders to show all files inside the bucket? Thank you, um, the best way to power up an s3 folder? I’m not sure if you can power up a full folder. I’ve never tried that. Usually, I just extract the URLs from within the folder and then just hit those with backlinks. If there are URLs that I want to do that to Marco Do you know, can you make a public folder itself public? Like? I don’t know if the folder has its own URL or what?

Alright, guys, I have no idea. If the s3 folder itself, we know that the HTML documents that we place in their images or whatever it is that we placed in there can be made public. But I’ll tell you what, give me about I’m gonna say three months because we’re about to do some nasty stuff in s3, I was just talking about it with my team, or I shouldn’t call it my team partners. Just the SEO crew that I’m with where we’re going to go and just really look into s3 and how much power there actually is in there. So if you come back, I mean, if not just go in and do it yourself and see if it’ll if it can go public and then the best way to push power to that. The Darya Nuff said an embed gig or a link building gig or both from dedhia to that will push all the power you need. I’m not sure about the folder, but I can guarantee that in about three months. I’ll have all the answers you want about s3.

Is There A Way To Get More Branded GMBs In Different Locations To Boost The Footprint Of A Real Business With No Fixed Address?

Sweet. Next question. Is there a way to get more branded GMBs in different locations to boost the footprint of a real service business that doesn’t have a fixed address and works remotely? Yeah, I mean, if you can, I mean, there’s a couple of ways you can buy GMBs from places that will sell you verified GM bees we used to and MGYB. But I don’t think that’s available anymore. There are still some places that will do it. I even found somewhere that I placed an order but it was way back in November and it still hasn’t been delivered. So you know, I think it’s getting harder to do it. But there I know there are still some vendors out there that will sell verified GM B’s. I’m just not going to recommend any of them because again, the one that I just attempted to use in November, I still haven’t had one delivered yet. So I don’t recommend any of I don’t have any to recommend is what I’m saying but there are GMB verified. You know, you can purchase verified GMB, there are vendors out there that do sell them. The other way is the way that I’ve before people started selling them, I used to always just use Pio boxes, you can go to post offices, one thing you want to do is don’t you don’t want to get to GMBs too close to each other. Right. So if you’re going to do a service area business, which I understand doing that makes total sense, I would have them at least 15 or 20 miles apart. Depending on what your service area is, it could be even bigger, larger, you know further distance between locations. But what you can do is find a post office. And then you fill out a form, it’s free, but it’s to use the street address option. So in other words, like if you go you can do all this online, too, by the way, you can register a PO Box online. And they’ll give you they won’t issue you the box number and till you go to the post office like you have to physically go to the post office and show your IDs and sign the paperwork at the post office. But you can reserve it online and pay for it and everything else. But you do have to physically go to the post office to sign the paperwork and then they’ll assign you the box number at that point. So let’s just say it’s a box one on one. If if the post office is at 123, Main Street, whatever town right, then you can fill out an additional form, it’s free to do it doesn’t cost anything else. But you fill out an additional form to use the street address option. And then you would end up using the address for the GMB listing 123 Main Street number sign like the pound sign 101 right, and that that will work. You can’t add a p o box to GMB as the physical address. But you can do a street address with you know, basically a box number a suite number, but it’s just the pound sign and the post office is very particular about you only using the number sign the pound sign before the box number not sweet. Not box, none of that it’s just the number sign. And again, they’re very particular about that. But that’s the way that I had always done it prior to people selling GMB’s.

And it still works, you know. So that’s another alternative way to do it. And in fact, I actually still prefer that method after but over buying them except for the fact that you have to physically go to the post office that sucks. Because you know, especially if it’s far away, but if it’s within reason and you can drive to it, then I recommend going that route over purchasing GMB listings from vendors. And the reason I say that is because it’s still tied to a real physical address this way. And I feel like those are safer than using the spammed ones because of some of the spammed GMB listings that I have. They don’t have any physical location even referenced or tied to them, which I don’t even know how happens. But like there’s no physical address actually connected with it, and it causes problems with the proximity filter. So and what I’m saying is, even for service area business guys, you understand you have to clear the address like you’re not supposed to per Google’s Terms of Service, you’re not supposed to publish the street address for a service area business. Right. So in other words, if it’s a service area business where the customer or excuse me, the business serves the customer at the customer’s location, then you’re supposed to delete them or clear the physical location when you set your service areas then you’re supposed to clear the physical location from showing and when it does, it literally clears it from the GMB dashboard and it will not any longer show the physical address, the street address in the maps listing or anything. But what I’m saying is, some of the GMB is that I had purchased. They don’t have any street address associated with them at all and I don’t know how they even did it. But it causes issues to where it doesn’t show for like near me searches and stuff like that because there’s no physical location associated with it. And again, I don’t know how they do it because even when you register a new GMB, let’s say It’s a legit business and your service area business and it has a legit physical location where the office or you know the business owner lives or whatever, you have to add that address. When you set when you go to claim or create the GMB listing, you have to add the physical address and then wait for a postcard or a card to be delivered via us a mail to that location that has a pin number in it so that you can verify that that physical location that the business really resides at that physical location. So even when you clear the address to make sure that it’s not published, there is still a physical location associated with that GMB and you don’t see that on the GMB dashboard. But for example, I just recently started using local Viking to manage GMB posts and stuff because it integrates with some of my CRM and stuff. So anyway, I’m using that and when you import GMB listings into local Viking, it shows the street address, even if it’s an unpublished street address, and I’ve got a few listings in there that just no street address appears at all, there’s no physical location associated with it. And those are the ones that I’m having trouble getting to appear for proximity searches such as, like near me, keyword phrases, or search queries. And so again, I would recommend it, the spam listings, they can still work, but there are some drawbacks in them that I don’t like about them. Were the P o box way to get one with an actual physical address tends to work. Still, it still works. And I like that one better, except for the fact that you have to physically go to the post office. Does anybody want to comment on that?

Not me. Okay, moving on then.

But yeah, absolutely. That’s I mean, that’s a great way to do it for large, especially business with large service areas, if you can get multiple maps listings, that’s best. Another way to do it, by the way, just quickly, is you can go to Craigslist and post an ad for that I’ve done that I’ve been successful in the past where I’ve posted an ad and in the, you know, in the area that I want, and say, you know, tell them that I’ll pay him 50 bucks to receive a Google postcard. And, you know, tell me when they when they’ve received it and and and and, you know, call me or text me with the pin number inside the card. Most of the time what happens is you’ll find renters that do that instead of people that own homes because they don’t care if somebody registers a business to a rental property like the renters don’t care. The landlord might, but the renters don’t. So I found that I’ve done that in the past several times when it when they when I was trying to get a GMB in an area that I couldn’t that I just wasn’t you know, it wasn’t feasible to drive to and get a PO Box, then I will use Craigslist. So that’s another way to do it. Okay. Moving on.

Is It Possible To Get Wiki Links To An SEO Agency That Offers Other Services And Has A Blog On Non-Marketing Tech Resources?

Next question, given Wikipedia is a negative view of SEO, is it possible to get links from Wikipedia or wiki data to an SEO agency that also offers other services and has a blog with lots of non-marketing tech resources? Sure, but you can also purchase wiki links. Just like we were talking about spam, GMB listings you can buy. We sell them@mgyb.co, our store. And they work I mean, occasionally something will get edited out like, but I’ve actually had one recently that was edited out. And then I just submitted a support request, and I got it restored on another Wikipedia page. So you know, you can buy links, say is it possible? Yeah, cuz you can buy them. I don’t know how to do the edits myself, because I’m not a moderator for Wikipedia. But, you know, that’s one way you could do it is to hire, you know, a Wikipedia editor or moderator, I should say, those are generally really, really expensive. So the other way is just to find a service, like what we have in MGYB, where you can buy them there. I don’t know of any other way to get them to you, Marco.

I mean, there are other ways, but you got to pay for them, or you got to get yourself a Wikipedia page. And you have to be eligible, you have to be able to provide all the documentation that Wikipedia requires. That’s the best thing. The best thing is to get yourself a page on Wikipedia. And Dixon Jones is going to explain on Monday, that’s the most important Wikipedia link that you could possibly get that mentioned in Wikipedia. And then from that, I mean, the next best thing is getting a link on the top page and then getting a link on a page referring to another page as long as it’s relevant. Right. You got to maintain that relevance. But yeah, I mean, just go to MGYB to look for it. We offer it.

What Is A Good Way To Get Lots Of Footer Links Without Having Lots Of Clients?

Sweet Suraj is up he says what’s a good way to get lots of footer links without having lots of clients trying to rank in a competitive area for web design and all other competitors dominate with footer links someone’s exact text. So I’m assuming he means exact anchor text exact match anchor text was hacked footers. Yes. stuff I ever saw.

Yeah. Yeah, that’s funny. Do you say that? Because I, when I read this question earlier and asked what I was gonna suggest, was the only other way that I would know how to do it is the safe network. A lot of those links are hacked footer links, and that when I’m What I mean is like, they literally hack other people’s websites, put links in there for you. It’s so blackhat. But um, you know, it can work. I used to use a lot of safe links years ago when I was doing a lot more blackhat stuff. And I guess there’s really no hats. But when I was doing a lot of really spammy, like, you know, dark alley ship, I used a lot of safe links. I don’t do that anymore. But that’s one way to do it. I don’t recommend it. But that is one way to do it. Anyway, you got any suggestions, Margo?

For further length, Now, why? Alright, so here’s the deal. Um, and I’m gonna say this again. And we explained that I’m going to keep referring back to the webinars on Monday, we explain why we do things, the way that we do, why we create the entity, the way we the way that we do, I’m not gonna go through it here. But we become master mimics. We look at the big dogs. We do what the big dogs do, at the part level, at the algorithmic level, at the patent level, that’s how we do it. All right, if you want to learn how, and why make a donation. Go see our footer links the only way to compete or is there something more powerful than I am missing? Yeah, I mean, I, I don’t think I would go out use that strategy. I’m not I don’t think I know I would use that strategy. I would do other things. So the SEO shield? Yeah. Start there. And then there.

How Can You Run Ads For A Client If You Don’t Have Access To Their Website?

Fitz is up. He says, Hey, guys, hope everyone is well. How can you run ads for a client if you don’t have access to their website? Thanks. You don’t need access to some you can run ads to any URL. The problem is conversion tracking and remarketing and all that other stuff, you know, but you can run ads to any URL that you know. I mean, as far as I know, I don’t think if you have if, if you have a URL, you can run ads to it. The question is why, like if you don’t have access to their website, then you’re not going to be able to install, like the conversion link or code conversion tracking. You know, Google Tag Manager remarketing. You know the remarketing tag all of those things that you would need, but you don’t need them. But I would hate to piss money away on Google ads, or ads period if I couldn’t track conversions. And if I couldn’t build a remarketing list from anybody that visited the page or the site,

so I don’t know why you would want to do it without having access to the site. Go ahead.

Yeah, I’m just wondering if maybe it’s one of those where he’s saying he doesn’t have, edit access. But if somebody can, or if you can talk to the client be like, hey, you just need to take these two steps. You need to copy this code, you need to install it, tell them where to do it. Because Yeah, if you’re in that situation, where for whatever reason, you don’t have access, you need to maybe impress upon them the importance of, hey, you need to get this code on there. Otherwise, you’re gonna be losing money. You know, because you can’t retarget you’re not building retargeting lists, you won’t know about conversions.

Yeah, if you have, if you have, you know, if there’s a webmaster or somebody that is maintaining this site that you just don’t have access to yourself, then you can absolutely still do everything because what I would suggest you do at that point would be to set up Tag Manager. And then just contact, whoever’s managing the site. So the webmaster or the business owner, whoever’s managing the site, contact them and send them the container code for Tag Manager, one goes into the header, one goes into the footer, or right before the closing body tag, either one. And it’s just two snippets of code to get added to the site globally, right, so it’s site-wide code, and then you can add and subtract all the tags that you need inside of Tag Manager which you would have access to meaning you can add tags and triggers and all that stuff and then deploy it all through Tag Manager and will automatically update the website from a remote from tag managed from the Tag Manager dashboard. Once the container code is there, you can add or remove tags, remarketing tags, a conversion tracking all of that stuff. Jason, you can add structured data schema.org All kinds of stuff that you can use Tag Manager for. If you don’t have access to managing the site, the webmaster can install Tag Manager and you can use that.

Any other comments?

No, that’s fine. Okay,

Does It Make A Difference If You Already Added The Supporting Documents Prior To Getting The SEO Location Shield?

so the next one is from Landry. Now I get it, I couldn’t figure out how to pronounce your name. So I appreciate you spelling it out phonetically because Hooked on Phonics works for me. So thank you for that. So Lanre says, Hey, Bradley, I noticed you had problems pronouncing my name. It’s pronounced Landry as an rio. So I’ve got it this time. Now, my question is this, I bought my keyword research from you guys. I built my site, I added three categories with content, and five supporting articles per category, I now need to order my SEO location shield to establish my brand. Okay, I’m not sure that you want to order locations, you know, maybe you do, I don’t have the full context of your project. But let’s just assume that the SEO location showed us what you want to order? Does it make any difference? If I already added the supporting documents prior to getting the SEO location showed? I don’t quite understand the question. Does it matter that you’ve started to build out your site with categories and adding depth to the silos? No, it doesn’t matter at all. Because again, I don’t know that the location, I don’t have the full context, I don’t know what you’re doing. But just from this little bit of detail that I have. I don’t know that the location shield is really what you want and the SEO power shield should be for the brand. And then typically, for top-level silos, you want to do the are the expansion stack, right? Dry S Drive expansion, or drive stack expansion, excuse me? Not necessarily location shield. So if you go take a look at the SEO shield, and you take a look at the three different versions, what does it locate starter shield locations to power shield, right? Power shield is going to be for the brand, that’s what we recommend. But then our wireless expansions, which is a separate product in the store, it’s not on the SEO shield page, cry is drive stack expansion. Go in there. That’s what I would recommend that you buy an expansion for each top-level silo. Does that make sense? Does anybody want to comment on this Marco, do you?

Yeah, I mean, don’t look at it like that. Landry. Don’t look at it like that. You’re done with the website, you can continue working with the website. Yeah, you can have dummy content on the website, you shouldn’t. But you at least need that RSS feed. So yeah, you do need some supporting articles or posts. You have that already. Go in order and SEO shall not a location shield. Because you don’t want to pigeonhole yourself into a geographic location. All right, not if your branding, not if your branding, you can do you can take care of the locations through location-driven pages. On the inner part of the G site, in the beginning, you’re just trying to create I’m not gonna say the keyword, yet but it is its brand plus a keyword, relationships, how your brand relates to the keywords in whatever niche It is, it is that you’re in, especially the top-level keywords, we add it, we intersperse it, we go through all of the documents, everything gets filled with keywords, especially if you order our deep keyword research gig, which this is perfect for, it’s perfect for giving you all of the relevance necessary to really carry out a proper the proper content structure of your website will give you suggestions, you know your project better than we could ever hope to know it. So you have to follow what you know, with what our suggestions are. Once you have all that and once you get the SEO show delivered back, especially the G site that the following that as the ad ID and ordering an expansion won’t interfere with the ad ID. So what you see is okay, now I have a top-level category. So I’m going after gold. Now I want to do gold bars. Well, gold bars go on the inside. So let’s say you’re saying you’re in a city already, and you want the adjoining city. So gold bars add joining the city, however, it is that you choose to pursue that well, we build that for you we can build you an interface so that you don’t have to, and an intersect. So you’re expanding the power of your original branded stack, and G site. And the whole point of this is to keep expanding. So you’re adding depth and breadth to that T site and dry stack the same way that you’re doing it on your website as you find categories. And as you use supporting posts to boost that top-level category that you’re trying to rank eventually you should be pushing so much power. And I see this time and again, that even an empty folder is added. This is when true power will you push it to power and you’re building up that PageRank and ranking score. An empty folder will rank for the keyword that you’re assigning it. And it’s incredible when when when this thing happens, or you’ll pop in and like a new location, and a brand new GMB and you see all kinds of action in the GMB. And you’re wondering why? Well, it’s because you iframe it on the G site or you iframe that on your website, or it’s part of a really deep and wide drive second site. And that’s when the power really comes into play. That’s why I tell people, it’s hard work, you cannot expect to rank with one page for gold. It’s not gonna happen, you can’t ever hope to outrank Amazon with one page, and a couple of supporting posts. Not gonna happen. That’s, that’s a trillion-dollar company that you’re going after you can’t do it for a buck 50. All right, so all of this power and all of these things need to continue taking place, you need to do your press releases, you need to do the link building, you need to do the embeds plus link building. And you need to continue broadening your profile throughout the web, making that footprint bigger, wider, relating more profiles one to the other. This is what the big boys do. You see Apple everywhere you see Amazon, everywhere. So that’s what you have to do. And one of the ways that we do it is exactly the way I just described. Now that takes a lot of work. The way that I like to put this is it like people see it. And it’s really simple. I ordered the SEO shield, and then I just produce content. And magic happens. No, it doesn’t. I’ve been online for 18 years. This is 18 years in the making. Bradley has about a decade and I know her Nana’s around there. Chris has so many years and Adam, I think Well, I know. I’ve known him for six, seven years. So he has at least that long online. So you’re getting decade’s worth of thinking of strategizing of putting everything together into what you see as the SEO shoot. But that’s what it’s for. And that’s what you should order not the location shield, but the branded SEO power shield. Yeah.

Yeah, that’s why I just pulled up the pages on the store, just to demonstrate what Marco was talking about. The SEO power shield is what we recommend for the brand. For the main brand, right, and then from that, because it gives you the syndication network, the drive stack with the G site, and then the IDX page. So that’s for the main entity, right the brand itself, and then from there, you go from the store, go click into the Google RYS expansion stacks. And these are the expansion stacks of each top-level silo. Right? So each silo on the site. So top-level category, top-level keyword, you should have an RBS expansion stack. If you’re doing a local business and you’re you have location-based silos, however, you do that, I do it using the tag structure inside of WordPress, then I also order a separate expansion stack for each location, if that makes sense, but I don’t want to confuse you. As I said, if you’re doing it on just topical stuff, then you’d want a separate expansion stack for each one of your top-level silos. You don’t need additional ID pages and then additional g sites, which is what happens when you order location shield. So in fact, I would we would recommend against that.

Okay, so hopefully that clarifies that.

All right, moving on.

Does it make a difference in priority? No, no, it doesn’t, you can just as long as you have, all that you need is you need the web, the URLs, when that you’re going to push, you know uses your main target URL for your drive stack. And then for each one of your expansion stacks you’re going to get, you’re going to have a field that you have to submit your main target URL, it’s going to be one primary target URL per expansion. As long as those URLs are available, like on your site, that’s fine. It doesn’t matter whether there’s content there or anything, to begin with, you can order it with just the URL. The only thing that has to have content is the RSS feed for the SEO power shield order because the syndication network, if it’s an RSS driven syndication network as opposed to YouTube, then it needs the RSS feed has to have so the RSS Feed URL has to contain at least one item it can be the Hello World post for that matter, it doesn’t matter. As long as it has one item in the RSS feed, then they can set up the applets inside IFTTT but that’s it though the rest of the site doesn’t need to look at content on it. If it just has the URLs available in. That’s it. And for anybody watching this at this point watching the replay, enlarge the video so you can get the information about donating to the charity and accessing the webinar.

Do You Have Any Tips In Using Linktree Other Than Hammering It With Backlinks?

Okay, sweet. Let’s keep moving. Jim’s up. What’s up, Jim? He says, Hey, gang, I was curious if you guys have any tips or tricks to apply to link tree? That’s a good site. I just started playing with that a little bit more actually. Other than the usual hammer the shit out of it with backlinks. You can embed it. So yeah, it’s pretty much the same thing that we would always recommend hammer with backlinks. You can also embed link tree itself, the link tree page, which is just a collection of links, right. So that’s just you can also do embeds and backlinks to the embeds. Anything else?

Scorched earth Seo? hammer? I don’t know any other strategy. I don’t understand anything else other than if it can stand it, give it more. And if it takes that much, then try some more. Well, you know what it is man? Just go do the do.

How Would You Silo Structure A Website With Multiple Topics?

Alright, baby, what’s up, man? He says, Hey, guys, a better example for last weekend’s question how Google treat pages that are not related topically to the site, say you are a site about marketing. The silo is about software. Let’s say all the marketing software goes here. But what if we add non-marketing software pages to the silo to that silo-like employment software, or betting software, etc. So the new silo be opened to nonrelated marketing software? No. And in a case like that, BB, I would have subcategories. So I would use a complex silo structure for that type of site because the software would be the parent category, the top-level category, but then you would create subcategories for the different types of software marketing software is a subcategory. What were some of the other one’s employment software being another sub sub category, and then betting software or investing software? Right. forex software, like there’s a, you know, productivity software, like every one of those could be sub-categories. And then you would add supporting articles, which could be reviews of those types of different software in their appropriate subcategory. So in a situation like what you’re describing this time, in which you provided more context, this time than you usually do. So thank you for that, by the way, then then, yeah, I would use a complex silo structure for something like that. And I would add subcategories and appropriately place the articles and supporting articles and such within the correct cat subcategories. That is something that you could do.

Comments?

yeah, treated as a directory for marketing? And how would you build that directory then for marketing related categories and subcategories, and maybe some not so specific categories that do relate to marketing, but not in a direct manner, you could totally do that. Just be careful how far in the weeds you go, because you could end up somewhere totally not relevant to whatever it is that you’re doing. And then in that case, it’s not as if you’d be penalized or anything, it’s just that you’re not going to get any, well, you shouldn’t get any action, because the AI will know that there’s absolutely no relationship between that uncategorized or irrelevant category, and everything else that you’re doing, with the caveat that if you’re pushing enough power, it will rack it just takes monster power to do it.

Yeah. Yeah, and, and actually, you know, that’s, I, I prefer using simple silos as much as possible. But in the situation that you’re describing here, that’s perfect for a complex silo. And you can push a shit ton of power with the complex silo guys if you know how to how to set up your internal linking correctly. Complex silos can push a ton of power to the top-level keyword. So again, you know, you got to map that out before ever starting a complex silo site, spend some time mapping it out, like not just the immediate need, but your future needs as well, because that’s part of the problem with a complex silo structure is it’s real easy to get started and think that you have an idea of what you want your silo structure to look like when you’re starting off and you have, you know, a finite or a limited amount of content and ideas. But as the project grows, you’re probably going to figure like, Oh shit, I should have figured it. I should have structured the site in this way instead. And that’s part of the problem with complex silo structures is their complex just like the name? Just like, that’s why it’s in the name, excuse me. But if you do it correctly, if you map it out, right, then you can I mean, it’s just amazing. And how much power you can push with those. But again, it’s like I remember, that’s part of the reason I like to do those anymore at all is that I would spend literally hours upon hours a day to, you know, a day or two on just mapping out the site before starting the build. And even then even after doing all of that mapping work and trying to decide on how I was going to structure the site, a lot of the times, at some point in the future, I would end up kicking myself for structuring it that way, because I should have done something else, you know what I mean? So I prefer not to do that if needed. But if so, I mean, if that’s the route, that you’re going to go spend some time on the front end, you’ll, you’ll be glad that you did. And yeah, you can push a lot of power that way, for sure.

Well, that’s if you’re building a directory, this complexity in building a directory to start with. So try to keep it simple. And don’t spend hours trying to map out the site, just get to work on it, and try to work it out conceptually, as you go, you’re still gonna run into problems and having to 301 and having to redo your URL structure. But that’s a lot better, man.

Do Semantic Mastery’s Methods Only Work On Google Search Engines?

So the next question is, do your methods work only on Google search engines and YouTube? Or should they should it also work on search engines like Facebook or Pinterest search, etc. I mean, we optimize for Google? Because you know, that’s what 70 or 80% of all search traffic. I can’t speak for Facebook or Pinterest, those algorithms are totally different. But oftentimes, when we optimize for Google, then we end up ranking in Bing and Yahoo because many and Yahoo are one and the same anymore. But it’s only I think, they’ve got a little bit more market share than they used to, but it’s somewhere around 30%, I think. But I don’t optimize for Bing, or, I mean, I just optimize for Google. Because that’s, you know, that’s where the bulk of all traffic comes from. And usually, we end up ranking in Yahoo, and Bing also, comments on that?

Yeah, I mean, we want Google search. That’s what we’re after. In some places in some countries some areas, over 90% of the search market, is in Google. So if you have something that’s search-based, which is totally local business, or whatever, then it just stands to reason that you’re going to focus on Google. Now, if you’re going to go and work on the Pinterest algorithm that you have to learn the Pinterest algorithm. And some of the methods that we teach might not work in Pinterest, but I’m not gonna get into how Pinterest works here works differently. The same thing with Facebook, the Facebook algorithm works differently. It just does. They’re similar. So as the Bing algorithm, they’re all based on the same thing, right, trying to see how they rank for a certain query. At the end of the day, that’s what you’re trying to do. But you have to learn the requirements. So you mentioned Pinterest, and, and Facebook, you’d have to try those people want Amazon, we have to go in and figure that one out. Then Bing, Yahoo. Why when we can get 80 to 90%. In Google, and then the other ones, we can just run ads and get results. Yep,

I agree.

Have You Ever Ranked Something Using Citations Only?

All right. Ah, next question. Have you ever ranked something with citations only and without links? Let’s, let’s say you have a non-local site, say e-commerce does brand citations without backlinks. Will that work? First of all, I don’t know because all I do is local stuff. I’ve ranked local stuff with just citations like a local business directory or business directory citations like structured citations. Sometimes they’ll contain links, oftentimes, they’ll contain links. It’s been a long time since I’ve tried to rank any local business project with just citations. It’s probably possible still, but citations are just a part of an overall picture. Now that’s talking about, like, structured citations like business directory listings for local type business sites. I think what you’re talking about is like co-citation, right? where somebody is talking or a citation, I guess, in a broader sense, can be just a brand mention, right?

I’ve never tried that. I don’t know why you would mean, I’ve never tried it. So I can’t answer that. Can you know, because the citation is a backlink? So I don’t get it. I don’t get the question to start with. And let’s, let’s see, let’s say you have a non-local site. That’s e-commerce does do brand citations without backlinks work, or will they work? I have no clue because that’s not how we do. We actually use citations as part of the entity. It’s all part of entity-based. worry less SEO, especially local, like the broader you go The less necessary they can put your branded citations if you can get them in the big ones in the data aggregators, as a matter of fact, work really well because they’re links. They’re places where Google goes to see the data to pull data, but it. Alright, so this question I’m not gonna pick on you, I’m just saying is missing the point of the ranking score and PageRank algorithm, and of every other algorithm, because Google has to go through a link somewhere to get to the server, wherever this branded or number, enter the citation or wherever this other thing is, without that link, there’s absolutely no way that Google can go from one server to the other, it’s not magic, Google cannot teleport, it can’t jump into another server, right? It’s a, it’s HTTP or HTTPS. That’s the protocol. As well, there has to be something that connects them that connect, now you what you’re talking about. And, again, I’m gonna go back to our webinar Monday, it was killer, you have two nodes, is what you’re talking about. One is your brand, whatever. And you have another note somewhere that mentioned your brand, Google has to get that get to that, each of those and relate them some way. And the way it does that is through links. So the more links that are connected to your e-commerce site, and to wherever that brand citation is, right, the more power it will have, because that Google can start creating the relationship for the distance graph algorithm with again, I’m not going to get into any of that. What I’m just saying is, you need to start conceiving in this another way, because the things that you’re asking are a little bit conceptually off on this. I’m reading this incorrectly, in which case I’d like you to explain what it is that you mean, you did a really good job on the other one of explaining what it was. Yeah.

Yeah, I agree. So I said I was more contents context in that last question than what we’re used to from BB. So. Okay, so the next question is from is not really a question, as Jim says, He says, but rather a wiki experience, I have a site that has six wikilinks pointing to it from different or two different articles. I didn’t pay for them, they were added in a natural manner. So organic links. That’s awesome.

Those quotes, I’d like to know what those natural means is it’s in quotes. Well, that’s true. That’s true. But I think he means that it’s just he’s got good content, and somebody, you know, linked to it naturally from an article. That’s how I interpreted but you’re right, since it’s in quotes, it might be. Anyway, those links are very powerful. And I highly recommend trying to get one through whatever means necessary pro tip have the best, most thorough, most documented article on a subject and then cross your fingers. You know, that’s a great point, Jim, because here’s the thing. You can purchase wiki links, right? Like, we just talked about that from, or links from Wikipedia or links, you can get a link on Wikipedia by buying it from our service. But don’t just link to like something that, you know, if I recommend that you are linking to something that has some well-written content, not just like, you know, a spammy page or something like that on the site. I mean, you can try to get away with that. But the problem with that is it it’s likely going to get moderated out at some time. Like even if your link gets placed. At some point, somebody’s probably going to discover that it’s linking to something if it’s not linking to something that is resourceful, right? That is a resource that is relevant to the page that the Wikipedia that Wikipedia is linking from, then it’s going to end up being moderated out at some point, it’s almost guaranteed it’s just a matter of time. So I recommend that if you are going to buy Wikipedia links that you do link to a piece of content on the site that you’re linking to that is relevant, and has some useful information on there. Right. So that it’s less likely to get moderated out at some later date by some other Wikipedia moderator. Okay.

Comments, good?

No, no, I mean, fantastic if you can get them and I saw that later on. He said, organic. That’s fantastic. You can get organic links if you can become the source or a source for that Wikipedia page. That’s fantastic. Because now that now you have a relationship to that seed site. I’m going to talk seed sites and seed sets are I don’t want to confuse all y'all up. But that’s what happened. You related to trust to trusted and authoritative sources. Thereby you become a trusted and authoritative source. Which is why it’s working so well.

Adam, you on, you turn your camera on. So I’m assuming you got something to say?

Unknown Speaker 55:08 No, it was let’s say I’m going to reach out to Jim, I want to ask him a question because he’s had some interesting comments over the last couple of weeks. So talking about AI stuff. And then now with organic Wikipedia links, so Jim, I’m gonna track you down, are you if you can find me, so shoot me a message. But yeah, I just actually had a note on the kind of the last, or sorry, the last question of the day here.

Thoughts On The AWS Email About Allowing Public Access

Okay, cool. So, Jay says Amazon AWS sent out an email warning about allowing public access to an s3 bucket. Yeah, I’ve gotten dozens of those emails. Yeah, the wording was such that it sounds like they’re removing public access. And if you are in disagreement with that, I don’t think that’s the case. That’s not the way I read it. Yeah. And

I just pulled it up to double-check just did a quick read through. And they don’t say that they just say that. You should have some buckets configured that way, that may not be what you intended. So we suggest you fix it. And then, you know, talk to us if you have a question, but it doesn’t say that we’re gonna change it or anything like that.

Yeah. Thank you, Adam. Because that’s when I read his question. Or when I read this question, I thought about that. I was like, you know, I better go back and reread, because I mean, I’ve gotten dozens and dozens of those emails. And I’ve read through them a couple of times. And the way that I interpreted it was what Adam just said was, like, it’s telling you like, Hey, you probably didn’t mean for the bucket to have public access. But if you did, it’s not recommended. But I didn’t see anywhere where it said they were going to revert them to protect. A lot of problems.

Yeah, the only thing is one line. If you have a business need to maintain some level of public access, please see an overview of managing access, and they give references for more in-depth instructions on managing just to make sure you’ve done the correct level of access. Yeah.

Yeah, when I set up my buckets, I set them up to where objects can be public. But the folder itself, or the bucket itself isn’t entirely public, it just allows for individual items to be made public. That’s the way that I set up all my buckets so that I can pick and choose whether I want them to be public at the time that I upload the files. So hopefully, that makes sense. we’re about out of time, Jim says sorry, natural and organic. Yeah, we saw that. Thank you. Jim, by the way, reached out to Adam BB says I mean, so this is a guest clarification for his previous question. He says, I mean, you have an e-commerce site for dog food named SM doggy will a mentioned citation that way mentioned or a citation of that, and other sites will promote the site without a backlink? Again, I don’t know. I mean, for local businesses, having the name, address, and phone number published online, even without a backlink count as a citation, which is like a vote of confidence, right? It’s just because what is it doing? It’s just validating entity information. Does that make sense? That’s why it’s so important to have a name, address and phone number always published exactly the same. Because even having punctuation different or using the ampersand sign instead of A and D, or something like that, right are sometimes having IMC or LLC at the end. And other times not all of them. If you have variations of the name, address, and phone number published even with no backlink, then that can start to ambiguous. The data, right and that’s why local businesses have published mention of the name, address, and phone number, even without a backlink does count as a citation and can help to rank now, can it be can you purely rank on that? I don’t know. I’ve never tried it. But when you’re talking about that type of citation for a nonlocal site like an e-commerce site? I have zero experience with any of that whatsoever. I can’t imagine that it would but I can’t say whether it does or not. Because I’ve never done anything like that. comments.

It creates co-occurrence. It is a no co-citation or a citation. If it’s the full local citation, right? Name, Address phone number, the NA p other than that I don’t know I’d like depends on the competition. If there’s no competition, I see where it just mentioned, of your site on powerful sites would make a difference. But if like, like most places, that the competition is fierce, then no, you’re not going to get away with something like that.

Yeah, and I think it’s kind of interesting to backing this up a level away from purely the SEO benefit and saying, Well, if your name let’s say the SM dog food brand is mentioned on Huffington Post, like yeah, you know what, I bet Our website is gonna see some increased traffic and it’s not a direct link, right. It’s just by getting out there and building the brand. You know, that’s kind of what’s happening there as to how I see it without getting into the technical side.

Yeah. And you know, actually, just to follow up, Adam, that’s a really good point. And I know this to be true, because when I started my land investment, my land flipping business, I experienced it firsthand. And that is if you can get a name published online, right, and somebody but it’s not a backlink, but somebody reads the name and they’re curious, they’ll go Google that. And then it pulls up the brand. And then they click through that’s a navigational or brand search query, that then a click through. So that’s a huge SEO signal, when somebody reads a name, brand name somewhere and then goes in Google searches and then clicks through that’s a fantastic SEO signal. And I experienced that with alpha land Realty, my business, my real estate business because when I first started, I was just running ads, I didn’t do any SEO at all, nothing, I just have a single and it’s still to this day, just have a single landing page on click funnels. For you know, for that business, basically. And all I started I was sending I was running Google ads to that but no SEO and then I started sending a direct mail out to property owners with my brand name Alfa land realty on it. And what happened was I started seeing alpha land realty ranked number one for even like, my keywords like sell land fast Virginia and things like that. And I couldn’t figure out why because I hadn’t done any SEO work whatsoever. And then I started digging into it. And I realized that people were doing navigational search queries because they would get letters from me direct mail letters from me that would state you know, hey, alpha land realty wants to buy your property, if you’re interested, go here, blah, blah, blah. And they would go to Google and search alpha land Realty and then click through and because of that, I started to rank in a matter of like three weeks with zero SEO work. And it was because of those brand searches, which is why we talked about engagement signals are absolutely critical, are super powerful. You want to comment on that, guys before we wrap it up?

Yeah, I think that’s good.

Okay, thanks, everybody for being here. We’ll see you guys next week. See ya.

Source: Semantic Mastery Weekly SEO Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 324 published first on your-t1-blog-url

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Weekly SEO Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 324

Click on the video above to watch Episode 324 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

Full timestamps with topics and times can be found at the link above.

The latest upcoming free SEO Q&A Hump Day Hangout can be found at http://semanticmastery.com/humpday.

Announcement

We’re live. Oh, there we go. I see it now. So regardless, we’re live. Welcome to Hump Day Hangouts. Today’s the 27th of January 2021. And we’ve got some good stuff for you guys today. As usual, we got a few quick announcements and then we’re gonna jump into answering your questions. But real quick, just want to say hi, looks like we got most of the guys here today. Let’s see. I’m gonna start with her Nan today. How are you doing, man?

Dude, I’m good. I’m good.

I’m just melting down here. It’s really hot and humid, but it’s okay, man.

We’re supposed to have rain tomorrow. So gonna cool off. Happy to be here.

Nice. what’s the temperature there in Celsius?

And Celsius is like 36. I think so. 36. See, it’s pretty warm. Yeah.

Yeah, that’s 96 points, 97.

All right, that’s getting up. Yeah, that’s on like, maximum temperature scale. So I know you’re a hardware guy. But yeah, some rain on top of that. That sounds nice and humid. So you enjoy that. Yeah. Awesome. Marco. How are you doing today?

Um, I mean, what can I say? Groundhog Day. If you guys understand how it is that you can take $1 and change it into a million dollars. Give me one. Give me a hill. Yeah, let me see. Fuck. I hate those cheesy markers, man. Look, hard work. You gotta work. You gotta do the dude, you got to pay your dues. It’s very people who hit on that one idea with absolutely nothing. But sweat equity. Turn it into a billion-dollar idea. The rest of Us to get to anyone, whatever. I gotta work. I don’t just sit here and do nothing. I yeah, it’s beautiful. It’s a great place to work. I step outside. It’s sunny. It’s warm. It’s beautiful. Got the sun? Got him. Got this. When did my hair look, man? Come on, man. Very few things require no work as most people tell you to should is hard work. And it’s not easy. It’s not easy, but it’s not complicated. It can’t be simplified, which is what we’ve done for you. Alright. So if you want to know how, and you want to know why we’re in the middle of our charity webinars, Bradley killed it on Monday. With his ads for branding. And entity Monday, I’m gonna call it what it is entity manipulation. It was fantastic. A lot of great ideas, a lot of information that literally I’m telling you on Monday would have cost 1000s of dollars anywhere else. You got it for free. Next Monday. What’s the Dixon Jones, internet legend Dixon Jones is coming to show you how to do entities and content. And so this is going to be a recurring theme entities entities entities, brand new entities brand. I wonder why I wonder what’s working in SEO, what has been working, what’s working out what will be working. Anyway, I don’t want to take too much time. Thank you to those of you who donated if you haven’t, then I posted a how-to on the page. I know the information is there. Again, I don’t want to take too much time. And even if you did and you did not register, you won’t be able to access that page. Now. Because that page is gone. We moved it, you can still contact the email that I’ve set on there and you will get access. If you’re given the note no donation, you will get access to the replay. And if you haven’t donated, send proof of the other donation to the email and get access guys’ information. I’m telling you, you would end up paying I know barely one time paid nearly 20 K. And the information was nowhere near as good as the shit that we give away for the price of a donation. I can guarantee it. He told us what the information that he got not that it was useless. But the information that we’re giving away for a charitable donation. I’d be dead. There’s no comparison anywhere. Guaranteed.

Outstanding Marco, something you said at the beginning. I’m just gonna ask you and for those of you watching, I didn’t ask Marco this earlier or anything. But the something you said kind of tickled something in my head. I was wondering Have you read the book The Art of contrary thinking?

Of course.

Okay. I had never heard of it until a couple of weeks ago. And I just picked it up and started going through it. And anyway, I was like, You know what, I bet this is a book Marco would recommend. And just this is a total tangent, but would you recommend people to read it because I’m like 10 pages in and I’m like, I can tell this is gonna be a big one.

I mean, I recommend that you read period, right?

Yeah, read it.

And not just that it’s not just reading that one book but this other but Well, when everybody thinks, Oh, here we go, let me see if I get the quote, right. When everybody thinks the same when everybody thinks alike, everybody is likely to be wrong. Think about that. Think about that. All right. So the art of contrary thinking, Humphrey, was a Yo, yo,

yeah, Neil.

Yeah. Yeah, guys, read the book, read the book. Go read the art of war. Mandatory, mandatory. And then read the commentaries on the art of war. Don’t just read it. Try to figure it out while you’re like trying to read the Bible without the commentaries, right? Without going into the original text. But yeah, definitely, if you can, like a book a week, by all means, for those who can’t just listen to it, listen, listen to books, all the audiobooks are everywhere. But yeah, absolutely recommended.

Awesome. All right. The library tickled something else too. I just put the link down for anyone interested. We should probably we could update this year. We’ve got a recommended reading list which I don’t think the art of country thinking is on my add that on, but I just put it at semantic mastery comm slash books. So go check that out if you’re watching and interested in some of these we’re mentioning so. Okay, sorry, a little bit of a tangent there. But last but not least, Bradley, how are you doing today?

Doing great. Busy as all hell as usual, but doing well. Glad to be here.

Sounds good. All right. Well, I got a little thing to get through here. I wanted to let people know because we do have new people watching every week people coming in on YouTube are catching the replay. So first of all, thank you for watching. You’re in the right place.

Hold on a minute. Did we forget Chris, didn’t we?

Is Chris here. Chris is here. Oh, man. I’m sorry. Well,

I can go again as well. If you don’t like me here today. Chris snuck in the back door when Adam wasn’t looking.

That’s good. I feel bad because we got the little strip up at the top and zoom. So Chris, how are you doing? Man? My bad.

Yeah, doing well here. I didn’t know.

I was wondering because now I wish the most.

Sorry, what are you saying?

I don’t know. I’m shorting the markets, especially on the SEO niche. Not having anything else. Alright, well stay away from GameStop. So that’s already? Yeah. All right, well, let’s get into it. So like I was saying, if you’re here and you’re watching live, let us know how you’re doing. Even if you don’t have a comment, just say hello, get let us know where you’re at, or how you’re doing. And if you’re new to semantic mastery, you’re new to MGYB you’re new to heavy hitters club, the best place for you to start find out how to shield your sites don’t have to worry about algorithm updates again, and it’s a free training that’s available at the SEOshield.com. That’s the word, the SEOshield.com. And you’ll hear us talking about all the stuff that’s involved in that. So if you’re not familiar with words, like SEO shield, that’s a great place for you to get started. From there, definitely recommend picking up the Battle Plan. Alright, that’s step by step processes. So you can get SEO results. And it’s how we do things and the tools we use and the services we use. And you can get that at Battle Plan dot semantic mastery.com the next one after that we also get questions about right as consultants like myself, agency owners like Bradley, people who are, you know, wanting to get more clients who want to grow the revenue, they want to scale the team, they’re still you know, grow at still in growth mode. It’s hard to get that one out of the mouth. And you know, before they’re big enough, they’re thinking, How can I do this? How do I do these three really important things so Bradley and Hernan a little bit, they’ve put together this training last year, that is just amazing? It’s called 2xyouragency, 2xyouragency.com. Just head over there and you can find out more. And for those of you who are serious about growing your digital marketing business or the digital marketing side of your business, and you want to be part of the experienced community, then the mastermind is definitely for you. And that you can find out more at mastermind.semanticmastery.com. And now I mentioned MGYB if you’re not familiar with it, it’s mgyb.co. Alright, that’s done for you services, things like the SEO shield that I mentioned, syndication networks, link building press releases, and a ton more. I believe we’ve got an update coming soon. Right Marco we’ve got a kind of an overhaul on the system coming down the pipeline, right.

We have a complete overhaul of the system. But I mean, Bradley’s in there. So you can tell. He can tell me but I mean, we’re doing several things right. So it’s not just that syndication Academy. Right, that’s coming guys, that’d be an overhaul. And then, of course, we’re gonna have updates and is going to be a new person who just wants to be friendly more time, honestly, than what he could then want to get dedicated to it. It needs more time. So It can work the way that it should. Bradley couldn’t dedicate the time to it. So we just brought someone in. She learned the way. And she was here. I mean, you guys met her, you guys met SC, she’s the one that that’s redoing, syndication Academy, she was doing updates, she’s going to be going into a whole bunch of new profiles and websites that we can use to manipulate the entity. Remember, entity-based, worthless SEO. That’s what this is about the charity webinars are about that, how we’re winning today’s we’re manipulating the entity and showing Google what we want. And we’re getting Google to do what we want Google to do. That’s how we do the dope.

Outstanding. Well, like Marco was saying earlier, if you haven’t yet, you can still get access to the charity webinars highly recommend you do that that is on the page. If for some reason you’re watching this, you can’t find the link, you’re not sure what’s going on. But you know that you want to get in on that you can just send an email to support at semantic mastery comm we’ll get you sorted out and gets taken care of. So with that said, Guys, anything else before we dive into it?

All right, we’re good.

Right, grab the screen.

There it is. Alright,

so it looks like the first one is from mini min. Rob. Hey, guys, I’ve received my order from MGYB. But I don’t know how it works. Well, which order? Is he? Which order? Is he talking about? SEO SEO. But I don’t know.

Rob, if you’re here mini broad. I’m just gonna call it mini Rob. Sorry, man. This may be your actual name. But it makes me think of like a little tiny version of Rob. Yeah. If that’s the case, we need to know more information, right? We can’t tell you what’s going on. We don’t know if you ordered a press release or a link building order or keyword research. So we’re kind of stuck here. So if you let us know, we could probably help you. And then I would also say you probably want to talk to us first and come to Hump Day Hangouts. And if you’re like, maybe I should use this SEO shield thing or the press release thing. If you ask that first, we could definitely explain it. But since you’ve got it now, let us know exactly what you’re doing. And then that’s how we can help you I guess.

That’s good. Okay. All right. So yeah, we can try to answer a few. I’m sorry, I just got was looking at an email that just came in what’s the next question is what’s the best way before? Before you go to the next question, the SEO shield comm if you got an SEO shield, right, the seo.com is the place to go for the training. It’s free. And at the end of that, we even throw in a coupon for you to order whatever it is that you need.

How Do You Push The Link Juice To Power All PDFs In The Entire Amazon S3 Folders?

Beautiful. Okay, so the next one is what’s the best way to push link juice through entire Amazon s3 folders to power up all PDFs within? Also, is it possible, like Google Drive to embed folders to show all files inside the bucket? Thank you, um, the best way to power up an s3 folder? I’m not sure if you can power up a full folder. I’ve never tried that. Usually, I just extract the URLs from within the folder and then just hit those with backlinks. If there are URLs that I want to do that to Marco Do you know, can you make a public folder itself public? Like? I don’t know if the folder has its own URL or what?

Alright, guys, I have no idea. If the s3 folder itself, we know that the HTML documents that we place in their images or whatever it is that we placed in there can be made public. But I’ll tell you what, give me about I’m gonna say three months because we’re about to do some nasty stuff in s3, I was just talking about it with my team, or I shouldn’t call it my team partners. Just the SEO crew that I’m with where we’re going to go and just really look into s3 and how much power there actually is in there. So if you come back, I mean, if not just go in and do it yourself and see if it’ll if it can go public and then the best way to push power to that. The Darya Nuff said an embed gig or a link building gig or both from dedhia to that will push all the power you need. I’m not sure about the folder, but I can guarantee that in about three months. I’ll have all the answers you want about s3.

Is There A Way To Get More Branded GMBs In Different Locations To Boost The Footprint Of A Real Business With No Fixed Address?

Sweet. Next question. Is there a way to get more branded GMBs in different locations to boost the footprint of a real service business that doesn’t have a fixed address and works remotely? Yeah, I mean, if you can, I mean, there’s a couple of ways you can buy GMBs from places that will sell you verified GM bees we used to and MGYB. But I don’t think that’s available anymore. There are still some places that will do it. I even found somewhere that I placed an order but it was way back in November and it still hasn’t been delivered. So you know, I think it’s getting harder to do it. But there I know there are still some vendors out there that will sell verified GM B’s. I’m just not going to recommend any of them because again, the one that I just attempted to use in November, I still haven’t had one delivered yet. So I don’t recommend any of I don’t have any to recommend is what I’m saying but there are GMB verified. You know, you can purchase verified GMB, there are vendors out there that do sell them. The other way is the way that I’ve before people started selling them, I used to always just use Pio boxes, you can go to post offices, one thing you want to do is don’t you don’t want to get to GMBs too close to each other. Right. So if you’re going to do a service area business, which I understand doing that makes total sense, I would have them at least 15 or 20 miles apart. Depending on what your service area is, it could be even bigger, larger, you know further distance between locations. But what you can do is find a post office. And then you fill out a form, it’s free, but it’s to use the street address option. So in other words, like if you go you can do all this online, too, by the way, you can register a PO Box online. And they’ll give you they won’t issue you the box number and till you go to the post office like you have to physically go to the post office and show your IDs and sign the paperwork at the post office. But you can reserve it online and pay for it and everything else. But you do have to physically go to the post office to sign the paperwork and then they’ll assign you the box number at that point. So let’s just say it’s a box one on one. If if the post office is at 123, Main Street, whatever town right, then you can fill out an additional form, it’s free to do it doesn’t cost anything else. But you fill out an additional form to use the street address option. And then you would end up using the address for the GMB listing 123 Main Street number sign like the pound sign 101 right, and that that will work. You can’t add a p o box to GMB as the physical address. But you can do a street address with you know, basically a box number a suite number, but it’s just the pound sign and the post office is very particular about you only using the number sign the pound sign before the box number not sweet. Not box, none of that it’s just the number sign. And again, they’re very particular about that. But that’s the way that I had always done it prior to people selling GMB’s.

And it still works, you know. So that’s another alternative way to do it. And in fact, I actually still prefer that method after but over buying them except for the fact that you have to physically go to the post office that sucks. Because you know, especially if it’s far away, but if it’s within reason and you can drive to it, then I recommend going that route over purchasing GMB listings from vendors. And the reason I say that is because it’s still tied to a real physical address this way. And I feel like those are safer than using the spammed ones because of some of the spammed GMB listings that I have. They don’t have any physical location even referenced or tied to them, which I don’t even know how happens. But like there’s no physical address actually connected with it, and it causes problems with the proximity filter. So and what I’m saying is, even for service area business guys, you understand you have to clear the address like you’re not supposed to per Google’s Terms of Service, you’re not supposed to publish the street address for a service area business. Right. So in other words, if it’s a service area business where the customer or excuse me, the business serves the customer at the customer’s location, then you’re supposed to delete them or clear the physical location when you set your service areas then you’re supposed to clear the physical location from showing and when it does, it literally clears it from the GMB dashboard and it will not any longer show the physical address, the street address in the maps listing or anything. But what I’m saying is, some of the GMB is that I had purchased. They don’t have any street address associated with them at all and I don’t know how they even did it. But it causes issues to where it doesn’t show for like near me searches and stuff like that because there’s no physical location associated with it. And again, I don’t know how they do it because even when you register a new GMB, let’s say It’s a legit business and your service area business and it has a legit physical location where the office or you know the business owner lives or whatever, you have to add that address. When you set when you go to claim or create the GMB listing, you have to add the physical address and then wait for a postcard or a card to be delivered via us a mail to that location that has a pin number in it so that you can verify that that physical location that the business really resides at that physical location. So even when you clear the address to make sure that it’s not published, there is still a physical location associated with that GMB and you don’t see that on the GMB dashboard. But for example, I just recently started using local Viking to manage GMB posts and stuff because it integrates with some of my CRM and stuff. So anyway, I’m using that and when you import GMB listings into local Viking, it shows the street address, even if it’s an unpublished street address, and I’ve got a few listings in there that just no street address appears at all, there’s no physical location associated with it. And those are the ones that I’m having trouble getting to appear for proximity searches such as, like near me, keyword phrases, or search queries. And so again, I would recommend it, the spam listings, they can still work, but there are some drawbacks in them that I don’t like about them. Were the P o box way to get one with an actual physical address tends to work. Still, it still works. And I like that one better, except for the fact that you have to physically go to the post office. Does anybody want to comment on that?

Not me. Okay, moving on then.

But yeah, absolutely. That’s I mean, that’s a great way to do it for large, especially business with large service areas, if you can get multiple maps listings, that’s best. Another way to do it, by the way, just quickly, is you can go to Craigslist and post an ad for that I’ve done that I’ve been successful in the past where I’ve posted an ad and in the, you know, in the area that I want, and say, you know, tell them that I’ll pay him 50 bucks to receive a Google postcard. And, you know, tell me when they when they’ve received it and and and and, you know, call me or text me with the pin number inside the card. Most of the time what happens is you’ll find renters that do that instead of people that own homes because they don’t care if somebody registers a business to a rental property like the renters don’t care. The landlord might, but the renters don’t. So I found that I’ve done that in the past several times when it when they when I was trying to get a GMB in an area that I couldn’t that I just wasn’t you know, it wasn’t feasible to drive to and get a PO Box, then I will use Craigslist. So that’s another way to do it. Okay. Moving on.

Is It Possible To Get Wiki Links To An SEO Agency That Offers Other Services And Has A Blog On Non-Marketing Tech Resources?

Next question, given Wikipedia is a negative view of SEO, is it possible to get links from Wikipedia or wiki data to an SEO agency that also offers other services and has a blog with lots of non-marketing tech resources? Sure, but you can also purchase wiki links. Just like we were talking about spam, GMB listings you can buy. We sell them@mgyb.co, our store. And they work I mean, occasionally something will get edited out like, but I’ve actually had one recently that was edited out. And then I just submitted a support request, and I got it restored on another Wikipedia page. So you know, you can buy links, say is it possible? Yeah, cuz you can buy them. I don’t know how to do the edits myself, because I’m not a moderator for Wikipedia. But, you know, that’s one way you could do it is to hire, you know, a Wikipedia editor or moderator, I should say, those are generally really, really expensive. So the other way is just to find a service, like what we have in MGYB, where you can buy them there. I don’t know of any other way to get them to you, Marco.

I mean, there are other ways, but you got to pay for them, or you got to get yourself a Wikipedia page. And you have to be eligible, you have to be able to provide all the documentation that Wikipedia requires. That’s the best thing. The best thing is to get yourself a page on Wikipedia. And Dixon Jones is going to explain on Monday, that’s the most important Wikipedia link that you could possibly get that mentioned in Wikipedia. And then from that, I mean, the next best thing is getting a link on the top page and then getting a link on a page referring to another page as long as it’s relevant. Right. You got to maintain that relevance. But yeah, I mean, just go to MGYB to look for it. We offer it.

What Is A Good Way To Get Lots Of Footer Links Without Having Lots Of Clients?

Sweet Suraj is up he says what’s a good way to get lots of footer links without having lots of clients trying to rank in a competitive area for web design and all other competitors dominate with footer links someone’s exact text. So I’m assuming he means exact anchor text exact match anchor text was hacked footers. Yes. stuff I ever saw.

Yeah. Yeah, that’s funny. Do you say that? Because I, when I read this question earlier and asked what I was gonna suggest, was the only other way that I would know how to do it is the safe network. A lot of those links are hacked footer links, and that when I’m What I mean is like, they literally hack other people’s websites, put links in there for you. It’s so blackhat. But um, you know, it can work. I used to use a lot of safe links years ago when I was doing a lot more blackhat stuff. And I guess there’s really no hats. But when I was doing a lot of really spammy, like, you know, dark alley ship, I used a lot of safe links. I don’t do that anymore. But that’s one way to do it. I don’t recommend it. But that is one way to do it. Anyway, you got any suggestions, Margo?

For further length, Now, why? Alright, so here’s the deal. Um, and I’m gonna say this again. And we explained that I’m going to keep referring back to the webinars on Monday, we explain why we do things, the way that we do, why we create the entity, the way we the way that we do, I’m not gonna go through it here. But we become master mimics. We look at the big dogs. We do what the big dogs do, at the part level, at the algorithmic level, at the patent level, that’s how we do it. All right, if you want to learn how, and why make a donation. Go see our footer links the only way to compete or is there something more powerful than I am missing? Yeah, I mean, I, I don’t think I would go out use that strategy. I’m not I don’t think I know I would use that strategy. I would do other things. So the SEO shield? Yeah. Start there. And then there.

How Can You Run Ads For A Client If You Don’t Have Access To Their Website?

Fitz is up. He says, Hey, guys, hope everyone is well. How can you run ads for a client if you don’t have access to their website? Thanks. You don’t need access to some you can run ads to any URL. The problem is conversion tracking and remarketing and all that other stuff, you know, but you can run ads to any URL that you know. I mean, as far as I know, I don’t think if you have if, if you have a URL, you can run ads to it. The question is why, like if you don’t have access to their website, then you’re not going to be able to install, like the conversion link or code conversion tracking. You know, Google Tag Manager remarketing. You know the remarketing tag all of those things that you would need, but you don’t need them. But I would hate to piss money away on Google ads, or ads period if I couldn’t track conversions. And if I couldn’t build a remarketing list from anybody that visited the page or the site,

so I don’t know why you would want to do it without having access to the site. Go ahead.

Yeah, I’m just wondering if maybe it’s one of those where he’s saying he doesn’t have, edit access. But if somebody can, or if you can talk to the client be like, hey, you just need to take these two steps. You need to copy this code, you need to install it, tell them where to do it. Because Yeah, if you’re in that situation, where for whatever reason, you don’t have access, you need to maybe impress upon them the importance of, hey, you need to get this code on there. Otherwise, you’re gonna be losing money. You know, because you can’t retarget you’re not building retargeting lists, you won’t know about conversions.

Yeah, if you have, if you have, you know, if there’s a webmaster or somebody that is maintaining this site that you just don’t have access to yourself, then you can absolutely still do everything because what I would suggest you do at that point would be to set up Tag Manager. And then just contact, whoever’s managing the site. So the webmaster or the business owner, whoever’s managing the site, contact them and send them the container code for Tag Manager, one goes into the header, one goes into the footer, or right before the closing body tag, either one. And it’s just two snippets of code to get added to the site globally, right, so it’s site-wide code, and then you can add and subtract all the tags that you need inside of Tag Manager which you would have access to meaning you can add tags and triggers and all that stuff and then deploy it all through Tag Manager and will automatically update the website from a remote from tag managed from the Tag Manager dashboard. Once the container code is there, you can add or remove tags, remarketing tags, a conversion tracking all of that stuff. Jason, you can add structured data schema.org All kinds of stuff that you can use Tag Manager for. If you don’t have access to managing the site, the webmaster can install Tag Manager and you can use that.

Any other comments?

No, that’s fine. Okay,

Does It Make A Difference If You Already Added The Supporting Documents Prior To Getting The SEO Location Shield?

so the next one is from Landry. Now I get it, I couldn’t figure out how to pronounce your name. So I appreciate you spelling it out phonetically because Hooked on Phonics works for me. So thank you for that. So Lanre says, Hey, Bradley, I noticed you had problems pronouncing my name. It’s pronounced Landry as an rio. So I’ve got it this time. Now, my question is this, I bought my keyword research from you guys. I built my site, I added three categories with content, and five supporting articles per category, I now need to order my SEO location shield to establish my brand. Okay, I’m not sure that you want to order locations, you know, maybe you do, I don’t have the full context of your project. But let’s just assume that the SEO location showed us what you want to order? Does it make any difference? If I already added the supporting documents prior to getting the SEO location showed? I don’t quite understand the question. Does it matter that you’ve started to build out your site with categories and adding depth to the silos? No, it doesn’t matter at all. Because again, I don’t know that the location, I don’t have the full context, I don’t know what you’re doing. But just from this little bit of detail that I have. I don’t know that the location shield is really what you want and the SEO power shield should be for the brand. And then typically, for top-level silos, you want to do the are the expansion stack, right? Dry S Drive expansion, or drive stack expansion, excuse me? Not necessarily location shield. So if you go take a look at the SEO shield, and you take a look at the three different versions, what does it locate starter shield locations to power shield, right? Power shield is going to be for the brand, that’s what we recommend. But then our wireless expansions, which is a separate product in the store, it’s not on the SEO shield page, cry is drive stack expansion. Go in there. That’s what I would recommend that you buy an expansion for each top-level silo. Does that make sense? Does anybody want to comment on this Marco, do you?

Yeah, I mean, don’t look at it like that. Landry. Don’t look at it like that. You’re done with the website, you can continue working with the website. Yeah, you can have dummy content on the website, you shouldn’t. But you at least need that RSS feed. So yeah, you do need some supporting articles or posts. You have that already. Go in order and SEO shall not a location shield. Because you don’t want to pigeonhole yourself into a geographic location. All right, not if your branding, not if your branding, you can do you can take care of the locations through location-driven pages. On the inner part of the G site, in the beginning, you’re just trying to create I’m not gonna say the keyword, yet but it is its brand plus a keyword, relationships, how your brand relates to the keywords in whatever niche It is, it is that you’re in, especially the top-level keywords, we add it, we intersperse it, we go through all of the documents, everything gets filled with keywords, especially if you order our deep keyword research gig, which this is perfect for, it’s perfect for giving you all of the relevance necessary to really carry out a proper the proper content structure of your website will give you suggestions, you know your project better than we could ever hope to know it. So you have to follow what you know, with what our suggestions are. Once you have all that and once you get the SEO show delivered back, especially the G site that the following that as the ad ID and ordering an expansion won’t interfere with the ad ID. So what you see is okay, now I have a top-level category. So I’m going after gold. Now I want to do gold bars. Well, gold bars go on the inside. So let’s say you’re saying you’re in a city already, and you want the adjoining city. So gold bars add joining the city, however, it is that you choose to pursue that well, we build that for you we can build you an interface so that you don’t have to, and an intersect. So you’re expanding the power of your original branded stack, and G site. And the whole point of this is to keep expanding. So you’re adding depth and breadth to that T site and dry stack the same way that you’re doing it on your website as you find categories. And as you use supporting posts to boost that top-level category that you’re trying to rank eventually you should be pushing so much power. And I see this time and again, that even an empty folder is added. This is when true power will you push it to power and you’re building up that PageRank and ranking score. An empty folder will rank for the keyword that you’re assigning it. And it’s incredible when when when this thing happens, or you’ll pop in and like a new location, and a brand new GMB and you see all kinds of action in the GMB. And you’re wondering why? Well, it’s because you iframe it on the G site or you iframe that on your website, or it’s part of a really deep and wide drive second site. And that’s when the power really comes into play. That’s why I tell people, it’s hard work, you cannot expect to rank with one page for gold. It’s not gonna happen, you can’t ever hope to outrank Amazon with one page, and a couple of supporting posts. Not gonna happen. That’s, that’s a trillion-dollar company that you’re going after you can’t do it for a buck 50. All right, so all of this power and all of these things need to continue taking place, you need to do your press releases, you need to do the link building, you need to do the embeds plus link building. And you need to continue broadening your profile throughout the web, making that footprint bigger, wider, relating more profiles one to the other. This is what the big boys do. You see Apple everywhere you see Amazon, everywhere. So that’s what you have to do. And one of the ways that we do it is exactly the way I just described. Now that takes a lot of work. The way that I like to put this is it like people see it. And it’s really simple. I ordered the SEO shield, and then I just produce content. And magic happens. No, it doesn’t. I’ve been online for 18 years. This is 18 years in the making. Bradley has about a decade and I know her Nana’s around there. Chris has so many years and Adam, I think Well, I know. I’ve known him for six, seven years. So he has at least that long online. So you’re getting decade’s worth of thinking of strategizing of putting everything together into what you see as the SEO shoot. But that’s what it’s for. And that’s what you should order not the location shield, but the branded SEO power shield. Yeah.

Yeah, that’s why I just pulled up the pages on the store, just to demonstrate what Marco was talking about. The SEO power shield is what we recommend for the brand. For the main brand, right, and then from that, because it gives you the syndication network, the drive stack with the G site, and then the IDX page. So that’s for the main entity, right the brand itself, and then from there, you go from the store, go click into the Google RYS expansion stacks. And these are the expansion stacks of each top-level silo. Right? So each silo on the site. So top-level category, top-level keyword, you should have an RBS expansion stack. If you’re doing a local business and you’re you have location-based silos, however, you do that, I do it using the tag structure inside of WordPress, then I also order a separate expansion stack for each location, if that makes sense, but I don’t want to confuse you. As I said, if you’re doing it on just topical stuff, then you’d want a separate expansion stack for each one of your top-level silos. You don’t need additional ID pages and then additional g sites, which is what happens when you order location shield. So in fact, I would we would recommend against that.

Okay, so hopefully that clarifies that.

All right, moving on.

Does it make a difference in priority? No, no, it doesn’t, you can just as long as you have, all that you need is you need the web, the URLs, when that you’re going to push, you know uses your main target URL for your drive stack. And then for each one of your expansion stacks you’re going to get, you’re going to have a field that you have to submit your main target URL, it’s going to be one primary target URL per expansion. As long as those URLs are available, like on your site, that’s fine. It doesn’t matter whether there’s content there or anything, to begin with, you can order it with just the URL. The only thing that has to have content is the RSS feed for the SEO power shield order because the syndication network, if it’s an RSS driven syndication network as opposed to YouTube, then it needs the RSS feed has to have so the RSS Feed URL has to contain at least one item it can be the Hello World post for that matter, it doesn’t matter. As long as it has one item in the RSS feed, then they can set up the applets inside IFTTT but that’s it though the rest of the site doesn’t need to look at content on it. If it just has the URLs available in. That’s it. And for anybody watching this at this point watching the replay, enlarge the video so you can get the information about donating to the charity and accessing the webinar.

Do You Have Any Tips In Using Linktree Other Than Hammering It With Backlinks?

Okay, sweet. Let’s keep moving. Jim’s up. What’s up, Jim? He says, Hey, gang, I was curious if you guys have any tips or tricks to apply to link tree? That’s a good site. I just started playing with that a little bit more actually. Other than the usual hammer the shit out of it with backlinks. You can embed it. So yeah, it’s pretty much the same thing that we would always recommend hammer with backlinks. You can also embed link tree itself, the link tree page, which is just a collection of links, right. So that’s just you can also do embeds and backlinks to the embeds. Anything else?

Scorched earth Seo? hammer? I don’t know any other strategy. I don’t understand anything else other than if it can stand it, give it more. And if it takes that much, then try some more. Well, you know what it is man? Just go do the do.

How Would You Silo Structure A Website With Multiple Topics?

Alright, baby, what’s up, man? He says, Hey, guys, a better example for last weekend’s question how Google treat pages that are not related topically to the site, say you are a site about marketing. The silo is about software. Let’s say all the marketing software goes here. But what if we add non-marketing software pages to the silo to that silo-like employment software, or betting software, etc. So the new silo be opened to nonrelated marketing software? No. And in a case like that, BB, I would have subcategories. So I would use a complex silo structure for that type of site because the software would be the parent category, the top-level category, but then you would create subcategories for the different types of software marketing software is a subcategory. What were some of the other one’s employment software being another sub sub category, and then betting software or investing software? Right. forex software, like there’s a, you know, productivity software, like every one of those could be sub-categories. And then you would add supporting articles, which could be reviews of those types of different software in their appropriate subcategory. So in a situation like what you’re describing this time, in which you provided more context, this time than you usually do. So thank you for that, by the way, then then, yeah, I would use a complex silo structure for something like that. And I would add subcategories and appropriately place the articles and supporting articles and such within the correct cat subcategories. That is something that you could do.

Comments?

yeah, treated as a directory for marketing? And how would you build that directory then for marketing related categories and subcategories, and maybe some not so specific categories that do relate to marketing, but not in a direct manner, you could totally do that. Just be careful how far in the weeds you go, because you could end up somewhere totally not relevant to whatever it is that you’re doing. And then in that case, it’s not as if you’d be penalized or anything, it’s just that you’re not going to get any, well, you shouldn’t get any action, because the AI will know that there’s absolutely no relationship between that uncategorized or irrelevant category, and everything else that you’re doing, with the caveat that if you’re pushing enough power, it will rack it just takes monster power to do it.

Yeah. Yeah, and, and actually, you know, that’s, I, I prefer using simple silos as much as possible. But in the situation that you’re describing here, that’s perfect for a complex silo. And you can push a shit ton of power with the complex silo guys if you know how to how to set up your internal linking correctly. Complex silos can push a ton of power to the top-level keyword. So again, you know, you got to map that out before ever starting a complex silo site, spend some time mapping it out, like not just the immediate need, but your future needs as well, because that’s part of the problem with a complex silo structure is it’s real easy to get started and think that you have an idea of what you want your silo structure to look like when you’re starting off and you have, you know, a finite or a limited amount of content and ideas. But as the project grows, you’re probably going to figure like, Oh shit, I should have figured it. I should have structured the site in this way instead. And that’s part of the problem with complex silo structures is their complex just like the name? Just like, that’s why it’s in the name, excuse me. But if you do it correctly, if you map it out, right, then you can I mean, it’s just amazing. And how much power you can push with those. But again, it’s like I remember, that’s part of the reason I like to do those anymore at all is that I would spend literally hours upon hours a day to, you know, a day or two on just mapping out the site before starting the build. And even then even after doing all of that mapping work and trying to decide on how I was going to structure the site, a lot of the times, at some point in the future, I would end up kicking myself for structuring it that way, because I should have done something else, you know what I mean? So I prefer not to do that if needed. But if so, I mean, if that’s the route, that you’re going to go spend some time on the front end, you’ll, you’ll be glad that you did. And yeah, you can push a lot of power that way, for sure.

Well, that’s if you’re building a directory, this complexity in building a directory to start with. So try to keep it simple. And don’t spend hours trying to map out the site, just get to work on it, and try to work it out conceptually, as you go, you’re still gonna run into problems and having to 301 and having to redo your URL structure. But that’s a lot better, man.

Do Semantic Mastery’s Methods Only Work On Google Search Engines?

So the next question is, do your methods work only on Google search engines and YouTube? Or should they should it also work on search engines like Facebook or Pinterest search, etc. I mean, we optimize for Google? Because you know, that’s what 70 or 80% of all search traffic. I can’t speak for Facebook or Pinterest, those algorithms are totally different. But oftentimes, when we optimize for Google, then we end up ranking in Bing and Yahoo because many and Yahoo are one and the same anymore. But it’s only I think, they’ve got a little bit more market share than they used to, but it’s somewhere around 30%, I think. But I don’t optimize for Bing, or, I mean, I just optimize for Google. Because that’s, you know, that’s where the bulk of all traffic comes from. And usually, we end up ranking in Yahoo, and Bing also, comments on that?

Yeah, I mean, we want Google search. That’s what we’re after. In some places in some countries some areas, over 90% of the search market, is in Google. So if you have something that’s search-based, which is totally local business, or whatever, then it just stands to reason that you’re going to focus on Google. Now, if you’re going to go and work on the Pinterest algorithm that you have to learn the Pinterest algorithm. And some of the methods that we teach might not work in Pinterest, but I’m not gonna get into how Pinterest works here works differently. The same thing with Facebook, the Facebook algorithm works differently. It just does. They’re similar. So as the Bing algorithm, they’re all based on the same thing, right, trying to see how they rank for a certain query. At the end of the day, that’s what you’re trying to do. But you have to learn the requirements. So you mentioned Pinterest, and, and Facebook, you’d have to try those people want Amazon, we have to go in and figure that one out. Then Bing, Yahoo. Why when we can get 80 to 90%. In Google, and then the other ones, we can just run ads and get results. Yep,

I agree.

Have You Ever Ranked Something Using Citations Only?

All right. Ah, next question. Have you ever ranked something with citations only and without links? Let’s, let’s say you have a non-local site, say e-commerce does brand citations without backlinks. Will that work? First of all, I don’t know because all I do is local stuff. I’ve ranked local stuff with just citations like a local business directory or business directory citations like structured citations. Sometimes they’ll contain links, oftentimes, they’ll contain links. It’s been a long time since I’ve tried to rank any local business project with just citations. It’s probably possible still, but citations are just a part of an overall picture. Now that’s talking about, like, structured citations like business directory listings for local type business sites. I think what you’re talking about is like co-citation, right? where somebody is talking or a citation, I guess, in a broader sense, can be just a brand mention, right?

I’ve never tried that. I don’t know why you would mean, I’ve never tried it. So I can’t answer that. Can you know, because the citation is a backlink? So I don’t get it. I don’t get the question to start with. And let’s, let’s see, let’s say you have a non-local site. That’s e-commerce does do brand citations without backlinks work, or will they work? I have no clue because that’s not how we do. We actually use citations as part of the entity. It’s all part of entity-based. worry less SEO, especially local, like the broader you go The less necessary they can put your branded citations if you can get them in the big ones in the data aggregators, as a matter of fact, work really well because they’re links. They’re places where Google goes to see the data to pull data, but it. Alright, so this question I’m not gonna pick on you, I’m just saying is missing the point of the ranking score and PageRank algorithm, and of every other algorithm, because Google has to go through a link somewhere to get to the server, wherever this branded or number, enter the citation or wherever this other thing is, without that link, there’s absolutely no way that Google can go from one server to the other, it’s not magic, Google cannot teleport, it can’t jump into another server, right? It’s a, it’s HTTP or HTTPS. That’s the protocol. As well, there has to be something that connects them that connect, now you what you’re talking about. And, again, I’m gonna go back to our webinar Monday, it was killer, you have two nodes, is what you’re talking about. One is your brand, whatever. And you have another note somewhere that mentioned your brand, Google has to get that get to that, each of those and relate them some way. And the way it does that is through links. So the more links that are connected to your e-commerce site, and to wherever that brand citation is, right, the more power it will have, because that Google can start creating the relationship for the distance graph algorithm with again, I’m not going to get into any of that. What I’m just saying is, you need to start conceiving in this another way, because the things that you’re asking are a little bit conceptually off on this. I’m reading this incorrectly, in which case I’d like you to explain what it is that you mean, you did a really good job on the other one of explaining what it was. Yeah.

Yeah, I agree. So I said I was more contents context in that last question than what we’re used to from BB. So. Okay, so the next question is from is not really a question, as Jim says, He says, but rather a wiki experience, I have a site that has six wikilinks pointing to it from different or two different articles. I didn’t pay for them, they were added in a natural manner. So organic links. That’s awesome.

Those quotes, I’d like to know what those natural means is it’s in quotes. Well, that’s true. That’s true. But I think he means that it’s just he’s got good content, and somebody, you know, linked to it naturally from an article. That’s how I interpreted but you’re right, since it’s in quotes, it might be. Anyway, those links are very powerful. And I highly recommend trying to get one through whatever means necessary pro tip have the best, most thorough, most documented article on a subject and then cross your fingers. You know, that’s a great point, Jim, because here’s the thing. You can purchase wiki links, right? Like, we just talked about that from, or links from Wikipedia or links, you can get a link on Wikipedia by buying it from our service. But don’t just link to like something that, you know, if I recommend that you are linking to something that has some well-written content, not just like, you know, a spammy page or something like that on the site. I mean, you can try to get away with that. But the problem with that is it it’s likely going to get moderated out at some time. Like even if your link gets placed. At some point, somebody’s probably going to discover that it’s linking to something if it’s not linking to something that is resourceful, right? That is a resource that is relevant to the page that the Wikipedia that Wikipedia is linking from, then it’s going to end up being moderated out at some point, it’s almost guaranteed it’s just a matter of time. So I recommend that if you are going to buy Wikipedia links that you do link to a piece of content on the site that you’re linking to that is relevant, and has some useful information on there. Right. So that it’s less likely to get moderated out at some later date by some other Wikipedia moderator. Okay.

Comments, good?

No, no, I mean, fantastic if you can get them and I saw that later on. He said, organic. That’s fantastic. You can get organic links if you can become the source or a source for that Wikipedia page. That’s fantastic. Because now that now you have a relationship to that seed site. I’m going to talk seed sites and seed sets are I don’t want to confuse all y'all up. But that’s what happened. You related to trust to trusted and authoritative sources. Thereby you become a trusted and authoritative source. Which is why it’s working so well.

Adam, you on, you turn your camera on. So I’m assuming you got something to say?

Unknown Speaker 55:08 No, it was let’s say I’m going to reach out to Jim, I want to ask him a question because he’s had some interesting comments over the last couple of weeks. So talking about AI stuff. And then now with organic Wikipedia links, so Jim, I’m gonna track you down, are you if you can find me, so shoot me a message. But yeah, I just actually had a note on the kind of the last, or sorry, the last question of the day here.

Thoughts On The AWS Email About Allowing Public Access

Okay, cool. So, Jay says Amazon AWS sent out an email warning about allowing public access to an s3 bucket. Yeah, I’ve gotten dozens of those emails. Yeah, the wording was such that it sounds like they’re removing public access. And if you are in disagreement with that, I don’t think that’s the case. That’s not the way I read it. Yeah. And

I just pulled it up to double-check just did a quick read through. And they don’t say that they just say that. You should have some buckets configured that way, that may not be what you intended. So we suggest you fix it. And then, you know, talk to us if you have a question, but it doesn’t say that we’re gonna change it or anything like that.

Yeah. Thank you, Adam. Because that’s when I read his question. Or when I read this question, I thought about that. I was like, you know, I better go back and reread, because I mean, I’ve gotten dozens and dozens of those emails. And I’ve read through them a couple of times. And the way that I interpreted it was what Adam just said was, like, it’s telling you like, Hey, you probably didn’t mean for the bucket to have public access. But if you did, it’s not recommended. But I didn’t see anywhere where it said they were going to revert them to protect. A lot of problems.

Yeah, the only thing is one line. If you have a business need to maintain some level of public access, please see an overview of managing access, and they give references for more in-depth instructions on managing just to make sure you’ve done the correct level of access. Yeah.

Yeah, when I set up my buckets, I set them up to where objects can be public. But the folder itself, or the bucket itself isn’t entirely public, it just allows for individual items to be made public. That’s the way that I set up all my buckets so that I can pick and choose whether I want them to be public at the time that I upload the files. So hopefully, that makes sense. we’re about out of time, Jim says sorry, natural and organic. Yeah, we saw that. Thank you. Jim, by the way, reached out to Adam BB says I mean, so this is a guest clarification for his previous question. He says, I mean, you have an e-commerce site for dog food named SM doggy will a mentioned citation that way mentioned or a citation of that, and other sites will promote the site without a backlink? Again, I don’t know. I mean, for local businesses, having the name, address, and phone number published online, even without a backlink count as a citation, which is like a vote of confidence, right? It’s just because what is it doing? It’s just validating entity information. Does that make sense? That’s why it’s so important to have a name, address and phone number always published exactly the same. Because even having punctuation different or using the ampersand sign instead of A and D, or something like that, right are sometimes having IMC or LLC at the end. And other times not all of them. If you have variations of the name, address, and phone number published even with no backlink, then that can start to ambiguous. The data, right and that’s why local businesses have published mention of the name, address, and phone number, even without a backlink does count as a citation and can help to rank now, can it be can you purely rank on that? I don’t know. I’ve never tried it. But when you’re talking about that type of citation for a nonlocal site like an e-commerce site? I have zero experience with any of that whatsoever. I can’t imagine that it would but I can’t say whether it does or not. Because I’ve never done anything like that. comments.

It creates co-occurrence. It is a no co-citation or a citation. If it’s the full local citation, right? Name, Address phone number, the NA p other than that I don’t know I’d like depends on the competition. If there’s no competition, I see where it just mentioned, of your site on powerful sites would make a difference. But if like, like most places, that the competition is fierce, then no, you’re not going to get away with something like that.

Yeah, and I think it’s kind of interesting to backing this up a level away from purely the SEO benefit and saying, Well, if your name let’s say the SM dog food brand is mentioned on Huffington Post, like yeah, you know what, I bet Our website is gonna see some increased traffic and it’s not a direct link, right. It’s just by getting out there and building the brand. You know, that’s kind of what’s happening there as to how I see it without getting into the technical side.

Yeah. And you know, actually, just to follow up, Adam, that’s a really good point. And I know this to be true, because when I started my land investment, my land flipping business, I experienced it firsthand. And that is if you can get a name published online, right, and somebody but it’s not a backlink, but somebody reads the name and they’re curious, they’ll go Google that. And then it pulls up the brand. And then they click through that’s a navigational or brand search query, that then a click through. So that’s a huge SEO signal, when somebody reads a name, brand name somewhere and then goes in Google searches and then clicks through that’s a fantastic SEO signal. And I experienced that with alpha land Realty, my business, my real estate business because when I first started, I was just running ads, I didn’t do any SEO at all, nothing, I just have a single and it’s still to this day, just have a single landing page on click funnels. For you know, for that business, basically. And all I started I was sending I was running Google ads to that but no SEO and then I started sending a direct mail out to property owners with my brand name Alfa land realty on it. And what happened was I started seeing alpha land realty ranked number one for even like, my keywords like sell land fast Virginia and things like that. And I couldn’t figure out why because I hadn’t done any SEO work whatsoever. And then I started digging into it. And I realized that people were doing navigational search queries because they would get letters from me direct mail letters from me that would state you know, hey, alpha land realty wants to buy your property, if you’re interested, go here, blah, blah, blah. And they would go to Google and search alpha land Realty and then click through and because of that, I started to rank in a matter of like three weeks with zero SEO work. And it was because of those brand searches, which is why we talked about engagement signals are absolutely critical, are super powerful. You want to comment on that, guys before we wrap it up?

Yeah, I think that’s good.

Okay, thanks, everybody for being here. We’ll see you guys next week. See ya.

Source: Semantic Mastery Weekly SEO Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 324 published first on your-t1-blog-url