#super hyped for this zine to come out

[mih4nn]

Celebratory KidLaw pic because I finished FIVE (5!) pages of a fully painted NSFW pure smutty comic + a cool SFW piece AND a FFXIV AU inspired collab with @ayuventi for the @headlinerskidlawzine 👀 AND GUESS WHAT, PRE-ORDERS ARE NOW OPEN‼️‼️

[theinstagrahame]

It's been a wild few months here at theInstaGrahame HQ, but what never fails to make me happy is the rad games I get from the mail. I'm getting over a cold, so I'mma work on this instead of anything productive I could be doing!

Here's my month of RPG mail calls, and why I'm hyped!

Coriolis: The Last Cyclade: I've been curious about Coriolis' Middle Eastern-themed sci-fi vibes for a while, so I put this on a Secret Santa wishlist; and this is what I got! Excited to dive in.

Curios: Albrecht Manor and Jasper Park: Good Luck Press is one of those game design teams I'll try anything from, and the pitch for this is really unique. It's not an RPG per se, as much as a collection of books, papers, maps, and other materials that point toward a mystery you get to figure out. Playing it is just... looking through stuff.

Salvage Union: I am a big fan of post-apocalyptic media, and a fan of the mecha genre. So, yeah, this was an easy sell. It's built on the Quest system, which I've been meaning to get more into anyway, and it looks like a mech repair manual!

The Zone (which I apparently thought people would just recognize): This game is available for free online, but the box set is gorgeous, and features some designers I love. Trying to set up an online session soon, but I do really want to play it in person.

Deimos Academy: Honestly, I picked it up because of the creative team, but also the pitch is great. I skipped my high school reunion, but if there was a chance to go back and face a monster? I might've thought about going.

Brindlewood Bay + Nephews in Peril: I was originally just going to get the super popular Elderly Detectives Solve Eldritch Crimes RPG, but the title of the expansion/mystery book was just too perfect.

Rebels f the Outlaw Wastes: I've already mentioned I like post-apocalyptica? Well, this took a neat approach to achievements/leveling that I was super intrigued by, and I just dig the fun vibe. The reason I like post-apocalyptic media is that it's hopeful, and this feels moreso than a lot of other stuff.

Skyrealms Almanac and Creatures and Folks: I've been into setting guides this past year. And like, this one is also a coloring book? Hell yeah.

Stoneburner: I've been following the creator on Twitter and elsewhere for a while, so I was curious about this title. But definitely sold when they talked about some of the inspiration being the original Starcraft games.

Forgery: Again, picked it up because I really like Banana Chan's work, but this is a paint-by-numbers solo RPG about forging a demonic painting. So like, yeah. That's rad.

Vast Grimm: Space Cruisers: Vast Grimm is Mork Borg in Space, but I'm also a big fan of ship catalogs, so I really wanted to check this one out.

.Dungeon: Everything Snow makes is beautiful, queer, and nostalgic, so when they mentioned a re-release of .Dungeon was coming, I really wanted to check it out. I have a lot of nostalgia for the

Cloud Empress (everything, including a patch!): I mean, you say Nausicaa and I'm listening. This has some roots in that world, but also does some really interesting things with the Mothership game engine. I'm especially intrigued by the notion of replacing racial traits with age traits, and having a series of pretty mundane jobs as the classes.

Layers of Unreality: The first of this month's Zine Club deliveries! I keep hearing about Liminal Horror, and this particular module I've heard nothing but incredible things about. So I'm really hyped to check out what happens in these backrooms.

Fear the Taste of Blood: My second Zine Club book this month! Kayla Dice is one of those really rad creators who I think deserves more attention than she gets, so I'm really hyped to dive into this take on classic movie monsters.

I also got this from my partner's family's Secret Santa.

Okami is one of those games that sticks with me, and has ever since I first saw images from it, and played it. It's a genuinely beautiful experience, and while it's maybe not a game everyone will like, it's one that I really enjoy, and the art is a big part of that.

It stands out as an example of what you can do with a video game that's nearly impossible with most other art forms, and also a reason that I don't think the Arms Race for More Photorealistic Graphics in video game consoles is worth the effort.

[crazylittlejester]

jes. jes I did it I finshed my draft of lana(also tw blood ig idk)

the line art is going to be hellous and I still got other stuff to draw yaaaaaaaaay 🙌🙌🙌 anyways are you excited to see all the stuff for hyrule warriors week, I am. Not to mention the hyrule warriors zine that is coming out on the 14th(you gotta check it out, all the previews shown prove that it’s all super high quality and I’m so hyped). So much hw fan content! Not to mention all the stuff you have been putting out as well :D Anyways, I hope you have a great rest of your day!

DUDE YOUR ART STYLE IS SO. GOD. IM SO OBSESSED WITH IT. THIS IS INCREDIBLE (i hope your hand feels better 😭)

ALSO WHAT ZINE?????

[sakarrie-creates]

It’s that time of year! Here’s my 2023 art summary! After two years of having to include non-colored pieces, I finally did enough ‘full’ pieces to fill my art summary template! I did have to get a bit creative with the months since I was able to draw a LOT more during the summer, but I’ll take it! Sorry it's a bit blurry. I'm not sure if that's just for the preview or not, but it was a smaller file than normal and since these reflections are 99% for my own interest, I decided it wasn't worth trying to change.

As usual, I got rambly so reflection questions are answered under the cut. The template I used is available here in case anyone else wants to make their own! My fic summary will be coming in a week or so, so stay tuned for the stats and round-up there. :)

What events did you participate in (with art)? Player Appreciation Week, Fandom Trumps Hate, Dear Fellow Traveler (Animatic), Weird People (Editing), SPN Comfortably Queer Zine (dropped), and lots of zine applications for page artist, merch artist, comic artist, and spot artist roles!

What was your biggest challenge this year? While time, like last year, was still a challenge, I think my biggest challenge was a mix of low motivation and an intense perfectionistic mindset. At the start of the year, I got super into TOH and was super hyped about all the zines with apps opening. I really REALLY wanted to get into them and figured I should apply for art too just cause it would increase my overall chances of getting in. After the finale, I did a screenshot redraw that ended up being absolutely fantastic for where my skill level is. I went deeper into rendering than ever before, and somehow it worked for me. 

That probably was the start of my unreasonably high expectations, and I got it into my head that maybe if I could make a whole portfolio of artwork at that quality level, I actually stood a chance at getting into a zine as an artist. From then on, I was hardcore crash-coursing perspective, rendering techniques, and generally trying to improve without allowing room for mistakes. While I do think it helped me grow a lot, it burnt me out so I struggled to work on stuff past summary (when all the zine apps were) and even dropped from the SPN Comfortably Queer Zine cause my imposter syndrome was so strong. (Though that was also partially because it was a ‘sign-up and you’re in’ zine, so they never saw my art during the application process and had no way of knowing if I was good enough.

What was something you were surprised by? I’m pretty sure I discovered the perspective tool is CSP this year! CSP has so many tools I’m not aware of (despite watching tons of tutorials and guides), so it wasn’t super surprising but it was nice. I have to say, they’re a serious hassle to work with and require a higher understanding of vanishing points and such than I currently have, but I could see it being very useful for future scene art pieces.

Did you try anything new this year?

Yes! This year I kicked down the door to the merch world and have been collecting and designing throughout the year. Though the designs have mostly just been for zine app portfolio’s, everything has worked out really well for me and I hope to produce charms for my collection as I improve my skills. Where do you think you most improved? Definitely my confidence in rendering! And probably my rendering itself too. I did a ton more pieces with it this year and it’s definitely a favorite part of the art process for me. I think I’ll have a lot more fun with it this year too, since I’m trying to keep it lower pressure, so I can experiment more to find out what brushes and styles I like most. What are you most proud of? I think I’m most proud of how ambitious I was with my zine apps. Though I didn’t get into any for art and it burned me out a fair bit, I did a lot of hard work and made pieces I can be mostly happy with. As for specific pieces, I’m very proud of my animatic clip for the Dear Fellow Traveler MAP (which is what the Belos art from the summary is from). My portion was about 5 seconds with 24 fully colored and shaded frames. A few of those were moving frames too, so the end result is the closest thing to actual animation I’ve done. I also really like the rendering on the Huntlow Epilogue art and generally how the Steve&Matt hug turned out.

How’d this year compare to your 2023 goals? I honestly couldn’t remember what my goals were, but all things considered, I didn’t do too bad! Thankfully past-Sakarrie was wise and made it a bullet list so I can just check things off. Met: -Player Appreciation Week -Add to zine portfolio -Apply to at least one zine as an artist (fine if don’t get accepted) -Keep experimenting with backgrounds and shading -Pull out some old WIPs -Build more consistency of style

The checked off ones I definitely met, so good for me! This was a very zine-focused year, so I way exceeded those goals. The last two I did do, but they’re a bit subjective. Specifically, I think the ‘WIPs’ I was referring to were old sketches, but most of the old WIPs I revisited were already colored and I was either adding rendered or cleaning them up for zine usage. As for style, I’m REALLY bad at telling haha. That said, my characters seem reasonably similar when I draw them, so I’m going to tentatively count it. Kinda: -One fully colored piece per month

I’m gonna give myself a half check on this one. I didn’t have a fully colored piece every month, but I did have over 12 fully rendered pieces in the end, several of which had backgrounds. So while I didn’t meet the letter of the goal, I feel like I met the spirit of it.

Did Not Meet: -Finish Huntlow comic -30 minutes animatic digitalize rough draft -Maybe make some fanart of my favorite fics

These don’t shock me. They’re all personal projects and this was a very external-goal-driven year for me. The Huntlow comic is a big love of mine but it’s definitely ambitious for where my skill is. I’ve got the whole thing messy-sketched and most of it has been clean sketched, but the jump from that to lineart is gonna be hard, and I have no idea what I’d be doing with color since the panels don’t have a background. That said, I do feel like it’s some solid work and I adore the angst vibe of it, so maybe I’ll get it done one day. I could also see myself posting it as a messy lineart comic so that others could enjoy the concept being executed in case it never gets finished.

As for the 30 Minutes animatic, I still 100% intend to complete it eventually. I love the way it fits to the music and I’m so proud of the thumbnails. Even if it never becomes a full animatic, I want to digitize the frames and line it up with music so I can share the concept I see in my mind with others. My brain was somewhat overtaken suddenly by TOH this year, so now that that’s settled and I’m hoping to follow my muse more this year, maybe this will be something I can get excited about again.

The fanart for favorite fics is no surprise since it’s kinda the tack on. With low motivation and projects with deadlines that needed my focus, personal art like this was buried way below other priorities. It’s a nice though for sure though.

Alrighty then, now it’s time for 2024 goals!! Oh goodness, I really don’t know what to expect of myself. I definitely am going to try to allow for more personal projects with lower pressure, but I do still have some goals. Hopefully most can be accomplished without applying big pressure though.

2024 Goals:

-Number One Priority: Create for my and don’t put myself in a place to get crazy burnt out and still have requirements. If I meet this goal, then it’s okay if I don’t meet any of the others. (It would be sad.... But I would still count it as meeting overall goals.) -Participate in Summergen and PAW Week (Art or Fic) -Design Handplates charm as anniversary gift (November) -Design CS Charm -Have a fully usable Zine Portfolio (Currently need more merch samples and rendered pieces with backgrounds) -Apply to new TOH Zines or other loved fandom zines. If I end up getting into any, I can pull back, but since that doesn’t seem likely, I want to get into the habit of always being ready to apply with what I have. -Make an ongoing project list to pin to my tumblr. This applies mostly for fics, but that way people coming to my page can see what fandoms I’m actively creating for and what they can look forward to (as well as have an opening to ask questions if they’re interested). -Post more (at least 10 times throughout the year) and add my best pieces to instagram (8+ pieces by end of year). -Do ONE of the following:     1. 30 minutes digitized so it can be shared with music      2. Open Up Your Eyes fully thumbnail      3. Fanworks for other people’s fics      4. Participate in an extra bang or exchange with art      5. Design and manufacture a pin -Play with different brushes and rendering styles -Draw something from scratch every month, no matter how small -Not exactly art, but I want to have a finalized long-term merch display plan for all my items Overall, how’d the year go? I think I did well! I didn’t meet all my goals and I pushed myself too far, but I learned and improved a LOT this year. All things considered, I made pieces that last year me would be blown away by, so I think that’s an automatic win. I’m pretty uncertain on how this next year will go (even more so than last year, which is surprising since I was changing schools last year), but I’m hoping to enjoy what I do and create art semi-regularly. Here’s to 2024!

[definitelynotshouting]

I CAN CONFIRM THAT BLACKBERRY JAM IS A GOD-TIER FILLING. THE DONUTS ARE SO GOOD :DD I made mini ones this morning and the household promptly demolished half of them 😭

:oo i am 👀👀ing at your recommendations and noting them down ty. If i ever spot the cheesecake or petits fours when im out i will be sure to try them :D

Im so excited for the Hotguy comics zine!! The Scarland artbook was the first project similar to that that I followed & downloaded and it was SO incredible to see sm artists come together like that and create something so special :))) Can't wait to see more of them like the hotguy zine in the future!!

I am so 👀 at the s6 oneshot. VERY interested to see what that dynamic is like, and I have huge faith in you using every emotion from the oneshot against us in the main fic and vice versa

The flight went... idk we landed safely so i guess i cant complain LMAO. Did not manage to sleep and we arrived in the early morning, except it's summer here and my body refuses to sleep when the sun's out so instead of getting to catch up on sleep after getting home I just curled up in my bed and spent the next 5-ish hours phasing in and out of existence 😭

Ive only seen snow once so an ice storm sounds. Terrifying?? Im glad your power stayed for the most part, i would not want to go through that without heating

SEASON 10 HYPE!!!

-☀️

LETS GOOOOOOO GLAD THE BLACKBERRY DONUTS WERE A SUCCESS!!!!! :D ironically im answering this ask while eating blackberry yogurt so the trend continues SKDNAKCNSKDKSK

YEYE absolutely!!! And both can be made at home with the jam depending on what ingredients you have :] ive seen decent recipes for both before, altho i dont have any immediately on hand.

Im so so happy everyone seems super hyped for the HOTGUY COMICS Zine!!!! Ive been working hard to keep it running smoothly and my fellow mods have been doing some absolutely INSANE work, especially on the various graphics. Somehow our team ended up with three graphic designers in three different directions and then me as the one writer/editor SKDBSKNDKSD so we've got a ton of our bases just automatically covered. Its been a lot of fun to mod so far and i cant wait to see who else applies!!!!

OOF sounds like the plane ride home wasnt quite so pleasant as the first one there 😭😭😭 glad it went safely though!!! Oughhh and that sounds so brutal with the summer, too-- VERY different from ice storms 😂😂😂😂 we were fine luckily, heating and everything stayed perfectly intact the entire time, and the temp has started rising again so the ice is melting, which is great bc i need to order groceries LMFAOOOOO

I still think its funny how quickly i adapted to the weather up here-- being born and raised in the south you'd think i'd get super cold really easily, like my partner who's from cali, but nope, im still out here in tank tops and shorts right up until the ice starts to form. perks of being a little furnace i guess FJSHDJSNDJSJD

As for the s6 snippet 👀👀👀 well im sitting down to finish it right neow, so wish me luck!!! :D

[starrylol]

Completely forgot but..... I have two zine pieces coming up for yall n I'm super hyped about them! just resiting the temptation to post em now cuz I absolutely love how they turned out! and they happen to be apart of some of my aus that I'm perhaps writing for aswell 👀✨️

[hibiscusangel15]

when I write for a zine, it feels really surreal to think about it being printed anywhere, much less people buying it and reading my writing (alongside so many other talented people). 

I don’t normally print out my fics or anything, so seeing physical copies is always really strange to me (in a good way).

[willowgast]

some goals/plans/ideas for 2022

reflecting on 2021 has turned up very few productive thoughts other than 'whew glad that's over', so i'm just going to skip that stage of end-of-year rites and start looking forwards to what is to come!

the first draft of my dissertation is due in a month! i've really loved working on it so far and i'm super hyped to edit and polish it between now and the final deadline in april/may - going to kick of 2022 with a bang by having something to be proud of :)

from january to march, applications are open for an archaeology summer course at the university of aarhus in denmark that i would really love to apply for. the biggest catch for me is that international students require nomination from their home university in order to be considered, so i'll need to convince my academic tutor and/or scandinavian history prof. that my application is worth vouching for. lots of nerves and excitement in one!

as an aside to the summer course - the teaching will be in english but i would be living in denmark for three weeks, and if i get to go then i am determined not to pitifully get by on english. so, a language goal for the year is to develop my oral proficiency with danish. i can read and write quite well, and my listening skills aren't far behind, but i've never had a formal teacher or study-buddy to practise conversations and pronunciation, so i really need to crack on and find a solution to that over the next few months

(more things i'm excited for under the cut so the post doesn't get too long!)

submission windows are open for the spring issues of my uni's biggest literary zines - there are three in total that i want to submit poems to, and all of those deadlines are going to be very soon, so i need to get writing and/or editing asap

i've been studying an online writing seminar by one of my favourite authors over my christmas break & really getting to grips with one of my stories in a way i haven't been able to before - i would really love to be in a position to write the first draft over the summer (uni work is great fun, but also means that creative writing work progresses painfully slowly - i don't think i would be able to start writing productively until the long summer break)

in july, my oldest and dearest online friend might be coming to visit me in the u.k.! if this comes to fruition, it will be the most cherished time of my life so far

i will enter my final year of undergrad studies in october. that's quite scary, to be honest, and there's going to be a lot of pressure very soon to decide what i'm going to do next - postgrad study applications will be lurking, so i need to hurry up and decide whether i even want to go straight into that or take a year out after my ba to work & live alone & figure out what exactly i want. whew. big decisions

i have tickets to reading festival in august!!!! tremendously exciting!!!! arctic monkeys & måneskin alone will be worth going for

i think, on the whole, i will be happier, and that in and of itself is worth looking forwards to <3

[unioncolours]

A 2nd Majsasaurus Year!

Today, 22nd of September 2021, it’s been two years since I officially joined the magical world of fandom. 22.9.2019 I uploaded the first chapter to my fic Shadows and Sand, and the rest is history.

I did a deep dive into my first year as a fic writer and active member of fandom last year, when it was my first anniversary. You can read it here!

In that meta discussion about my membership of fandom, I presented it as if walking on clouds. I was so, so happy and talked during all the discussion about my happiness in fandom.

Since that post was written, my life and also my perception of the fandom I am part of has changed. Change isn’t always bad, as I really had a honeymoon phase with fandom over a year ago, and the low after hit hard.

But let’s see what I’ve been up to and what I’ve been writing! The following year provided much change and fun things! Please keep reading 💜⬇

The first fic I wrote since 22.9.2020 was a Sakura x Ino fic. I had for a longer while been interested in writing a woman-loves-woman ship, which I had never done before, and as a wlw-person myself the urge to explore that part led to Promise me this is just a kiss. The pairing itself was chosen on rather random, it had to be two women and I like Ino, so I chose the most popular Ino-wlw ship for this for convenience.

I really liked writing the fic and it was well-received! It was the first time I had written a fic that was entirely centred around exploring feelings and having sex.

After this I jumped directly onto the next idea that had been boiling inside me for a longer while. Up to this point, all I had written, except the wlw-fic, had been set in the Naruto canonverse and I was itching to try to work with a multi-chaptered modern au! The pairing was of course my beloved Shikadai x Inojin.

It was during the creation of this fic I began to struggle. This was a new genre, as this was romance only and all my other works had been action and fantasy based, except the sex fic of course. I was maybe over critical and stressed, which resulted in me having a hard time writing it. But I made it. Was the sky always this beautiful? ended up being 35k long, and in hindsight, I freaking love, love, love how it turned out in the end and what it represented. I am very proud of this fic.

I “upgraded” as a fan by the end of October when I bought myself a digital drawing tablet. I began drawing fanart of Shikadai and Inojin and preferably them two together, haha! I still draw a few days a month and find it extremely fun as a side hobby beside the writing.

We are now in November 2020. By this time, I had completely finished my zine fic, Under the Scorching Sun, which I had written during September and October, for the Shikatema zine I was kindly accepted to. I was proud of what I had created and was eager for the rest of the contributors to wrap up theirs, so we’d have a wonderful zine for sale in 2021. It was lovely to write ShikaTema again. As the zine fic was about to be released in months from when I had at first finished it, I wanted of course to write something fans and friends could immediately take part of on the internet. I had hyped myself up to a state where I wanted to write a third and final story in my series To love and never let go, my epic series about Shikadai and Inojin.

Now, I should maybe have waited another month, but I was worried the readers would give up on me if I didn’t write it right away. In December, I began writing To find hope in the Universe, with my usual speed and love for the art.

What I by then didn’t realise or even recognise was that I was very slowly turning burned out. I ignored all the signs.

In December I wrote simultaneously as Hope in the Universe a fic that was part of the Shikatema server’s Secret Santa event. The fic’s name was The Ghost Stories of our Hearts, and it was ShikaTema, as the event’s name suggests. It was fun to write and despite the final big fic, Hope in the Universe, pressing down on me, I finished The Ghost Stories of our Hearts and was very happy with the result. Sadly, at this point the burnout began taking control over me, and I never managed to reply to the comments.

The 15th of January, I began uploading To find hope in the Universe. It was a lovely experience, even if it was tainted by negative feelings coming from my decreasing happiness and the fact that it didn’t do as well as To dance above the Stars, the second fic in the series. To deal with two very contradiction emotions, loving my work, the characters, how I have painted an entire world around the characters and how I knew some people honestly loved my hard work, and then the negative feelings coming from not feeling good enough and depressed, was a difficult thing to navigate and still is when I think back to that time. It didn’t help that during the process of uploading the fic I went through grief, and I chose distraction as my coping method. I kept writing and working, the only thing I ever knew.

Our pre-order of the Shikatema zine was in full motion by this time and it was a nerve-wracking time! Mostly because of excitement but also worry. I’m super happy for my friends who were part of the zine, with whom I could share all the excitement and nervousness with. The zine ended up making good sales, which made me happy among the uploading of the long fic.

To find hope in the Universe was completed 31st of March 2021. When I uploaded the final chapter, I felt nothing. It was so weird, so spooky, to have finished a long fic and a series on top of that and not feel anything. But deep down, beneath the layer of depression, I felt great pride.

That was the emotion that broke free once the burnout left me. Pride.

I had created this empire of Shikajin, a whole alternative timeline, an alternative canon from my own head and to this day, that is my internet legacy. I love Trial of the Heart, which I wrote in 2020, but if I have to choose between ToH and this series, I will choose To love and never let go in a heartbeat.

So, even if it felt depressing and hopeless in the moment, I look now back with pride and happiness. Never forget that. Never forget that I made that.

April was a curious time. I swore to not write anything, because I had by now recognised that I was burned out and needed to rest, yet managed to scrape together three smaller fics.

The first one was another wlw-smut fic, TemaSaku this time called Another Light. I wanted to explore that part once again. I wrote it in canonverse and honestly think the fic ended up extremely nice. Perfect amount of feels and sex. It didn’t feel hard to write at all, because the setting, characters and emotions were so different from the fics I had written the last five months.

Now more interesting things lay on the horizon! A new zine, the Ino-Shika-Cho zine called Beyond a Bond had an interest check during the spring, and later the contributor application. I urged in the interest check to please give us the next gen kids, Shikadai, Inojin and Chocho – my kids and babies, and when it turned out they were going to feature, I had to apply as a writer. For this application I wrote a one shot, called It’s just hair, and I loved this spunky little story featuring the best babies that I created.

I also edited one of my tumblr fics, And then I kissed him, into a longer, better version that I later in May uploaded onto AO3. It was once again a Shikajin, a sequel of Trial of the Heart, and it was a fun little project.

Now May came and I sent in the application for the zine early, which I now am relieved I did. I am happy that I did the work for the application in April instead of May, because in May I had a few breakdowns and another grieving period, which lead to complete creative paralysis. I didn’t write a single word during May, only uploaded the two one shots I had prepared in April.

What I did do in May was to read through the Shikatema zine I had contributed to! It arrived in the mail! I was so nervous; my whole body was shaking when I opened the package right outside the post office. The zine now resides on the parade place in my little zine shrine in the bookshelf. Thank you to the mods who made this a reality!

To my great happiness my zine adventures continued as I was accepted to the Ino-Shika-Cho zine as a writer and was assigned to write my favourite characters. I felt so relieved and overjoyed, mind blown by the sheer talent among the contributors.

On the other fandom front, June didn’t continue any brighter, with stress and mental pain still having a strong grip around me, despite the very happy news that I am still so grateful for. I wrote a Yamanaka family fic which to this day hasn’t seen the light of AO3, because of negative emotions surrounding it. I turned into a complete wreck compared to me in June 2020. In June 2020 I was flourishing, I loved what I did, I loved fandom and I loved the friends I had made through Discord servers. Now I could find myself crying my eyes out over a wip not going the way I wished it would. What had happened to Bex 2021?

I was so incredibly frustrated with myself, groaning in defeat when my hands just couldn’t write. I managed to push through 6k of what I called my “emo au” – more of that later – and finish the Yamanaka fic which is still buried, and on top of that I had the zine and another fandom event, The Naruto Photo Album, to create content for. Why couldn’t I do it? Why couldn’t I find happiness in something that once was my reason for happiness?

In the end, I managed to write 15k in June. My former monthly word count used to be 30k. One could think this would turn into the end of my fic writing career, or the beginning of a longer hiatus, but I am stubborn and want to meet the expectations of the people who love my content, so I didn’t want to give up. I wanted to try. I wanted to be whoever I was before.

Funnily enough, the healing came in the shape of the most self-indulgent fic I have ever, ever written, a fic I like possessed began writing July the 1st 2021. It was nothing less than a freaking fairy tale AU, namely a Shikadai x Inojin Peter Pan AU. I can hear you laugh at the silliness of it, but this whimsical AU gave me back my love for writing. I hyper-fixated on this story quite a bit and stopped writing on everything else, something I almost never do.

Only happy boys fly ended up being 21 000 words long! I knew it was a niched story, and true to my guesses, the story has to this day very low stats. Today, two months after it was published, it has just above 100 hits and 10 kudos, so for all I know, only ten people read and liked it. I try to not care too much, since I love the story and in some way, that story saved me from going batshit insane over my emotions about writing.

At this point I had begun writing my fic from the Ino-Shika-Cho zine, finding joy in silly scenes with my favourite characters and trying to heal. The writing process was frustratingly slow, but one word at a time I got forward and as of today, the draft is done. The pre-orders are in December. At the side of the zine fic I wrote a short fluffy Shikajin story, CLEAR, a story with almost no plot, because I knew how much self-indulgence could help me.

And then, I finally began writing for real on my emo au, A gang of fallen stars, which has the first few chapters up right now! I have for the first time in six months a longer fic (if we don’t count the Peter Pan story) and it feels… good. This fic is once again a modern au, but in darker tones than my other modern au from November 2020. I honestly like what I have so far, even if I during June and July almost planned to never finish it. I am so relieved I managed to begin the upload. In September the Photo Album was released and I could show my two fics I wrote for it.

It sounds like this year has been nothing but misery, and at times it felt like it. However, there are a few fandom friends who brought light to my life when I couldn’t see it. The first ones to mention are of course my partners in crime, @notquitejiraiya and @thespookymoth. Together we created a server dedicated to Ino-Shika-Cho during the spring and it has been tons of fun with the members there! Thank you two for listening to me and for being my friends during 2021.

I also have to mention Soverel, who carefully begun taking contact through comments and likes on my twitter, and later through direct messages, and it has been a fun ride ever since. We’ve had lovely discussions which are very dear to me and your support means a lot to me. Thank you for being you and for drawing so many wonderful artworks you’ve shared with me. Haha, and for making me play Genshin Impact, even though I do it like twice a month!

Another person who has made my days so much brighter is @sugarriene. Thank you for sending me that one dm that made us chat regularly, thank you for popping up and sharing panels and your wonderful drawings with me, and for vibing head canons with me. You are a lovely person, and you make me happy.

Finally, I want to give a shout out to @yoboseyokyu for listening to me when I had to yell into the void and for making me happy with your cute posts on both twitter and tumblr.

Since September 2020, I’ve written around 195 000 words and drawn close to 35 illustrations, most of them of Shikadai and Inojin. Almost 200 000 words of Majsasaurus. I’ve created a Discord server and I’ve been part of two zines as a writer, plus a free PDF-project.

It has been a wild year. A year filled with passion for my favourite characters and ship, with the excitement that came with being part of projects and hyping them. It was a year where I learned to draw digitally, and heck what fun it was.

This also a year where I learned people can be mean to me because of what I ship and that fandom friends won’t necessarily always stay to be your friend anymore and how much it can hurt. I also learned what my limits are, and what punishment I get if I don’t listen to my own mind and rest when I have to.

It was a year, guys.

Now, onto the third Majsasaurus Year. Cheers!

And those of you, who supported me when I needed it – thank you and I love you.

[pennumbra]

So I've been seeing a ton of art for Tangled's 10th Anniversary, and it’s been a treat!! I rly didn’t expect to see a lot of commemoration for it outside the fandom either!

I don't have anything to post- but I am feeling nostalgic and wanted to talk abt my own exp with the fandom!  I wasn't an OG fan of the Tangled movie- although it was one of my favs- so I don't have that connection, but the series has meant a lot to me these last 2ish years.

I've touched on it a bit, but I don't think it's exaggerating to say TTS brought me out of a pretty major creative funk. I just watched it at the right time.

I got into the series shortly after S1 finished airing, when I saw clips of the songs on YT (I think RaIEB and “Wind in My Hair”). I was curious enough to check it out- and then I binged the rest in short order. (I have a v fond memory of watching SotSD on my phone in bed, at a terrible hour of the night, when I had a final the next day. Completely worth it tbh.)

Since then I:

Started a new account- originally just so I'd have a place to post the little doodle of Var I did after finishing the first season.

Posted a lot more art, and got comfy with drawing fanart again! I started focusing on making art just for me, which imo is and continues to be the most important thing.

And I really got involved in a fandom for the first time! Like I'd watched and been a fan of many other shows but I wasn't... IN them, y'know?

I met some very cool people, and made some new friends!!

I streamed the latter half of season 3 for a few hundred viewers! That was honestly prob the highlight of the fandom exp for me; not smth I ever thought would be my gig, but getting to watch eps with everyone right when they dropped, and the excitement before specials and hyped speculation and reaction posting after, was rad and super memorable.

Participated in events, hosted some of my own, and joined my first zine for the show! The sense of community, friendliness, and coziness that comes w/ it being a smaller fandom has been lovely. I know I don't know everyone but it kinda feels like I do w/ so many familiar faces, if that makes sense.

Anyway, I def have a lot to thank Tangled + TTS for. I could keep rambling, but tl;dr, I feel like TTS was pretty defining for me as an artist. It’s become a huge comfortshow, and the characters, world and lore, visuals, style, and songs continue to inspire me. 

And of course, a big thank you to everyone who’s followed either of my blogs, or liked, replied to, or reblogged my posts and art! It means a lot. And a ty to all the content creators out there whose work I’ve been enjoying all this time! Here’s to more art and creativity!

[humanityobmz]

'Humanity' Rules & Guidelines

GENERAL:

Every submission must be sfw and appropriate for a teen audience. The goal of this project if for it to be accessible to a wide range of fans, so please don't include anything that is regarded as widely triggering such as gore, mature content, explicit/detailed violence, suicidal themes, etc. (cussing/explicit language is fine)

Of course, your work can include darker themes, but please try not to be super detailed and explicit. If you are wondering if your idea will cross any of these boundaries, feel free to contact me through email (leviathanswatching@gmail.com) and check, though I will say that if you have to ask, then it probably crosses a line.

Romance is allowed, though artists may find it hard to include in their works. The rules for that are as follows: the only ship allowed is character(s) x gn!mc, with no physical indicators of what mc looks like- no skin color, body type, specified features, etc.

So no character x character please, though you are more than welcome, hell, even highly encouraged to have character & character.

No Luke x MC (obviously)

This zine isn't solely focused on the brothers, so feel free to include/focus on the dateables as well!!

Submission deadlines are final! I will send you a reminder email a few weeks leading up to the final deadline + one a few days before. The final deadline is November 25, 2021. Of course, if you finish before that, definitely feel free to send it in early!!

The theme is 'Humanity' and so your work must be applicable to that theme in some way- I am leaving it wide open so applicants can have a wide range of creative freedom. If you're unsure/unclear about the theme, please read the theme description & FAQ then feel free to reach out.

The work/art being submitted to this zine shouldn't be posted/used anywhere else unless specifically permitted/designated by me (some pieces may be used for advertising/hype building)

To contribute, you must be 14 or older by Oct 1, 2021.

ART:

As stated above, your work must be sfw, so if you do wardrobe changes, please make sure they're appropriate. In terms of what mediums are accepted, pretty much any- the only rule is that you're able to submit a clear, good image of your final piece. You can draw comics or regular drawings, though I do ask that the images are easily comprehensible, so nothing abstract.

Also, please don't draw any OCs or specialized MC. If you do want to draw the MC, please stick to the sheep MC the game provides.

And if you do decide on a comic, please have all of your panels fitting into one larger image that fits with the image sizing rules. If your comic ends up spanning more than that, then reach out to me and we can come up with a solution (ex. having you take up two pages instead of one)

The final image should be no larger than 550 x 800 px and no smaller than 200 x 200, as the project will be printed in a 5.5 x 8 inch format.

Feel free to work in either color or black and white and experiment as much as you'd like!

WRITTEN:

Again, please adhere to the general guidelines and not depict any sexual/violent scenes. Work submitted must be in prose, so no poetry or anything like that, and must be between either 200-600 words or 600-1200

As mentioned above, gn!mc/reader, so in the case of pronouns being used, please use they/them. Feel free to write from any characters POV, though when talking about reader, please use 'you' in the place of a pronoun as often as possible. If you're confused as to what that would look like, contact me and I'll explain in further detail.

Please also make sure to use proper grammar and spelling rules- so no all lowercase, work edited and revised, things like that.

I reserve the right to decline any submissions that I feel don't fit into or follow the set rules and guidelines. I would really prefer not to do this, so please make sure you're double checking and are getting clarification as needed.

These rules are also subject to changes/modifications/additions if the need arises, but if anything major changes I will be sure to let all collaborators know ASAP.

If you are confused/would like clarification on anything mentioned here, check out the FAQ first, then feel free to dm or email me.

[tangled-cl0wn-core]

Where, besides Tumblr, can people find you doing fannish things? (Obviously only mention sites and usernames you actually want to be found at. Don’t expose your secret identities on my account.)

What other names have you gone by on these platforms, including Tumblr, if any?

When did you join the IT fandom? And what got you into fandom, to begin with?

What are your favorite ships, or characters, if any, and why? What do they mean to you?

In what ways do you participate in fandom? (ex. Posting memes, reblogging/commenting on content, writing fanfic, making fanart, creating fanmixes, etc.)

Do you have any in-fandom inspirations? Other members of the community that drive you? (And if you have the time/energy, in what ways do they inspire you?)

Name and link some of your favorite works, please!

Do you have any works of your own that you feel particularly proud of, or wish more people would’ve consumed? Please provide links if possible.

Have you ever participated in a fannish event (ie. IT Week, a fic Big Bang) or applied to be a part of a fanzine? If so, which ones, and can you please link them?

Without any form of bashing or lashing out, what is something you feel this fandom is missing?

 HI!! since you asked before sending it, I knew this was coming but my First Cool Guy Tumblr Ask is so neat,, anyway!!

This is my only IT-specific account, but I post almost everything I draw on my instagram, https://www.instagram.com/fabricsofteners/ (I don't know how people make links cool on tumblr aaa) I also have an AO3, https://archiveofourown.org/users/tangledheadphonecord , where I might post this one really long fic I’m working on (maybe not, as it’s super lame but God am I putting in work)? But mostly it’s just really old stuff atm, and no IT content right now - just some random drabbles from past hyperfixations tbh.

I used to be ‘fabricsofteners’ everywhere besides here - tangledheadphonecord is a username I used for my tumblr because I want a change from the fabricsofteners brand, as I've had it for quite a few years and have just grown kind of bored - just waiting a bit to change my instagram user. I also used to be ‘unbrandedmarkers’ like, three years ago on instagram? but, that era ended fast. I think I might have an old Tumblr under some variation of ‘fabric softener’ but honestly even if anything is up on it I’d probably be embarassed to look at it now.

I watched IT for the first time in 2019, I believe, but wasn’t really in the fandom until actually like, April of this year. I entered the fandom and developed a hyperfixation (sobs) by complete mistake - I read all the fics for michael mell/rich goranski on ao3, and was on a camping trip and wanted to read some Homosexual Fanfiction and literally remembered IT on a whim (rich-to-richie association) and read a bunch of Reddie fics, and it was all down (up?) hill from there.

Unshockingly, I’m sure, Reddie is my number one favourite IT ship. I’m also an enjoyer of Benverly, as well as Stanley/Patty - IT is like, the only fandom where I actually like the canon ships. I do also think Streddie/Stozier is really cute and Bill/Mike (unsure of the shipname?) is nice when I see it!! I think Reddis is cute because I am a total sucker for best-friends-to-lovers, as well asthe  ‘I tease everyone but mostly you’ and the ‘I’m so tired of you bullying me but if you ever stop I’ll cry’ and... just, the entire dynamic that they have. Stanley/Patty - there is no reasoning, I just want Stanley to be happy. Benverly - the way they were each other’s first Meaningful Interactions in so like?? agony, they’re so cute. They both deserve to be happy, and I’m so happy they find that happiness in each other. 

As for characters - Richie is absolutely my favourite. I (unfortunately /hj) kin and relate to him on so many levels it hurts. Having a character that feels that fear of their sexuality because of a horrible environment is painfully real. covering up struggles with humour and all that?? yeah, mood (also, crushing on your best friend-). What he means to me, in a sense, isn’t really canon - I read strictly fix-it fics, because I want to feel that hope that like fanon Richie, I don’t have to hide forever. I can be myself and be happy. Obviously I can’t much look to the movies or anything for that but hey - what’re Andy or Stephen gonna do, tell me to stop reading fics? 

I also really like Stanley!! I don’t,, have a reason. I just think he’s adorable and I love his dynamic with the other Losers a lot. Stanley breathed like, once, and instantly became a comfort character and not even I know why at this point, he just is. Eddie & Bev are up there, too - honestly, Bill is the only Loser I don’t have a strong attachment too. And honestly, he’s growing on me rapidly.

I mostly draw whatever my goblin hyperfixated brain can think of, as well as rebloging just about every post that I see and like (art, jokes, edits, fics, etc.) - I start and stop a lot of fics, maybe one day I’ll finish one but as of yet I have not... Sigh.

I honestly don’t think I do have anyone to tag for inspiration? I follow IT blogs but none I would go to for inspiration (no offense to any mutuals-) inspiration for me is mostly just seeing a pose and going ‘okay’ and suddenly I have a drawing - I have no clue what happens in between.

So, my current all-time favourite IT fic atm is https://archiveofourown.org/works/18213215/chapters/43087232, though I will say it’s a really heavy fic and to read with caution. Going away from Angst, any ‘famous Reddie’ AUs are amazing, but I constantly reread the entire https://archiveofourown.org/series/1560019 series. It’s cute and funny and I THRIVE for domestic Reddie content. 

Actually not Reddie, I throughly enjoyed https://archiveofourown.org/works/23201011 for giving me the Mike content the movies have robbed me of for too long, as well as https://archiveofourown.org/works/25262698 which is pure stanlon greatness and made my heart flutter for the boys more than once.

I don’t really have any IT fics up of my own creation, and honestly my reception in way of Tumblr notes is far better than I expected so honestly, I have none to link lol. As long as I get minimun interaction I will thrive.

I wish I could say I’ve been in anything like a zine or anything, but I have not! I’m relatively new to the fandom (and having a social media dedicated to one thing) so I wouldn’t even know where to begin to join or be qualified for one, y’know? I’ve done art weeks in the past and found them incredibly fun but haven’t seen any for IT - but if anyone does happen to know of any... Feel free to send them my way-

As for the last question - other than like, hyping up Chosen and Jeremy just as much as we do the other IT kids (which, honestly I’m not even sure if is still a problem - I’ve just seen posts about it and it’s made me wary), I’m not sure? I’ve honestly not encountered anything in the fandom I find awful and honestly, for a fandom about a movie that is... Well, IT, I’ve really just kind of enjoyed my time in the fandom thus far?

(I will say we need 200% more attention being drawn to 1990s adult Eddie Kaspbrak, who is one of the most beautiful men I have ever seen - but I also feel that way about James Ransone, so I’m not mad.)

(Also, we should be calling out the 1990s IT more, I watched it recently and it’s so bad /lh)

Anyway!! I feel like this answer was incredibly long and I am so sorry!! But like, thank you so much for asking me anything at all fihabsfhbafb I thrive at any chance to talk about the dumb clown movie. (Also, i’m sorry I say ‘honestly’ so much-)

[novantinuum]

Fic tag meme!

Tagged by @runrundoyourstuff​! Thank you so much, your works are beautiful <3

Name: Jen, ChromaticDreams on AO3. (I have a psued connected to that account that’s just Novantinuum for all my SU specific work.)

Fandoms: The fandoms I have written fic for throughout my life are (in order) Doctor Who, Gravity Falls, Trollhunters, and Steven Universe.

Where do you post your fanfiction? AO3, but I crosspost them to tumblr. I am also soon releasing a fanfic within a zine, which is exciting!

By kudos most popular one-shot: Shattering Atlas, with 581 kudos. This is the fic I wrote long before SUF aired exploring the whole corrupted Steven theory concept. It got, uh... pretty angsty, lol. This was mainly just an excuse to write the most angsty piece of fiction I could emotionally handle.

By kudos most popular multichapter: Hollowed Moon, with 2,628 kudos. I have no idea how it is so popular with how short the chapters are, ahah. It’s honestly not a favorite amongst all the things I’ve written... And of course there’s the fact that I’ve discontinued it for personal reasons. XD

Personal favorite: Hmm... Fight the Future. (This is the one exploring what might have happened between Steven shattering Jasper and him carrying her shards to the temple.) Definitely not the most popular of my fics, but I really love a lot of the description I did in this one. It was a fun one to write.

Method for titling fics: Usually I just take a relevant word or phrase from the body of the actual fic and just go with that. Otherwise I will spend eons going through shitty song lyrics until I find something kind of thematically related. Crack the Paragon was a bit of a unique naming process, though. It took a good week for me to come up with a good title for this fic.

Work I am nervous about posting: Probably my zine fic, which might be posted sometime in March, maybe April. I’ve never written a fic for a zine before, so this is all brand new to me. I hope the people who get the zine enjoy it ;w;

Do you outline your works or just wing it? Depends on the fic. Things like Crack the Paragon are highly outlined, but other projects are mostly just... I’ll sketch out some dialogue ideas, and write around those. Contact had a full outline from the beginning, though.

Are you excited about any of your upcoming works? I am so hyped to post the final chapter of Contact, soon. I’m getting quite close to the end. This will be my first completed multichapter SU fic (I don’t count one of my multichaps as such because it’s just two one-shots in a multichapter trench coat XD) so that’s super exciting.

AO3 statistics:

User Subscriptions: 151 Kudos: 10,215 Comment Threads: 1,202      Bookmarks: 2,058      Subscriptions: 2,203      Word Count: 232,361    Hits: 106,533  

If you wanna be tagged to do this meme, consider yourself tagged. At the moment I’m really lazy and want to run downstairs to the dining hall and get some chicken strips, so I’m not gonna tag anyone specific right now XD

[anadvanceddegreeinquiet]

What, Me Pandemic? A Boho Crowd Stakes Its Claim (and Claims Its $48 Steaks)

Fricasse Dubois, 21, lamented the decision to pull her latest concrete poem from The Codswalloped Pisspot as she passed one of the whimsical “Maine-ducks-in-flight” mailboxes that serve as newspaper bins for the red-hot downtown rag. But her friend and intern, Banshee Fitzgerald, 33, had made a good point: The Pisspot had been flirting with questionable taste for months now. 

First there was the ironic opera libretto by Steve Bannon, which cast Leo “KIDS” Fitzpatrick as a Muslim refugee in a Copenhagen no-go zone. Then there was the edgy faux-memoir from Terry Richardson, modeled on O.J. Simpson’s unpublished “If I Did It,” and accompanied by a portfolio of Juergen Teller ass-Xeroxes.

But now, the Pisspot hype was growing, and Dubois realized that she might miss the proverbial boat. Interest in the nascent publishing venture was at fever pitch; a SPAC had been formed by laid-off Gagosian and Perrotin directors eager to stage a hostile takeover of the irregularly published ‘zine. 

And a dash of infamy certainly helped—the paper’s co-editor, Stizzy Fugger, had just launched a Tumblr in which she tallied the number of people she had inadvertently infected with Covid-19, updated in real-time (12,617 at press time, if you’re keeping score, more than the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally).

Anyone who has witnessed a “Pisspot drop” in the Dimes Square neighborhood of Manhattan knows to expect pandemonium. But nothing could have prepared this reporter for the foamy-mouthed jubilee and ecstatic violence of the occasion. 

It was 11am on a Tuesday, and the editors appeared at the corner of Seward Park, bearing several cardboard boxes of the paper. They were trailed by the usual suspects: Pimple-necked sadcore rappers, sex-positive Zoom therapists, former Artforum critic’s pickers who now run content for Chipotle, and middle-aged men who really shouldn’t skateboard.  

It’s a truism that an issue of Pisspot isn’t really read so much as it is imbibed, absorbed via the osmosis of social media’s orgiastic frenzy. In fact, the Times had a great deal of difficulty locating anyone who had physically held a copy of the paper in their smooth, unlined hands; many preferred to experience it as a series of fuzzy, thumbnail-sized images posted ironically on MySpace. 

“People used to say they read Playboy for the ads,” said Kit Murano, a fish-eyed, forty-something member of a downtown-based Adderall (™) street team. “Pisspot doesn’t have ads. And no one who knows anything would be caught, like, just sitting there and flipping through the thing. It’s an attitude. It’s an essence. It’s a lifestyle.”

Okay, sure—but what about the actual content actually published in each issue? Imagine an early iteration of Vice cross-pollinated with Tiger Beat, and then add a splash of sexual-harassment-era Paris Review. It’s a bit silly, and a bit loose. Bret Easton Ellis contributes a crossword puzzle in which every answer is just another reason why millennials suck. A party report—‘Reamed & Furred’—diligently transcribes the coke-addled bon mots of the same group of six people all eating at the same restaurant every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evening. 

If there’s an ethos gluing all of this together, it’s a passing-of-the-torch from an older bohemian guard to a younger demographic, with their laissez-faire attitudes about sex, drugs, and global pandemics. “It’s, like, we can all still party together, and age isn’t really ‘a thing’,” explains Murano, leaning out the window of a Mini Cooper wrapped in shiny SunGen Pharma adverts.

The entire scene revolves around the lopsided triangle known as “Dimes Square,” which borrows its moniker from the culinary hotspot Dimes. (The name derives from Cockney rhyming slang for ‘elongated pinky nail.’). Every New York story is also, of course, a story about real estate. In this case, that means the Connecticut country houses that this cohort has Airbnbed out while remaining to weather the storm in lower Manhattan. 

Parts of this scene are “white, but probably ambisexual-adjacent; they’re members of the creative class, but they possess enough self-hatred to seem authentic,” says Dash Johnson, a Dimes Square hanger-on who many suspect of running the Steak-Umms social media accounts. “Most of them used to work for galleries, or websites, or Garage magazine, but when those jobs dried up, they woke up one morning and said: Fuck it. Let’s stop pretending. Let’s just tweet.”

One essential element of any good scene is a gossip column to keep track—and to keep score. ArtWet’s “Wet Ass Pigment” plays that role for the Dimes Square cognoscenti. It’s a bleeding-edge social diary written by an anonymous, Gossip Girl-style correspondent who communicates solely via Signal, using a vocal transformer. 

“I was sick of trying to break into this world,” they said. “I was sick of meeting Anthony Haden-Guest at a dinner, for the 387th time, and having him introduce himself all over again, like we hadn’t both thrown up in the same toilet less than three days before. Fuck gatekeepers. I built my own gate, and then I started keeping it.” 

It was a Wet Ass Pigment column, in fact, which broke the season’s buzziest news: semi-disgraced first son Hunter Biden had bought an octoplex apartment directly above Dimes, where he’ll be staying as he prepares for a September solo exhibition that will open concurrently across Andrew Kreps, 56 Henry, Shoot the Lobster, and a pop-up space for Recess CBD seltzer. Unlike the gentle, “meditative” paintings that Biden had been making in recovery, the new work is brash and rudely vulgar—the product of an unexpected friendship Biden had struck up with Bjarne Melgaard and Jordan Wolfson. 

Meanwhile, the group’s literary face remains 29-year-old Katarina Klaus, whose razor-sharp prose skewers her surroundings with the acidic wit of a young Evelyn Waugh. “I’ll be honest, I fucking hate writing,” Klaus admitted, blowing her nose into a Telfar bag. “I’m both super motivated and super lazy. Sometimes I’ll just copy-paste random chunks of Speedboat into a column and no one will even notice.”

So what’s next for this ragtag crew? “Dimes Square will probably be over by the time this fucking article comes out,” Klaus laments. “You’re going to have, like, some TikTok influencer house on the corner of Canal and Essex, and all the coke will have fentanyl in it again because idiots from New Jersey just have no nose. You know what? I’m regretting this already. This is all off the record.”

Meanwhile, Klaus is already rethinking her involvement in Pisspot. With a current print run of 250 copies, the instantly iconic newspaper suddenly seems a bit too exposed. She’s in discussions with a new, unnamed venture that would distribute articles and essays in a serialized format, via fortunes randomly inserted into cookies at various Chinese restaurants within a three-block radius of the Square. “It’s all about ephemerality,” she says, sucking on a DMT vape she brought back from Mexico City. “It’s all about staying relevant.”

This article was lovingly rewritten from the original by Scott Indrisek.

CORRECTION: The above edition of this story mistakenly cites Kit Murano’s age as “forty-something,” based on our reporter’s visual guesstimation. She is actually 19.   

CORRECTION: ‘Dimes’ is in fact Cockney prison rhyming slang for the expression, “a bent knob is straight twice a day.”

CORRECTION: An earlier online version of this story mistakenly identified The Codswalloped Pisspot as The Duct-Taped Shitberg.

CORRECTION: An earlier, subscribers-only post of this story mislabeled the gossip blog Wet Ass Pigment as being a Spotify podcast called Wank ‘n Pose.

CORRECTION: Jordan Wolfson died in 2014. 

CORRECTION: An earlier Google Doc of this story referenced a non-existent ‘hardcore maternity diary’ by Chloe Sevigny, which most likely did not appear in issue 4 of the Codtaped Shitpot. 

CORRECTION: A version of this story that was sent to hapless print subscribers in Texas and Connecticut wrongly identified the geographic boundaries of “Dimes Square” as being East 45th Street, Central Park West, Freeman’s Alley, and Bedford Avenue.

[okkofamzine]

Applications CLOSED!

It’s official, applications for our OK KO fanzine “A Family Can Be” are closed! Over the past month, we’ve received so many amazing applications! Thanks so much to everyone who has shown support/interest in this project so far. We’re really excited to get movin’ on the next steps!

On Friday, September 25th, our plan is to send out selection status emails to everyone who applied. Whether you’ve been selected to create art for the zine or not, if you applied you will hear from us, so keep an eye on your email!

On Friday, October 2nd, we’ll be posting a public selected artists announcement so everyone can start getting HYPED!

Thanks so much again to all of the super talented artists that took the time to apply! Stay tuned, there’s plenty more exciting news to come!

Stay Connected!

Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram @okkofamzine

Email: OKKOFamZine@gmail.com

#okkofamzine

[angst-in-space]

october ‘20 writing progress

total words written: 14.9k

most words written in a day: 1,371

least words written in a day: 78

current yearly total: 183,411

projects worked on:

- sylvix dreamscape fic - finished first draft of long live zine piece - started sylvix christmas fic for the sylvix advent calendar event! - worked on kl hotel au - did some original story planning - worked on altea rising recap summary

october goals: - continue working on sylvix dreamscape fic - *sweats* edit/post chapter 15 of altea rising?? and if time maybe start editing the remaining chapters and/or work on writing the last few scenes…? - open fic commissions before the end of the month… - finish first draft of piece for long live zine - perhaps plan the sylvix pacific rim au some more november goals: - win nanowrimo?? lol - finish/submit final draft of my piece for long live zine - finish a draft of the sylvix xmas fic  - work on the sylvix dreamscape fic - finish (or at least work on) the kl hotel au??  - uhh at least finish the recap summary thing that i’m writing for altea rising? maybe if i feel extra spicy i’ll actually work on the actual fic lmfao - perhaps do some more planning on my original story idk

notes:

*steeples my hands together* well...i didn’t do super hot during october in terms of meeting my goals although at least i did some of it, i.e. i got a lot of work done on the sylvix dreamscape fic and submitted the first draft of my long live zine piece so that’s something.

also!! i was invited to write a fic for the sylvix advent calendar event (linked above) so i ended up putting a lot of time/effort into that as well! it’s gonna be a really fun event where there will be one art piece & one sylvix fic posted a day for every day in december leading up to christmas, and everything will be winter/holiday themed (and have happy endings) so yAAY it’s gonna be really cool and i recommend following the event twitter account if you like sylvix and want to see a lot of quality content next month! 

so yeah on that note, i’ll probably be putting a lot of effort into my fic for that event for most of november since obviously i have a deadline haha. i’m hyped for the whole event and for the fic i’m writing so i’ll be really excited to post that in december! 

my other big priority will be submitting my final piece for long live zine, although at this point it’s very close to being done––it’s just waiting on feedback from the mods and doing a bit of editing based on that. but yeah that’s also a project i’m very excited about! and i will definitely post updates about when the zine itself will be released!!  

other than that, a lot of my energy this month will go towards the sylvix dreamscape au. i’m almost done writing the third chapter and i’m hoping to write like five chapters or so before i start posting it....so i’m estimating i’ll post the first chapter in maybe december or january but we shall see.

my klance wips....as always are kind of a toss-up where i’m working on them when i feel like it dkfldsj BUT i’m really almost done with the hotel au and i’m hoping i can maybe get a draft of it done by the end of this month since i really only have a few scenes of it left i’ve just been too lazy to finish it. i also have been working on writing up this recap summary of altea rising so i can post that before i start putting the new chapters out. however it’s....really time consuming so i have no idea when that will be happening and then idk if people will even care enough to read it but lol i would ideally like to (finally) get another chapter of it posted before the end of this year....that’d be great.

i’m also trying to do nanowrimo this month aka “working on a million fic wips plus brainstorming an original story and hoping the numbers miraculously add up” so we’ll see how that goes!! 

oh yeah i know last month i was like “i’m gonna open up commissions” but that was...a lie..... i started a new job and what with that plus all the other wips i have, i think i have way too much on my plate rn. but i think i will shoot for opening up commissions in january maybe unless some other big project comes out of left field. 

....and oh yeah the sylvix pacific rim au i like totally forgot about during october, and again since i have so many other things to work on i’m not sure if/when that will be happening, but if so it probably won’t be for a few months buuut i might continue brainstorming some stuff for it at least. 

anyway holy fuck apparently i cannot shut up so i will stop rambling now and yeah peace out