#the average for most of them are around 700 words

[coralinnii]

Congratulations on reaching 2.7k followers! I’m not really surprised, as your writing is phenomenal. Would it be ok to request a continuation of two of your Legend has it... Twisted Halloween series? Specifically, Kalim and Sebek. They were my favourite of the series, and if I remember right they didn’t do well in your polls for this year’s Halloween event. If you already have them ready for Halloween then, just accept my congratulations and have a wonderful day. Thanks for your writing, it all ways brightens my day.

❋ Legend has it… ❋

↳ Sequel to the Twisted Halloween series

feat: Kalim ⭑ Sebek

genre: angst, tragedy, horror

note: sequel to Kalim and Sebek’s vers. in the Twisted Halloween series, no pronouns used, zombie?Kalim, reader is unstable in both vers., soldier!Sebek, ghost!reader in Sebek’s ver., pregnant!reader in Sebek’s ver., mentions of violence and worse in both vers., use of weapons for violence, average word count 700 words

This got darker than I intended…much darker. I cannot stress this enough.

Please regard the warning and make the best choice for yourself. I rather that you draw your own boundaries than for people read my stories. Remember, your mental health is more important than the latest update.

WARNING. Sebek’s story is set during times of war, in which great carnage, cruelty, and inhumane treatment of people occurred. The story reflects the inhumanity of this setting. While I believe in not erasing or running away from the brutality of violence and war, I understand that it can be extremely discomforting and triggering. Viewer discretion is highly advised. By clicking keep reading, you agreed to proceed while understanding the content of the story.

2.7K Followers Writing Event

Kalim felt cold if nothing else. He didn’t know what to expect the moment he closed his eyes, all he hoped was he’d managed to hold on just enough to let you get far away from danger, from what he will become.

He felt lost in the dark, in an almost unreal state of life. Was dying supposed to feel this way? Unsure of what to do, Kalim waited…for something…or nothing.

Then, Kalim felt something. A heartbeat. His own.

It pounded weakly against his heart, like it was out of practice. A beat, then another, and soon a rhythm began.

This beautiful beat started to grow warm in his stiff body, a tingle of a glow spreading through his chest and into his extremities.

“Kalim, wake up” a voice called out to him, tired and desperate but to him, it was the most beautiful sound in the world, because it was your voice.

Warm, rough hands encased his own as felt warmed by the gentle touch. Memories slowly trickled into Kalim’s thoughts, his dark vision filled with sweet smiles and better days. He saw images of you, though his thoughts scattered and he wasn’t sure what he remembered, but that lively warmth he felt seeing you was all he could focus on.

He needs to see it again, your bright smile. He wants to reply to your urgent calls to him. With the strength he thought he lost, the snow-haired man struggled to open his once-white eyes.

Through the blinding light, his eyes finally adjusted to see his memories come to life. Before him, you stood by his laying body with relief washing over your tear-stricken face.

You weren’t alone, however, In contrast to you, the people around you stood in the back, watching the miracle (whether good or bad) before them. Jamil stood between you and the wary strangers, carefully watching for what they might do in hasty fear, and ready for what Kalim (or you) might do.

“Kalim...” You whispered, oblivious (or purposely ignorant) to your precarious surroundings as you jumped to embrace Kalim’s revived corpse, as though you were used to the stiffness of his body. You had no fear left in you, all you felt was joy that your beloved could hug you back. Kalim, though confused, instinctively held you like it was ingrained in his body.

“This is madness!” One of the strangers screamed out, pointing his gun at the monstrosity in your arms. “You’re crazy if you think that thing’s human! There’s no cure, why can’t your crazy brain understa-”

Bang

The survivor screamed out once more in agony as the gush of blood escaped the fresh wound on his calf. The surrounding survivors jumped, either towards their injured comrade, away from him to stir clear of your target. The smoke hissed from the barrel of your gun, the same one Kalim left for you that horrific day.

“Shut up.” The cold tone in your command chilled the audience, not a soul dare to move in fear of incurring more of your wrath. “I promised to bring back those we lost to this cursed virus.”

Caressing Kalim’s cheek which still felt a little cold to the touch, you smiled once more before an icy chill took over your expression, a glare enough to freeze your followers to their spot.

“You followed me because you dreamed of a miracle to bring your friends and family back,” you scanned the anxious looks of your followers, most with guilty expressions over their greedy desires to regain what was lost in this wretched world, just like you. “I show you the breakthrough all of you waited for, but you dare to deny the results?”

You furiously fought back zombies at every corner while you dragged the possessed Kalim back to the safe zone. You spat in the face of the soldiers that refused to let your boyfriend join the survivors. You spent countless nights testing every theory and concoction for a glimpse of progress. With every failure, with every descent to madness, you’ve gotten closer to your miracle.

You’ve dreamed of the day you could return to your happier days, and nobody will get in the way of it.

You grew worried for your green-haired husband but tried to remain calm, if not for you then for your child who is growing steadily in your stomach. You spent the days caressing the warm bulge of your belly, the blanket that Sebek had clumsily knitted for you laying comfortably atop of you.

Typically, you would do your chores and tend to the fields but your family were very accommodating, taking over your responsibilities while caring for your needs. Your younger relatives would tease you, laughing as they told you that Sebek would scold them incessantly if he thought they weren’t tending to you as they should. You laughed along with them.

Then, large ships were seen coming to the shores of your village. You first thought that your husband’s troops returned and with the help of your family, you rushed along with the other villagers to welcome the allies.

Except they weren’t your allies.

Men dressed in unfamiliar attires lined themselves intimidatingly, weapons in arms. They announced that the nation that first promised your hometown’s safety has yielded to their enemies in return for their own safety, and that your village was henceforth under the control of their empire.

All the able men, both young and old, were forced to the fields to gather supplies and the women were made as servants to the invaders that destroyed their homes to build unfamiliar buildings. Even those with children such as you were not spared as you were used as hostages, forcing your families to comply lest they want you and your child’s blood to spill. You felt burning anger building but you instead bit your tongue, your family begged of your compliance, for your innocent child’s sake. Your family tried to console you, at least they spared harm to your unborn child, your relatives would say.

Until the invaders heard wind of who the child’s father was.

A child of the enemy nation, with a devoted lover and family. To them, your family were harbourers of the monstrous enemies, procreating more of their disgusting race. To the invaders, for the sake of the victory of their righteous nation, they must purge the savage bloodline.

Your screams tore out your throat as you begged for the soldiers, for anyone to stop the carnage before you. You were forced to watch along with the crying villagers as your family and many others were cruelly eliminated by the invaders’ hand.

You were dragged to the center of the bloody ground, where your people’s flesh and blood coated the once vibrant greenery of your hometown. The leader of the soldiers coldly dropped a dull knife near your kneeled form.

“That wretched parasite, or your life. That is your choice”

They thought they were being merciful. Should you choose to pierce your child, you had a chance to escape your own death. These soldiers had nothing against, only your child. The child that you wanted to introduce to your husband, looking forward to the day where you could see Sebek nervously trying to hold your child but melt once he felt the bundle of joy in his arms. These horrible men know nothing of the promise you made to your husband, to be by the shores to welcome him with your child wrapped in that messy blanket Sebek made for your precious baby. These foreigners called you barbarians, all while proudly carrying swords stained with your people’s blood.

Through your tears, inhuman rage indulged your soul. The stench of death and the cries of your neighbours as they begged for their lives devoured your sanity. Grabbing the knife before you, you gripped the dirty weapon in your soiled hands and with all your strength, you plunged it…

…into the leader’s heart.

In your blind wrath, you couldn’t even feel the assortment of swords piercing your body. Your eyes blazed with anger as you twisted the knife further your cursed torturer.

“M-Monster!” The wounded leader cried out, his body turning cold over the horrifying sight before him. The once fragile looking barbarian morphed into something inhuman. Your eyes turned into an endless void and your tears turned the same inky black running like blood down your cheeks.

Your vision was red, before it turned black. The last thing you remembered before falling into a sleep-like state, was gently caressing your wounded belly.

You woke up once more in an eerily silent field. Confusion initially filled you until the silent atmosphere broke as a loud child-like cry resonated. You looked down to your lap, and smiled wistfully.

“You must be cold, my child.” Undeterred by the wounds on your body, you started to walk towards your old home, ignoring the scattered remains on the fields. “Come, let’s go get your blanket. We need to welcome your father when he returns.”

[vroombeams]

finally, processing and/or dvd bonus for my beloved sweet talk would be very interesting. thank you <3

✑ PROCESSING: pick a fic and I’ll tell you what it was like to write it!

oh sweet talk my sweet talk. so stupid. so ill-advised. i feel like sweet talk really was just the most prime example of being committed to the bit? like well kee vroombeams will do most anything for the meme of it all. and i will! and in this case i did

it was a bit of a manic one tbh?? i think i wrote the whole thing in a series of sprints where i was averaging like, 600-700 words per 15 minute round. which is great for getting Many Words out. but not great for the guy who has to edit those words. (i'm that guy) overall it was like. fun?? i think?? i don't know i think i was in a fugue state gandalf voice i have no memory of this place. but it was also one of those fics that the more i looked at it the more i hated it so i just had to buckle up and post at some point lol

re: the actual process, conceptually love a threesome. logistically it's like now there are six arms and six legs and three dicks and six balls and three hearts and one and a half brains and and and. and. AND . there's just a lot going on. there's been a sequel in the works for months that came up similarly (many frantic sprints) and it's already longer than sweet talk and it's like maybe two-thirds done so. i don't know. i didn't learn my lesson the first time i fucking guess!!!!!

✄ DVD BONUS: pick a fic and I’ll describe or write a deleted scene!

To Oscar's credit, he barely bats an eye when Logan presents him with possibly the dumbest plan he's ever had. "So he just wants to watch," Oscar says. He's slumped in the exact chair in the corner of the hotel room that is being discussed, actually, and Logan's receiving untold psychic damage about it. "Yeah," Logan says, messing around with his suitcase so he doesn't have to look Oscar in the very much unbatted eye. "It's—I mean, maybe he was just memeing, man, I don't know." "I feel like if you've gotten to the point of scheduling it it's not a meme anymore." "Advanced memeing," Logan amends. "Like, it's Alex. Who fucking knows what goes on in his head?" Oscar says, "Hmmm." Logan peeks up from his already extremely tidy luggage, continues pretending to tidy it. Oscar's still looking at him, of course, because Oscar looks all the time like he knows things and Logan knows that he knows things but he doesn't have to make it such a thing, does he? "What?" Oscar shrugs. "I'm not bothered either way," he says, and it's literally just this second that Logan realizes he hasn't even fucking asked if Oscar's down for this. "Just, you know. Make sure it doesn't bother you." He's caught for a second between apologizing or throwing himself to the floor at Oscar's feet and thanking him for being the most unfazeable human person on this earth or maybe offering up sexual favours in exchange for his like extremely severe blunder of not asking if it's actually okay to invite Alex Albon to watch them fuck. "It doesn't bother me," he settles on. It comes out all muttered and sheepish, but it's pretty much the truth. Like, ninety percent of it.

fic ask game 💃

[sallysavestheday]

20 questions for fic writers

Thanks very much to @nocompromise-noregrets for the tag! This is always an interesting exercise and I haven't done it in a while.

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 182, but a goodly subset of those are collections of very short works (drabbles, my beloveds!).

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 137,372. I average around 700 words per ficlet (counting those that are collections of drabbles). I have only two works over 2,000 words -- one at barely 2,100 and one at 5,600 by dint of TRSB last summer.

3. What fandoms do you write for? Tolkien only. Mostly Silmarillion but occasionally Lord of the Rings, as well.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos? I'm splitting this by fandom because the older LoTR stuff has more kudos simply as a function of time.

For LoTR: Deep in the Ancient Forests of the World; Light a Little Fire in Me; I Do Not Grudge You the Game; Rash Words and Bitter Hopes; Sing, O Stone and Air. These are all Legolas/Gimli ficlets.

For Silm: When All Other Lights Go Out (the aforementioned TRSB Feanorian family drama); What We Make, Makes Us (Caranthir and Feanor); What Keeps Us Here (Celeborn and Thranduil); Still Plenty of Good in the World (Sam Gamgee fixes Feanor and Nerdanel); and It Is the Opinion of this Reviewer (Finrod critiques the research of his peers).

No method to the madness here, it seems. Some shippy, most not. Some angsty, some humorous, mostly canon compliant. Range of Silm characters. Interesting to see the variety, actually.

5. Do you respond to comments? Always. Usually within a few days. Comments are a great way to get to know other people in the fandom, and it's always a pleasure to see familiar names pop up. It's nice to know I have a bit of a following. But I also love seeing new people appear, and I welcome everything from a single emoji to a full blown rant. I reply to them all.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Only one? Impossible to choose. I love an angsty ending. Killing Fingon off is always a delight (like this, or this). Sending people off to their dooms (like this, or this) is another. Making them consider might-have-beens, too (like this, or this, or this).

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? I do also like happy endings! I write many happy post-canon returns, to tie up all the loose ends. Also happy moments within canon, but you usually have to pretend you don't know what comes next (blame the Professor, not me). For LoTR, These Our Braided Lives has a very happy Gimleaf ending. For Silm, try In These Altered States, Rejoice.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Spitting over my shoulder on this one, but no. Even the people who don't agree with my takes on particular characters have always been polite. Thank you, kind readers!

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? I don't write anything explicit. I'll read a wide variety but am more restrained in my writing. I've snuck a little bit into the mature range for a few things recently, but I prefer allusion and metaphor, really. It's the spirit of the intimacy that interests me, not so much the mechanics.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? Nope. Canon compliant or canon adjacent always.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Yes, I've had a few requests. My Thranduil seems to be quite popular in other languages.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? I haven't but would be happy to explore the possibility.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? Can't pick just one. Legolas/Gimli, Glorfindel/Ecthelion, Maedhros/Fingon, Finrod/Edrahil. The much rarer Egalmoth/Rog. And I'm pleased to have originated the tag for Amrod/Aredhel. Spitfire fans, get on that! (thanks to chestnut_pod for the horrible, wonderful ship name)

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Not a WIP, even, just an idea that I've mentioned before: an AU in which Fingon, returning from Thangorodrim with Maedhros, can't hold onto him, and he falls from the eagle's back into Lake Mithrim. I won't write it, but I sure hope someone else will.

16. What are your writing strengths? Brevity, ha! Condensing a great deal of emotional development into very few words. Figurative language. Ripping your heart out and stomping on it, tidily.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Dialogue. I don't write much of it, and it takes a long time to get it right.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I'm not likely to do so. I don't like the way it interrupts the flow. I'd rather indicate the language that is being spoken than try to craft compelling dialogue in it. This is especially fraught in the Tolkien fandoms, where the linguists WILL come for you if you get it wrong, lol!

19. First fandom you wrote for? LoTR. I've only been doing this for a couple of years.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written? Impossible to choose! But my comfort series is The Flower and the Fountain: 16,000 words of Glorfindel and Ecthelion in 32 vignettes. I love those guys.

Thank you so much for the tag! @polutrope @eilinelsghost @melestasflight @tathrin @thelordofgifs @zealouswerewolfcollector, what about you? And anyone else who'd like to share, hop in!

[batrogers]

So -- barring the idea I have for the Doll % Runs -- my Doll fic series is finally complete, as I'd first imagined it to be.

Series Summary:

A series in which, upon leaving the Dollmaker she made a very generous gift to Hyrule: one doll for each of his friends, with the caveat he must be the one holding it for it to activate, and he must be near them. He hopes he never has to use one. Here are all the times he might be forced to explain.

Ratings range from T to E.

Universally Temporary Major Character Death fics, with frequent Graphic Depictions of Violence (although some deaths are less graphic, less violent, or a different kind of violent.)

Fun with some stats, because I wanted to collect them for me:

Brief summary: most fics in the series hover around 1:6 or 1:7 ratio, probably because of the self-selection by means of being Linked Universe fics (which often average closer to a 1:10 ratio) and being self-selecting by means of the MCD/Graphic Violence archive warnings and similar tags (eg. beheading, eaten alive, etc.)

The highest word count is Dog Days, at 4,070 words.

The lowest word count is Perfection, at 1,950 words.

The first fic ("The Dollmaker" was published in October last year, and the most recent was finished twelve hours ago (September 3rd).

More detail about ratios and hits and commentary on why I think that is under the cut. But thank you all who have enjoyed this series!

The Dollmaker is the oldest fic in the series, published Oct 18th, 2023. It's at a 1:8 kudos-to-hits ratio, with over 700 hits.

Dark Despair's Corroding Hand (Time's doll fic) is next, published Apr 8, 2024, and is at a 1:7 kudos-to-hits ratio, with over 300 hits (but it has some interesting tags and an E rating, so can't blame y'all.)

Where is my Harmony (Legend's doll fic) was published Jun 13, and is at a 1:6 ratio, and is a few more hits over 300 than Dark Despair -- but this one's only rated M and much less graphic.

Dog Days (Twilight's doll fic) was published Father's Day (Jun 16th) because I'm an asshole. It has a 1:8 kudos ratio and barely over 300 hits, probably because it's intensely political and not the kind of Twilight-and-Time vibe most of the fandom likes.

It Hungers Still (Wind's doll fic) was published July 1st, and is at a 1:6 ratio because some tags are VERY self-selecting for an audience and oh boy is this one. It's also rated E. Over 200 hits.

Good Is Not Nice (Warriors' doll fic) was also published July 1st, and is at a (slightly higher = 5.6 vs 5.9) 1:6 kudos ratio too because tbh these two fics -- for all the ratings lower -- are equally violent in very different ways.

Hidden Ruin (Sky's doll fic) was published July 11th, and is at a 1:6 ratio too. It has just under 200 hits.

Perfection (Wild's doll fic) was published July 16th, and is at a 1:9 ratio, proving that fandom favouritism is not always in a story's favour LOL. Just over 400 hits, which wildly outpaces the others and yet that has likely pushed down the ratio in itself.

Blue and White and Gone (Four's doll fic) was published Jul 30th, and is at a 1:7 ratio, with just under 200 hits. (Which makes sense given how recent these last are.)

And, published twelve hours ago, Will You Be There (Hyrule's doll fic) is at a 1:5 ratio and 60 hits.

[chronicallyonline101]

hi!!!! this is the anon that sent in the Melone ask (if you recieved it), i was rereading Dumb Killers nd i have a few questions!!! if thats okay!!!

what inspired you to write it??? like its such a heavy fic, the chapters are SO long and we're 10 chpts in now without even half the cast introduced so i can imagine its got a long while to go !! how r u managing this??? are you okay mentally???

second of all, is it gonna follow canon? or have you got your own plot made up??

im excited for the next chapter !!! i cant wait to find out what happens with the team, and how Pesci will eventually join! that scene with (who i think was) Prosciutto's dad had me gasping lol

HI. I SQUEALED WHEN I READ THIS !!! ik u! I call you melone-anon to my friends cuz im currently writing ur request and its one of my favs 🤭🤭 it'll be out soon!! sozzies its taking so long ive got a few projects im working on atm so im a bit slow on everything !!

OKAY. SO. THIS IS GONNA BE WEIRD but the reason i wanted to write Dumb Killers is because i read this fic in like... January? I want to say? It was a La Squadra x reader and it was PERFECT. for some time... it was over 100k words, had a LOT of kudos and seemed pretty good but the thing was that it started out AMAZING and then like, after a few chapters turned into sensless smut... like, i LOVE smut but the plot of the fic stopped progressing because literally EVERY. OTHER. CHAPTER. the characters were getting freaky and i got bored and it pissed me off so bad i decided right then and there i needed to write my own fic!

i actually have imaginary beef with that author now cuz their fic has around 700 kudos and i wanna beat them BUT ANYWAYS. ENOUGH OF ME BEING JEALOUS OVER OTHER AUTHORS.

i feel a bit bad that the chapters are so long but i literally have no control over it 😭 i just start writing and by the time im done 20k lines the page... i looked on the ao3 subreddit to see if it was normal and was pleased to learn that on average most authors do around 10-15k SO IM NOT WEIRD.

ALSO. its only long rn cuz its the introduction! Pesci will be introduced by chpt 12, and after that things start speeding up! prommies!

it will kinda follow canon??? i have my own plot in mind, and that plot will slowly bleed into canon! but its not gonna follow canon exactly, the events of GW are gonna unfold from La Squadra's POV up until Ghiaccio's fight, and then its gonna get a bit quirky (: BUT I CANT SPOIL. SO. TAKE WITH THAT WHAT YOU WILL!!!!

im so glad your enjoying!!! seeing comments like these makes me giggle nd kick my legs 🤧🤧 and yes! It was Prosciutto's dad! well done! 😚😚 im giving you a big kiss! i hope you like the next chapter! it should be out soon!!!!

[toweringboottreads]

Drabble prices (11/1/23)

I havent talked much about coms here cause uhhhhhhh head empty BUT, i used to do longform fics but got burned out too quickly on them. Under the cut for the copy paste but details here.

Reblogs appreciated!

TL:DR: Accepting story/drabble coms for $0.02 US Per word.

I write mini fics that are more geared towards getting to the point. Add me on Discord (will hand out to anyone in a note or twitter dm), tell me what you want, be open for questions and stuff and ill write out two to three messages worth of text! (Discord text message chara lmit is 2000 characters- 2 messages is roughly 400-700 words), which is about the length i think i write the best at. Prices will be $0.02 per word (so 2 discord messages averaging at 500 words would be $10), with an upper cap of $20*. When you provide your price, please be aware that it is a range. Occasionally I may have to go higher to reach a narrative satisfying conclusion. I.E. You tell me you are willing to spend between $5 and $10, or between 250-500 words. *this means, for example, if the word count is capped at 1000 ($20), and the word count ends up at 1039, it would still only be $20. You MUST provide a minimum word count and a maximum word count. You may set a soft limit on words for me to hover around or a hard limit that i may not go above, but asking to increase the length after it is finished beyond simple edits will cost $.50 per addition. Edits for clarity, smaller details, and fine tuning are case by case, but usually free. Payment would be after i send the first half of the fic and it gets approved, Paypal only. Examples of writing style in my gallery: Example of 600 word fic ($12): https://www.furaffinity.net/view/48458452 WHAT I WRITE: Macro/Micro Nano/Giga Vore Crush Growth Shrinking Most things between cruel and fluff Expansion (Muscle, weight, hyper, etc) Casual x (x being anything above) What I WON'T write: Gore (as in i wont go into detail, but implied is fine) Underage/Noncon Bathroom stuff Internals (the pov of the story will always be 'outside' the main subject) Any other questions lmk!

[is-the-battlemech-cool-or-not]

So my basic idea so far is that my oc is a close to 1000 year old Chinese Belter who was alive during the first star league and Amaris' coup. She was genetically engineered to be the perfect mechwarrior by having augmented heat tollerance, and requiring less sleep than your average person. being close to 1000years old she ends up with a devil may care attitude and purposely pilots mechs with outragous loadouts like the 8 heavy medium laser nova or the 6ppcs swayback. her reasoning being that living on the edge is fun and if its her time to die then she will die, having lived for so long. Her name is Yue Liming and her Callsign is TieShan, which is chinese for Iron Mountain, in reference to her enhanced endurance and stamina. Some people also call refer to her as Princess both because of rumors of her being belter royality and also as a pun off of her call sign because her call sign also sounds liek the Chinese for Ironfan and princess ironfan is a notable character from Journey to the West. During the Amaris Coup she joined the star league defense force's siege of terra and was offered a place to leave with Kerensky, but she declined, and decided to stay in the inner sphere, where she works as a freelancer mech warrior, willing to work with most factions as long as the work fits her morals and the pay is good. Exepctions being she refuses to work for the Capallens, viewing them as a bunch of posers who brings a bad name to the culture she so dearly loves, and during the Jihad refuses to work for the Word of Blake, who she hates even more than the Capallens.

It sounds pretty good, save for the 1000 years old part. Not even the Belters have anyone that old, as far as we know. The Star League was only founded in 2570 while the BattleMech was only invented in 2439. The current year is the early 3150s. So 'Mech pilots have only been a thing for about 700 years, the Star League for around 600.

Also, the Belters would have more use for a genetically engineered AeroSpace Fighter pilot, since they live in space, and use of 'Mechs in space combat is extremely uncommon in universe. But a decent amount of AeroSpace Fighter adaptions would be useful to a 'Mech pilot regardless.

I would say that somewhere around 550 might be a good age for her. That lets her have been alive during the final era of the Star League all the way up to now.

Of course she may wish to not make that fact known. There are many who would kill to know the secrets of such a long life.

[comfortlesshurt]

July 2024 Stats Update!

Figured I might as well take advantage of all this data I'm hoarding! Hiding my statistics under the cut in case you don't wanna see 'em.

This is kinda slapped together, but I'm hoping to build a prettier template over time.

Main goal: VLD word count greater than Spider-Man. Current progress: 43,077/100,258 (43.0%)

Time period: June 29th, 2024 to July 31st, 2024

Gave it a little bit of June since I posted a July fic early to make up for the AO3 outage on 7/1!

AO3

Published word count delta: +19,942 across two new works and zero existing works

Work subscriptions delta: +38

New hits: 3,234

New kudos: 233

Comments delta: +16 (frankly, the most surprising thing in this whole post! I am not used to comments)

Works bookmarks delta: +60

User subscriptions delta: 0! (It bounced around a bit but ended up back where it was)

FFN

User favs delta: +2

User alerts delta: +1

Published word count delta: +20,181 (couple A/Ns added to the WC)

New profile views: 69 (nice)

New reviews: 3

New story views: 657

C2 delta: 0

Story favs delta: +3

Story alerts delta: +5

Single-Point AO3 Data: July 31st, 2024

Newer Fic Achievements

5 Times Lance Doesn't Matter: #2 highest word count (#1 if excluding works containing multiple separate stories); #3 for most comment threads; and top 10% for work subs conversion rate (percentage of hits that become work subscribers), comment conversion rate, and bookmark conversion rate

Smiling 'cause you're used to it: #3 highest word count; #6 for subscriptions; and top 10% for subs conversion rate, comment conversion rate, bookmark conversion rate, and title length (in number of characters)

Chemicals, chemicals in my brain: top 10% for subs conversion rate, comment conversion rate, bookmark conversion rate, and title length (I loved this fic but maybe no one else agrees! I forgive you all.)

Top 10% by...

Hits:

5 Times Peter Struggled with Spider Metabolism

Whump Bingo

Anywhere but Here

Sick Days

Take the worst situation

We are the reckless

Kudos:

5 Times Peter Struggled with Spider Metabolism

Anywhere but Here

Whump Bingo

We are the reckless

Take the worst situation

Sick Days

Comments:

5 Times Peter Struggled with Spider Metabolism

Whump Bingo

5 Times Lance Doesn't Matter

We are the reckless

Sick Days

Take the worst situation - Smiling 'cause you're used to it (a tie!)

Subscriptions:

5 Times Peter Struggled with Spider Metabolism

Whump Bingo

Sickdays 2.0 Day 2 & 5

I've got you stuck on my mind

Impressions

Smiling 'cause you're used to it

Total Word Count:

Whump Bingo

5 Times Lance Doesn't Matter

Smiling 'cause you're used to it

5 Times Peter Struggled with Spider Metabolism

We are the reckless

I've got you stuck on my mind

All-Time AO3 Data

Influencers Positively Correlated with Increased Stats:

Kudos:

Tagged for emeto

Tagged/titled as a 5+1 fic

Filterable additional tags between 7 and 21

Fandom - Spider-Man: Homecoming

Accessible by guest users (average additional 250 kudos)

Word count over 2,884

Has at least one platonic relationship tagged

Does not have a writing challenge mentioned in tags or summary

Tagged as an AU

Hits:

Word count is between 913 and 926 or is over 7,237

Tagged/titled as 5+1

Fandom - Spider-Man: Homecoming

Accessible by guest users (average additional 5.5k hits)

Tagged for emeto (or scat, which is surprising because I thought you guys didn't like those fics)

At least one platonic relationship tagged

Does not have a writing challenge mentioned in tags or summary

Tagged as AU

Categorized as gen or M/M

Summary is not an excerpt from the fic

No slash tagged

Average of ~700 additional hits for every 3.86 additional (filterable) tags added

Similar results for bookmarks and comments.

And here's a little data dashboard I never finished tweaking! I think it looks okay enough for now, so you get to see it even though it's not in its final state. (Yes, it's currently splitting fics up into multiples if I ever renamed them, which is annoying.)

Recent Voltron hit stats:

Hit stats for all fandoms the entire time I've been recording:

Feel free to PM for my methods! I don't discuss them publicly because they're associated with me IRL, but I don't mind discussing in private.

[aspiring-holistic-otaku]

Season 2 Ramble# 8 - Sports!

As I hope you got from the title, this ramble focuses on sports in manga, but before I get into it, let me breakdown some things about how this is gonna go.

Firstly a little heads up for you and a little copout for me, the average sports manga tends to be a bit longer than other genres so I figured my usual sprint approach of picking up a bunch of titles and blitzing them wouldn't work. Instead I went for a kind of marathon type approach where I still read a bunch but didn't have completion on my mind as much as usual.

Pros and cons for this approach

pro - I was able to get in that much more diversity than I would otherwise. There's hella sports out there which makes for hella subject matter, each carrying its own unique perspectives that I'm really glad I got the chance to experience, and equally glad to try and share those experiences.

cons - I made the pro sound pretty grandiose but as I said, completion wasn't at the forefront of my mind as much this month, meaning there's quite a few titles I didn't get to finish, so with a lot of these reccs I'd have to say there's more than a grain of salt to keep in mind.

Second thing I want to get out the way are the elements I consider the most important in a sports manga, which I hope will give a little more context to the lists. In my mind the four most important elements for a sports manga are realism, teamwork, ego/drive to win & mindset/mentality. I speak on what those mean to me a bit more in the episode.

Moving on, the actual format of the episode is gonna have things I read this month in a triathlon type setup, meaning 3 categories/legs, closed out with a small award type ceremony thing, then after things read this month I'll speak a bit on my favourite sports manga read before this month.

And now without further ado, LET THE RACES BEGIN!

Things read this month

(first leg)

Uncompleted Incompletes {stuff I didn't finish reading and are still ongoing}

#3 Hajime no Ippo {by George Morikawa, read 49 out of the total 1434 chapters}

Seen this around for the longest time, usually see it called the top 1 boxing manga in more than a few circles, and again for more than a few I've seen it called the top 1 sports manga overall. All that being said the reason a self proclaimed aspiring holistic otaku like myself hasn't read it before now is due to its extreme length.. roughly 1.4k chapters and counting…. just couldn't see myself devoting all that time to what I figured could be summed up in one word, boxing.

That being said, I figured that even if I wasn't going to finish or even put a dent in it, now was the time to bite the bullet and as you can tell from its placing I'm glad I did.

The story follows ippo, a bullied highschooler who is one day saved by a passerby boxer. In awe of his strength, ippo decides to join his gym and try to get stronger. Simple and common enough baseline story, mainly driven by ippo's growth which is tied to his mentality, as ippo is naturally a timid guy but his earnesty towards bettering himself makes those around him, including me the reader, want to support him.

Cool cast so far from his gym mates to opponents, all contributing to a pretty good balance of serious and funny moments. So far the art has generally been pretty good, the only slight gripe I have at this point is I find the mc pretty meh.. like he's endearing but like in that way any kid trying out a sport seems where you just wanna tell em good job no matter what.

In any case I only read 49 chapters so huge grain of salt, though I imagine that both ippo and the cast must develop in a bunch of ways over 1000+ chapters

side note Kentarou Miura, creator of berserk was an assistant on this manga for some time, rip the legend one time every time

#2 Yowamushi Pedal {by Wataru Watanabe, I read 114 out of total 486 chapter count, btw in Brazilian it's up to 700+ }

Literally like maybe 1 or 3 people I know have ever mentioned this to me, 1 of whose taste I couldn't really trust, the second literally cycled everywhere n wore that bodysuit type thing to school which kinda put me off the whole thing and I'm pretty sure the third is a figment of my imagination.. so this series never really had any pull innate or otherwise + I figured it could be summed up into "dude rides a bicycle" which again unlike boxing doesn't really have any appeal with just that.

In any case I'm so so glad I picked this up, grabbed me from chapter 1 and honestly had a hard time putting it down.

the story here centers around sakamichi, a freshman highschool student who wants to make an anime club so he can make friends. This is a cycling manga so unfortunately for my guy that didn't pan out well for him but due to some plot I don't want to spoil he ends up in the cycling club and yes he does make friends.

Great mc but that's probably weeb bias, great main cast nonetheless, the teamwork stands out fr like I didn't know how cycling could be a team sport but it is, and I love that even though they're all on the same team most of them have a drive to be the best which works out in an iron sharpens iron kind of way. The mentality of a cyclist was also really cool like with boxing or more physical sports it's easy to grasp that you have to ready yourself to take a hit but in cycling they got into the flexibility and perseverance you need to keep pedaling no matter where you are and the sights you'll be able to see because of that. Great art, very scenic as they're riding all over the place and though I've only read about a quarter it's definitely something I'd highly and heartily recommend.

#1 Giant Killing {with Masaya Tsunamoto doing the story and Tsujitomo on art, read 84 out of the 514 chapters}

This is a soccer manga. Now you may have noticed a trend here where I haven't thought much of some manga and then ended up liking it, well that's because in general I don't like sports,, well I enjoy playing but not so much watching.. except table tennis and maybe basketball but anyways that trend pretty much continues here. straight out the bat I'll say I don't care for football or soccer or whatever you wanna call it but man this manga.

The story is that an already failing football club now finds themselves in need of a new coach after theirs left them, and so some managerial staff track down a former star player for the club who they heard now coaches small town football sides in England.

Kind of a slow start with them finding the coach and him settling in and everything but it sets solid groundwork which builds into great main and wider cast dynamics. This is one of my favourite things about this manga, it offers solid perspective and narratives from the coaching staff, managerial staff, the players on and off the pitch and even fans and journalist. Never seen a sports manga so thoroughly build out its world. The art was an interesting style but it does a great job of illustrating the dynamicism of play mixed with solitary key moments which makes me feel like I'm watching a slowmo highlight.

Very real feel in a lot of respects and I really appreciated that despite the name they don't just go around making upset wins. They win and lose their fair share but always kept me engaged. #1 on this leg but not something I think is for everybody, especially if you're not a sports fan but if you are a sports fan, especially a soccer fan, I think this will be one of your favourites.

hm: MF GHOST(initial d sequel), Ao Ashi(soccer)

(leg #2)

Completed Incompletes {finished reading but still ongoing or just not fully translated as is the case for everything here}

#3 SK8R'S {by Hajime Tojitsuki, read 9 out of the total 18 chapters}

This is all about street skating, not much to say with only 9 chapters but it just looked really cool

Anyways the story is that a kid happened to see a dude skating one day and he did one of those jump tricks and he was hooked.

Average art but it's pretty dope when they do full spreads and tricks. Again not much chapters so not much to say but I really hope the rest gets translated.

#2 Tsubame Tipoff {by Hiroya Watanuki, read 40 out of total 50 chapter count}

This pulled me in because women's basketball and I'm always a slut for new perspectives.

The story here is a tall but uncoordinated freshman finds her short but extremely athletic upperclassman cute so she joins the basketball team to get closer to her... Now I'm not gonna call her gay but she be blushing like crazy... In any case the art is pretty solid, really cool cast, not sure if I thought that just cause of the relative novelty of a girl's basketball team in manga but they were just pretty cool.

what I read was pretty good and again I would really love if the rest of the chapters got translated.. maybe I'll just learn Chinese idk..

#1 Break Shot {by Takeshi Maekawa, read 84 out of the total 152 chapter count}

This is a manga about billiards which I think is different from pool but I didn't look it up so I'm gonna play it safe and stick to billiards

The story here is that the student council wants to shut down the billiards club because they only have one member who is our mc, chinmi. He tries to negotiate and they tell him if he wants to keep the club he has to show some record of notable achievement or skill, so he enters a tournament with his club on the line.

The billiards pulled me in and as expected there was some unreal stuff to keep it interesting like a dude who has a special shot that breaks the cue ball on purpose and uses the force of the shratnel to pocket multiple balls… like come on… he's a highschool student for one like come on… but outside stuff like that I really like how they framed a billiards game as a puzzle where your skill is actually more a reflection of intellect, in being able to make a pocket or stop your opponent from doing so. also loved the art like it's old but it's the kind of old school charm that gives a Sunday morning cartoon vibe and I'm not sure if it's because of the subject being billiards but it felt really smooth and classy.

Billiards is a singles competition but they were able to create an element of teamwork through rivalry which was cool and I kind of already spoke on the mentality through their framing of the game as a puzzle. To solve the puzzle they really had to think on their feet. Ego and stuff was definitely there and again I really really want this to be translated. In any case I highly recommend this one.

hm: Dogsred(about hockey by the creator of golden kamuy), Mongrel (mma)

(and the last leg of things read this month)

Completed Completes {finished reading, finished publishing}

#3 moon land {by Sai Yamagishi, 98 chapters}

This is about gymnastics and I didn't think I'd be interested + I'd never even heard of it before but this was recommended to me by Jen who I had on last episode and from its placing you can tell I enjoyed it. This is why I trust Jen and even had her on the show, shout out Jen every time

The story is basically that the mc mitsuki is really good at gymnastics because of strong fundamentals but he had no flair. the main thing is that it presents gymnastics as an expression of self and mitsuki aims to be able to move his body the way he wants to, in other words freedom.

The art is kind of meh in general but ofc they step up in spreads and stuff, great teamwork, ego and mentality stuff, more of that iron sharpens iron effect I like, kind of felt like the ending was rushed but it was an unexpectedly nice journey. they really took the time to educate about gymnastics which i appreciated and I feel like I'm underselling but it really was cool.

#2 Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji {Nobuyuki Fukumoto, 158 chapter}

Had actually tried another manga by this guy called Akagi hoping to learn the rules for mahjong but they didn't care to explain the rules and it wasn't super well translated so I couldn't really keep up despite how cool the mc seemed.

In any case the quirkiness of his art style is what really drew me in so I picked up kaiji instead and it turned out to be really good.

The story here is kaiji, the mc is pretty much living a garbage life which gets worse when a debt collector comes and tells him a friend of his ran off on a debt kaiji was the guarantor on. the debt is in the tens of millions which he clearly doesn't have but the collector tells him there's a once in a lifetime opportunity happening soon, and offers kaiji a ticket onto a ship to play games and win enough money to clear his debt in one night.

I guess this is where the question of whether or not gambling is a sport would arise but 1) it's my list and 2) they are competing according to set rules for a prize so that's that.

Anyways this was closer to my preferred tastes with the darker, more critical view of #society and stuff, which is seen in how teamwork was kinda nonexistent or fleeting at best but the mentality needed to win or even just survive was strong.

Really liked the mc, lots of growth in a short amount of time but in any case I'd recommend this one for sure, especially with the recent wave of squid games and stuff like that… it's not squid games but just if you liked that you'll probably like this..

#1 One Outs {Shinobu Kaitani, 175 chapters}

I think the full title is actually One Outs, nobody wins but I which is just super cool especially as you see how the story unfolds but yh.

The story here is that tokuchi toua is a professional gambler that dedicates most of his time to a tweaked baseball game called one outs. In this game the pitcher must get 3 strikes to win but all the batter has to do is hit the ball past the infield for a win, yet in 499 matches toua has never lost. Due to some plot stuff I don't want to spoil he ends up getting involved with the main japanese baseball league and basically the owner of his team doesn't like him, so tokuchi baits him into a contract unfavourable to himself where he gets paid 50 mill for each strike out but has to pay 500 mill for every run scored on him. The owner didn't believe his 499 streak record held much weight so he accepts.

The people he's playing with or against don't know anything about this and they're all pros so his skills are definitely tested fr. It's hard to explain how mind games comes into play but just trust this guy basically turns a sports manga into a psychological thriller which was just amazing.

Highly recommend, I didn't really know anything about baseball, still don't really but man. nothing but praise tbh.

hm: aoiro ping pong, and **mighty girl(baseball)

{in the episode I mention some other stuff I was reading and would also recommend but felt they out would be too contrived or too much grains of salt due to how the small percentage of their total chapter counts I got to read despite how much I enjoyed them but you can check my anilist to see

{in the actual episode I name black box as the second honorable mention. but that was a mistake probably due to it and mighty girl having the same author idkidk but mighty girl was better}

}

if you're interested you can listen in to the episode for the small awards ceremony thing that would be here but in this writeup I'm just going to move along

Things read before this month

not as much detail as before cause spoken on most of these before plus nowadays in think more attention sound be given to newer reads but anyways

#3 Eyeshield 21{Riichirou Inagaki story and Yusuke Murata, read/333 chapters}

American football focused. really really good. has been in my top 3 sports manga for like a decade now.

#2 Ping Pong{created by Taiyou Matsumoto, 55 chapters}

Table Tennis focused. spoken on before in detail in Season 1 Ramble#10 and was #4 in its section + became my #3 read overall last year. So good I actually took the time to watch the anime this month.

#1 Rookies {Morita Masanori, 233 chapters}

Delinquents playing baseball. Top 1 in Sesson 2 Ramble#6, #2 in Season 1 Ramble#12 delinquency and #3 in the very first real ramble Season 1 Ramble#1 which is where I spoke on it with the most detail.

hm: Usugoi(peak gambling), HAPPY!(lawn tennis by naoki urasawa)

[romanarose]

Y'know what's wild, I just discovered that if you look up a tumblr username in Google, you can see their likes and reblogs even if you opted to keep your likes private and your account hidden from search engines and third party stuff.

My concern has always been a potential employer seeing my fangirl cringe, and I know that there's software that can let them find all of a candidates or employees' accounts via email.

Unfortunately, tumblr doesn't let you make your primary blog private. And this is where my cringe lives.

You don't have to post what your profession is if you respond to this, but I remember you posting it in the past and it seems like a job that would do some deep diving into your socials.

So, have you had any issues with this? Has it ever come up?

Okay so for anyone who didn’t see the last ask, this person reached out and said they did not mean for this to come off vaguely threatening 😂 I’ve had issues in this fandom space before and we all know the doxxing and doxxing threats around me and many others but this asker seems nice!

Anon, my best advice is not to worry. Most employers don’t know what a tumblr is tbh. And most don’t dig that deep to find every little social esp if it doesn’t have your name.

Romana/roman rose is nowhere near my legal name, and the email isn’t even my main email

So, fun fact for the first year or something of my blood it was a joint blog with someone I used to consider a friend. They weren't into fandom but they liked other aspects of tumblr. It was one of those thing I didn't wanna share my blog but she was good at manipulating. She liked the nsfw stuff here and she was highly controlling so I think she liked to be able to watch what I was up to. Some of y'all here have heard me talk about this friend. She ended up sexuality abusing me, and I am suspicious she did the same to others. I had to slowly cut contsct bc she's doxxed people before

She wanted likes and follows private I guess. Recent years I felt safe enough to actually change passwords and stuff bc were fully non contact. I guess I could make my likes and follows public again? But my likes are just fics I either read and Reblogged or havnt read so idk if there's a point.

If you applying for like, something big then yeah you might have concern. My dad was a cop and he got a federal job and they sent someone 700 miles to knock on our neighbors doors and ask about us 😭

As for my job…… I work at Olive Garden.

In the past I’ve done day care and I’ve done social work, both jobs require background checks but no social media although I’m sure they looked me up for social work.

My last day care job I talked plenty about fan fiction with teachers bc I think it’s a fun hobby and pretty much everyone thought it was fun, even if a bit silly

As my high school never even blocked tumblr in the heyday bc they didn’t know it existed. And those who knew it existed now largely think it’s gone.

Keep a professional and family Facebook. If you have a nsfw or edgy twitter maybe make sure you’re name isn’t attached

Honestly my concern wouldn’t be my fandom cringe or porn stories but the more radical political takes I’ve posted 😭

My brother got into law school and is a lawyer now even with posting borderline alt right/ alt light shit back in his day 🧍🏽‍♂️

Average Employers don’t do as much digging as people like to tell you they do, which is why someone can be president of Canada having done brown face

Obviously be safe, don’t use real names in your user names, but tbh it’ll br oksy

I’ve worried about this sometimes while I had my abuser on this bc I saw once she liked a pro-life post and I was worried people would associate me with that.

If anyone has words to offer nonnie on locking down your account, then please offer them! I’m bad at tech. But I think you’ll be okay!

[idigitizellp21]

Astonishing Termite Facts You Didn't Know About

The first thing that comes to mind when anyone thinks about termites is how no one wants termites around their property. It’s almost impressive how resilient they can be, though you’re probably less impressed and more stressed when they’re in your home. Here are a few facts about termites that make them a particularly annoying pest.

Here are 7 termite facts, sure to stun you:

1. They Work Quickly and Efficiently

Termites are what are known as decomposers. They break down plant and wood materials to clean up the forest. The wood and plant material they break down is valuable nutrients that feed other organisms. This valuable service helps the ecosystem, but not your property. As long as termites are away from human structures, their ability to devour wood and plant materials is beneficial. However, if they’re in your home or business, they’re decomposing your home. Unfortunately, they are very good at what they do and can make very quick work of your property’s structure.

2. They Are Social

Termites live in colonies. These colonies are made up of members working toward the colony’s good. The three castes in a termite colony include soldiers defending the colony, workers collecting food for the colony, and reproductives charged with producing and caring for offspring. These complex colonies can grow to hundreds of thousands of members, and it has been reported that some colonies have numbers in the millions. Most of them live in wooden structures or under the ground, exactly where you can’t see them. Of course, this is bad news for any homeowner discovering termites around their property. The ones you see are likely just the tip of the iceberg, and there may be many others below the surface eating your home.

3. They Can Communicate With Colony Members

Termites communicate with each other to target their next meal through vibrations, chemical signals (pheromones), and some sounds. Termites are strategic in their meal planning. They can spread the “word” about your property to other colonies. Termite colonies rarely fight with each other to protect their food source, which means multiple colonies can live on your property in harmony. Naturally, this is only more stressful for property owners.

4. Termites and Ants Work Together

Ants will protect termite colonies from predators. Termite colonies have been known to provide food to ant colonies in exchange for protection, and you’ll often see both colonies living near each other. The only real bright side of this is that one can indicate the other, so you have a warning sign. If you’re seeing ants, get your home checked for termites and vice versa.

5. Termites Cause Tremendous Damage

The termite’s ability to break down cellulose in wood is almost fascinating, if only it weren’t so stress-inducing for homeowners. This trait can cost humans a pretty penny, as well as their sanity. According to sources, termites can cause billions of dollars worth of property damage annually.

6. They Are Highly Adaptable

Termites can live in a variety of habitats. You can find termites in forests, wooded areas, deserts, suburbs, and urban areas. They are highly adaptable insects. Remember, they have been around for 250 million years, according to Wikipedia, so they’re nothing if not resilient. They can withstand extreme temperatures, flood waters, and even some chemicals. In fact, many of them can regrow limbs after they’ve lost them. That’s why you need experienced exterminators to get rid of them. They’ll know which methods work and which don’t. Even if you manage to get rid of the nest, you need a professional to ensure they don’t come back.

7. Termites Don’t Sleep

Termites work around the clock. They never sleep and they work their entire life non-stop. Because of this, the damage they cause can happen quickly. According to our experts, termites live one to two years on average, which is over 700 days of gnawing away at your home. Due to their determination and resilience, they’ll quickly thrive if you let them.

How can Ultima’s Termite Treatment Services help you get rid of them:

Our termite management service begins with tedious identification and application of the correct medicine to deal with the infestation seamlessly. Ultima Search, best pest control management company in India, treats termite challenges (residential or commercial) with our unique water base chemical emulsion into 12 mm drilled holes, cracks and joints through an injection. Mainly feeding on wood and furniture, termite pest control teams target these areas to start with. We flush out termites infested in woodwork with oil base chemicals.

[throwrocksatthem]

Boring Clarkesworld Stats post

I've never gotten published in Clarkesworld (or submitted anything) but I'd like to, and had writer's block this arvo, so decided to do some very basic stats, and work out what sort of stories tend to get published in Clarkesworld (I'll do Analog next, as these are the two that I read).

Sample pool

I looked at Clarkesworld issues 198-202, as these are the issues I have a digital download of, since that's when I subbed on Patreon. I also have issue 203, but couldn't be fucked.

Number of stories

Of those five issues, four contained 8 stories, and one contained 7. Less than something like Analog. They do publish every month, but according to an editorial in issue 199, they typically receive 700 submissions per month. so roughly 1 in 100 get in. yikes.

Words per story

The average Clarkesworld story was 6125 words long. This is actually a statistical error though, because of 'Chonky Georg', in issue 200, which was 23,300 words long, and should not have been counted. I've included box plots below, both with and without Chonky Georg.

(I did graphs because I'm a nerd. I hand-wrote them because excel only does vertical box plots, which is objectively incorrect)

New vs returning authors

I had a look through the author descriptions following the stories to see how many authors were new vs previously published, and sorted them into three basic categories

Completely new author (description doesn't mention any other books) - only 1 story

First Clarkesworld, but previously published (mentions other books and stuff, but doesn't mention Clarkesworld) - 21 stories

Clarkesworld Veteran (mentions publishing in Clarkesworld before) - 18 stories

Well that sucks.

It obviously does seem that Clarkesworld favours previously published authors. There could be multiple reasons for this, but I'm assuming its most likely because previously published authors write more, better quality stories.

In the editorial mentioned above in issue 199, Clarke does say that they remain committed to "keeping the doors open for new writers", so that's good I guess.

How to get published in Clarkesworld

Uhh.....

write a story that's good, meets the submission requirements listed on the website (aka no zombies)

make it ~6k words long

make it good for reading on youtube

shop it around to other magazines if your rejected (tho probably do another draft first).

write another story and try again. they get 700 submissions a month, but they cant all be quality.

[lesfeldickbiblestudy]

  Through the Bible with Les Feldick LESSON 3 * PART 1 * BOOK 61 THE GLORIOUS PROMISES TO ISRAEL ISAIAH 54:1 – 57:1 We want to thank everybody for coming today. We just praise the Lord! I was reminding our studio audience, for those of you out in television, that we started fourteen years ago this month (Oct 2004). We decided this morning that we taped our very first program fourteen years ago. It doesn’t seem possible, but we had probably fifteen people in attendance for that first taping and today we have well over 100. So, over the years it’s gradually been growing. Again, I want to thank all of you in the studio audience for putting forth the effort. I know a lot of you have driven a long way. We’ve got folks here from Colorado, Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, and, of course, Oklahoma. Okay, now let’s get back where we’re going to start in Isaiah 54 verse 1. Now, again, for those of you who may be new to the program, we like to repeat and repeat and repeat for your benefit. Remember, now, that Isaiah is writing 700 years before Christ, and yet in some of these things he writes as though it’s almost a past tense. That is how unique prophecy is in our Bible. And again, I keep repeating this - there is no other book on earth that can do that. Only our Bible, the Word of God, can tell things hundreds and hundreds of years in advance, as if it’s past, and never forget that. Whenever they try to lift up some other religion and their writer and their book and their god, they cannot hold a candle to this Book, because they cannot tell one event in the future. Even your most famous fortunetellers, like Jean Dixon a few years ago, you know what their batting average is at the very best? Fifty percent. That’s all they are, just 50 percent guesses. But this Book is right 100 percent and it’s written, many times, thousands of years in advance. We’re going to see some of that in our first half-hour this afternoon. So, again, we always want to remember that this is written in 700 BC. The nation of Israel has just recently been divided into the Northern Kingdom with ten tribes, the Southern Kingdom with two. But yet, Isaiah, living in the Southern Kingdom, will address both the Northern and the Southern Kingdom. And, of course, 700 BC is around a hundred years before Nebuchadnezzar will come in and destroy the city and the temple and take Israel captive. Again, it’s written as though it’s just right out in front of them. Now, as I was driving up yet today I was mulling over how often we forget the vast amount of time that elapses up through the Old Testament. In other words, from Moses until King David was almost 500 years. Then, from King David until Isaiah starts writing about the coming judgments and everything is another 300 years. Now, think about that. That’s a long time! My, we’ve been a nation less than that. So, all these events that are unfolding throughout our Old Testament are not just within a short period of time. It’s over hundreds and hundreds of years. God’s wheels grind slowly and surely. Okay, we’ll pick up where we left off after the last taping and the prophecy concerning Christ’s crucifixion – the graphic description of His suffering and His death in chapters 52 & 53. Let’s go on into chapter 54 as we come into the glorious promises that will follow Israel. First, after they’ve come back from the Babylonian captivity, they re-establish Temple worship. But the big picture, remember, which is what we’re always looking at, is after the horrors of the seven years of Tribulation. Christ will return and Israel is going to have all these Old Testament promises fulfilled. This is what we’re going to look at right here. Isaiah 54:1a "Sing, O barren, (Well, what does singing remind you of? Good feelings, joy, and happiness.) thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child:…" More than likely, what Isaiah is referring to are those years when Israel was spiritually dead.

There were hundreds of years where Israel was steeped in their unbelief and their rebellion, and, consequently, there was no joy or an increase in blessings or anything else. So, now with the hope of this coming kingdom, they can sing like one who has travailed. Isaiah 54:1b "..for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD." All right, now that’s kind of a tough one to explain, so I’m going to pass over that. Come down to verse two. (Transcriber’s note: Don’t you love someone who isn’t afraid to say, "I don’t know?") Isaiah 54:2a "Enlarge the place of thy tent,…" What does that speak of? Well, progressive growth. When you enlarge the tent it just simply means that you’re getting ready for more occupants. That’s what Israel is to do. They’re to get ready, now, for great expansion of their blessings. Isaiah 54:2b "…and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;" Remember, he’s speaking of a tent back in antiquity and the tent pegs would be stretched out further away to make room for a larger tent. In other words, it is a symbolic picture of how the Nation will be increasing in blessings. Isaiah 54:3a "For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; (Blessings upon blessings are waiting for the nation of Israel.) and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles,…" Now, you’ve got to remember, since the Babylonian invasion and destruction of the city according to Scripture, especially from that point on Israel has been under the heavy boot of the Gentile empires. They have never enjoyed national blessings as a separate entity. But the day is coming when they will. Not only will they enjoy the blessings, but they’re going to be supreme over all the Gentile nations. We’re going to look at a few of those in just a moment. Isaiah 54:3b "…and make the desolate cities to be inhabited." In other words, it’s going to be a great growth of Israel’s population. Now, let’s go back and look at a few of those promises that are sprinkled throughout the Old Testament looking forward to this day when Israel will finally cash in on all of these blessings of the promises. Let’s go all the way back, if you will, to Deuteronomy chapter 28, and we’ll get a glimpse of the blessings that are awaiting the Nation of Israel. They have never enjoyed this in their history. Not even close. But the day is coming when they will. Now, they had it as a prospect all through their history but because of their unbelief, their belligerence, their wickedness, and their lifestyle of sin, they never experienced it. All right, let’s drop all the way in at verse 9. Now, these are all promises that God has made to the Nation of Israel. Deuteronomy 28:9-12a "The LORD shall establish thee a holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his ways. (In other words, God demands obedience.) 10. And all the people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of thee. 11. And the LORD shall make thee plenteous in goods, (They’re going to be productive beyond our imagination.) in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land (the Land of Promise) which the LORD sware unto thy fathers to give thee. 12. The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow." What’s Israel’s financial situation today? They have to borrow constantly or they couldn’t survive. All right, but it’s going to be reversed. Israel will be in a position to lend to other nations. Deuteronomy 28:13 "And the LORD shall make thee the (what?) head, (They’re going to be the top nation of the nations when Christ returns and sets up His kingdom.) and not the tail;

and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them:" Well, that’s one of the very earliest Scriptures, long before they even got into the Land of Promise. But, all the way up through the Old Testament you have these promises of how Israel will one day enjoy the blessings. Now, let’s see, let’s go to Zechariah, that’s the next to the last book in your Old Testament. We’ll be running across some others before we leave Isaiah in the next few programs. As you get to Zechariah chapter 8, we’ll begin at verse 20. We’ve used these verses, especially in our classes and seminars, but I don’t think I’ve used them much on the program. Now remember, these are all Old Testament prophecies and promises. None of these have been fulfilled as yet, but they will. Now, I guess this is as good a time as any to stop. You know, there are those who oppose my line of teaching by saying that God is all through with the Jew. That when Titus destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD, that was the end of all these promises. They say that Israel disappeared, that they faded away as a nation of people and all the promises have been turned over to the church. Some people call it "replacement theology." I call it plain old "amillennialism." Now, there’s another new name for it, and it is "preterism." Well, if they claim that there’s nothing more to be fulfilled after 70 AD, then all these promises have failed! Then our God has failed! I might as well throw the Book away and go home! But, they haven’t! They’re still going to be fulfilled. Our God is still in control. Those people in the Middle East are Jews. They try to reject that fact, but they’re Jews. They’re Israel. In fact, I just had a call, I think early this morning, about "all the tribes of Israel." I said, "Well, you’ve got to remember that they never were "lost." They all went into the Babylonian captivity. They all came back under Ezra and Nehemiah." Then I took him to the verse where Peter says in Acts 2:36, "…therefore let the whole house of Israel know assuredly." So, what does that tell you? Even in Peter’s day, that Pentecostal crowd included Jews of every tribe. None of them were ever lost. The same way when the 144,000 will be chosen out of Israel at the very beginning of the Tribulation, they’re all there. They’re all going to be able to provide 12,000 young men from every tribe to fulfill the 144,000. They’re not lost. God knows who they are. All right, so here we have it again. This prophecy has not yet been fulfilled. But it will be! Zechariah 8:20a "Thus saith the LORD of hosts; It shall yet come to pass,…" Is God lying? No, He’s not lying! Is He incapable of fulfilling it? No, He’s not incapable. He is fully capable and He will! Zechariah 8:20b-23 "…that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities: 21. And the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts: I will go also. 22. Yea, many people and strong nations (That’s the Gentile world.) shall come to seek the LORD of hosts (Where?) in Jerusalem, (That’ll be the world’s capital) and to pray before the LORD. 23. Thus saith the LORD of hosts; In those days (When Israel has her King.) it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: (Why?) for we have heard that God is with you." Why? Because of all these promises. All right, let’s go into the New Testament. Let’s go into Luke chapter 1, and we’ll drop down to verse 64. While you’re looking for it, I’ll give you the background. You remember that one of the priests of Israel was a man by the name of Zacharias and his wife’s name was Elizabeth. Zacharias and Elizabeth supernaturally had a child whose name was John the Baptist. All right, all during Elizabeth’s gestation of nine months, Zacharias was stricken speechless.

He could not talk. Practically everybody in Israel knew it. But, when the child was born and they asked Elizabeth what the name would be, she said, "John." Well, they were all shook up because no Jew had ever been called John, so they trot up to the Temple and find Zacharias. They write on a tablet that the baby had been born and what’s to be his name? He took the pen and wrote, "John." As soon as he wrote John, he got his voice back. Well, then everybody was all alarmed. What in the world’s going on? All right, let’s pick it up in verse 64, Luke 1:64-65 "And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake, and praised God. 65. And fear came on all that dwelt round about them: and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judea." Well, like what? This elderly couple, she conceived, and the minute she conceived he lost his voice. And he’s been absolutely, what we call ‘dumb,’ for nine months. But, as soon as the baby was born he’s got his voice back. What’s going on? All right, here we go, verse 66: Luke 1:66 "And all they that heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What manner of child shall this be! And the hand of the Lord was with him." Now remember, we’re not talking about Jesus, we’re talking about John the Baptist. Luke 1:67a "And his father Zacharias (the priest) was filled with the Holy Spirit,…" Now, this is long before Pentecost. Yet, he’s filled with the Holy Spirit, which means that everything he says is directed from God Himself. This isn’t wishful Jewish thinking; this is God speaking through this Spirit-filled priest. All right, now this is what he says, and remember what we’ve just read in the Old Testament. Luke 1:67-69 "And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he prophesied, saying, 68. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he (the Lord) hath visited and redeemed his people, 69. And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;" Now, as we read this, be careful to watch, is there any reference to Gentiles? Not a word. This is all dealing with the promises made to Israel, and none of these promises apply to the Gentiles except as they come through Israel. So, these promises here are to the Nation. Luke 1:70-71 "As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: (Now, watch the language.) 71. That we should be saved from our (not sins, what?) enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;" All right, now stop and think. Who were Israel’s enemies from day one? Well, the Arab world. You know, I always have a good time going back in to Nehemiah especially in my classes here in Oklahoma. I show that even in the day of Nehemiah, when they were trying to rebuild the city wall and the city gate, who was constantly opposing them? The Arabs. It got to the place where if the Jews wanted to work they had to work with a trowel in one hand and a weapon in the other, or they couldn’t get anything done. So, it’s always been this way. But you can just fast forward up to 2004 as we tape this, and it’s still the same. All these promises are still valid that the day will come when Israel won’t have to worry about the Arab world. Israel won’t have to worry about Nazis or Communists or anybody else. They’re going to be under the protective care of their Messiah King. Luke 1:72-73 "72. To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; (What covenant?) 73. The oath which he swore to our father Abraham," Now, you’ve got to remember (I’m going to cover the covenants when we finish Isaiah) that in that Abrahamic Covenant, Abraham was promised a nation of people totally different than anybody else. That reminds me of something else I thought of on the way up. I read a long time ago how God made the Nation of Israel "different’. They have been and still are. But what was the eternal purpose in it? To prove that nobody in the human race is any different from the other.

So, Israel was shown to be different to prove they’re no different. Now, did I make my point? The whole Adamic race, whether it’s Jew or Gentile, are still sons of Adam. All right, now let’s go back again. The Abrahamic Covenant promised that out of Abraham and Sarah would descend this special nation of people. Why would it be special? Because out of Israel would come first the Word of God, out of Israel would come the Messiah, and out of Israel would come all the prophetic promises. You’ve heard me say it over and over, Israel is the hub of God’s wheel; you pull Israel out, you destroy the nation of Israel, and God’s program falls apart, and, again, you could throw the Book away. But, Israel will never, never leave. Okay, let’s go a couple more verses here; our time is about gone already. Luke 1:74-75 "That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, 75. In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life." Which, of course, will go on into eternity. Then he goes on to show the promises made to the man John the Baptist. But anyway, the promises are all the way through, and if we had the time we could go all the way back to the last chapters of Revelation when the glories of that kingdom on earth will be fulfilled on behalf of the nation of Israel. All right, for the next couple of minutes let’s go back again to Isaiah chapter 54 and look at verse 3, again. Isaiah 54:3-4 "For thou shalt break forth on the right and on the left; and thy seed (In other words, the coming generations) shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. 4. Fear not;…" Now, you’ve got to remember that before all this could come to pass, Israel is going to go through 3000 years of suffering and turmoil. Three thousand years. Now, remember that when we come into the next program, next half-hour. I’m going to show you how God compares it in His line of thinking. Isaiah 54:4 "…for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth,…" That is as a nation they’ll forget all the trials and tribulation that the nation of Israel has gone through over these hundreds and hundreds of years. Isaiah 54:4 "…and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. This is when God left the Nation to their own devices and said you are no longer my people. That’s been over a good portion of their national lifetime. All right, verse 5: Isaiah 54:5 "For thy Maker (the Creator) is thine husband;…" Now, here we have that husband and wife relationship especially as Hosea points it out. Maybe someday we’ll teach Hosea on the air. I’ve been thinking about it. In Hosea’s little six or seven chapters we have a beautiful picture of Israel as the adulterous wife of Jehovah. Now, why do I call her adulterous? Because, she ran after other gods. Just like an unfaithful woman will chase after men who are not her husband, so Israel chased after other lovers, nationally speaking, in the realm of the spiritual. So, she’s called the unfaithful wife of Jehovah. But one day, Jehovah will forgive her of all of her sin and she will come in and be that blessed wife of the husband. That is the beautiful picture portrayed in Hosea. Isaiah 54:5 "For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called." Now, there again, that puts all other gods and goddesses and religions, whatever you want to call them, it just puts them down into the realm of nothingness, because only the God of Israel is the God of Creation and the God of this Book. Isaiah 54:6-7a "For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, (and that marriage has been dissipated by unfaithfulness because of Israel’s chasing after other gods) when thou wast refused, saith thy God. 7. For a small (Now watch this.

Here’s what I was coming to.) moment have I forsaken thee;…" And what’s He calling a small moment? Three thousand years! Isn’t that something? Yet, that’s the eternalness of our God. Three thousand years are but a moment in His line of thinking. It’s so hard for us mortals to comprehend that. That’s why, along with my enthusiasm for the soon return and as we see the world seemingly getting so ready for Christ to enter back into human history, that I have to always temper my enthusiasm with this very thing, that with God time means nothing. Ten years isn’t even a split second in His line of thinking. So, yes, I think the Lord could be coming in the next few years, but God may think otherwise.

[ccitymarcket]

HyperSuggest - Your advanced keyword tool

HyperSuggest - Your advanced keyword tool

HypperSuggest is a keyword tool that delivers thousands of keywords and ideas from 9 different networks like Google, Amazon, eBay, Instagram, etc. in seconds.

In other words, the HyperSuggest keyword tool allows the user to find content and products that they want in no time.

It can also be used to create content that captures the interest of the audience.

About HyperSuggest

There are a lot of SEO tools that can make content optimization easier for anyone regardless of their level of expertise in SEO, and HyperSuggest is one of them.

If you’re looking to boost your freelance client base by dabbling in a blog…

HyperSuggest might be able to help you.

The HyperSuggest user interface is very user-friendly,

making it easy to find the information you need without spending hours on search engine results pages.

The tool also offers a large number of keyword suggestions from different sources,

making it an ideal choice for content marketing.

HyperSuggest Keyword Tool – Features

HyperSuggest’s best feature might be its ability to analyze keywords you’re already thinking of using to show you how many people are already searching for it,

How difficult it might be to rank for that keyword organically or in paid searches? and

How much the cost per click (CPC) might be?

A. Keyword Tool

Using the Hypersuggest Keyword Tool, you can quickly and easily find keywords related to the topic of your blog post or article.

Additionally, HyperSuggest offers a variety of keyword suggestions from different sources…

So you’re sure to find the right keywords for your content.

1. Google Search Using HyperSuggest:

You will receive the most relevant Autocomplete suggestions from Google for your keyword.

In just a few seconds, you can find out up to 700 keywords per query including their exact search volume for your selected country.

2. Amazon research Using HyperSuggest:

Would you like to know which products or product variants Amazon’s customers are interested in?

Yes, it can be done manually using amazon keyword research, but it will consume dozen hours to do that.

With HyperSuggest Amazon module helps your FBA business to sell the products at Amazon that are really in demand by your target group.

3. eBay research Using HyperSuggest:

Would you like to know which products or product variants eBay customers are interested in?

HyperSuggest eBay module helps your Recognize product trends or product variants…

which are searched by your customers.

You can also use this HyperSuggest Keyword tool for

Researching keywords for Google Shopping

Researching keywords for YouTube

Researching keywords for Instagram

Researching keywords for Google News and more

Overall HyperSuggest is the best Keyword Research tool for online marketers

B. Keyword Metrics:

Choosing the right keywords for Google platforms requires a thorough understanding of the exact metrics. 

HyperSuggest provides detailed keyword metrics for your keywords, including:

Average monthly search volume (based on Google AdWords data)

Average monthly unique visitors

Number of monthly clicks

Cost-per-click (CPC).

C. Wh-questions:

This is the amazing feature of Hypersuggest where it provides you the most probable questions that might come up when someone uses your keyword in a Google search.This feature is called “People Also Ask” and you will then be able to create useful content around those questions.This is really helpful if you don’t want to waste your time on low-quality research queries.It will save a lot of time as a result.

E. Simultaneous Logins

Your HyperSuggest subscription includes 1 login by default.You can increase the number of simultaneous logins if you have a larger team.Overall, Hypersuggest is an amazing tool that can save you a lot of time and effort when it comes to keyword research.It’s definitely worth the subscription fee.

Is HyperSuggest the Right SEO Tool for Me?

SEO beginners, especially, might find HyperSuggest a valuable app for learning the basics of keywords,

how they help shape content, and how to use them to target an audience in order to rank a post on SERP.

If you’re an SEO expert and looking for intricately detailed information about keywords and competition, you’re not going to find it with HyperSuggest.

HyperSuggest also has a handy feature for finding long-tail keywords. 

How does It work?

HyperSuggest is a keyword tool that connects to 9 different networks like

Google

Amazon

eBay

Instagram, etc.

in order to get thousands of keywords and ideas for content.

After you input the main keyword you want to target and click on the “Get Ideas” button…

HyperSuggest will give you suggestions based on your keyword’s popularity on those platforms.

Moreover…

You can also see how many people have searched for that keyword on each platform as well.

If you’re looking to create content specifically around a certain topic or audience, then HyperSuggest could be a great way to find ideas.

After all, if people are searching for information on a certain topic online…

Chances are they’ll be interested in your content too!

Is HyperSuggest Accurate?

One of the great things about HyperSuggest is that it can be incredibly accurate when it comes to finding keywords and ideas for content.

It uses data from 9 different sources so there’s no doubt that it will provide useful results… 

However, if you’re looking for an all-in-one solution then this might not be the tool for you.

HyperSuggest is more of a supplement to your existing content marketing methods rather than a replacement.

Is HyperSuggest Your Advanced Keyword Tool?

HyperSuggest is definitely an advanced keyword tool.

The tool HyperSuggest is packed with features that will help you target your content better and find new ideas for content.

It’s also easy to use and can provide accurate results quickly.

If you’re looking for an advanced keyword tool then HyperSuggest is definitely worth considering.

Would You Recommend HyperSuggest to Others?

I would recommend HyperSuggest to others because it’s a great way to find keywords and ideas for content.

It’s accurate and easy to use, so you’ll be able to get started quickly.

HyperSuggest pricing

As a first step, let’s take a look at the pricing model.

HyperSuggest costs $32 per month and $25 per month if you go for an early plan.

You get access to all the features like Keyword Tool and Wh questions…

If you need the Keyword Clustering feature, and Simultaneous Logins function then you need to pay extra.

Overall, I think the pricing is reasonable and it’s definitely worth considering if you’re looking for an advanced keyword tool.

Conclusion

HyperSuggest – Your Advanced Keyword Tool is really a valuable tool for keyword research.

I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking for an effective way to research keywords.

Hyperduggest is a great way to find keywords and ideas for content…

It’s accurate and easy to use, so you’ll be able to get started quickly.

HyperSuggest

Your Advanced Keyword Tool

Advanced Keyword Research Tool

Google Search Keyword Research Tool

Amazon Keyword Research Tool

eBay Keyword Research Tool

YouTube Keyword Research Tool

Instagram Keyword Research Tool

Wh-questions

Free Trial (No Credit Card Required)

BUY NOW

[lord-angelfish]

@agenderlessrat Here's the ones from my bookmarks! Hopefully a couple of them are new :)

Peter and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very-Bad Day by Zalanchenko (G, 1.3k words)

Peter woke up feeling like today was definitely going to be his day. Of course, this was an invitation for the universe to instantly prove him wrong in the most dramatic way possible. But this. This was definitely the worst thing that Peter could imagine happening to him. There was no turning this around. This was worse than exposing himself to half a million people, worse than showcasing his daddy issues surrounding Tony Stark to people he desperately wanted to view him as an adult, this was -- “Deadpool, sweet cheeks. Wade Wilson if ya nasty.” There was an exaggerated masked up-and-down glance, “and for the record, I really hope you are.”

Oh, Harsh by SeasonsofLauren (G, 700 words, not technically a coffee-shop AU but in the same wheelhouse)

Peter’s had a bit of a dry streak. Or, to quote MJ, it’s been a fucking disappointment. Come on Peter, you’re a hot, young twenty four year old with a good job. You need to get laid! That conversation, along with half a bottle of rosé, is why Peter now has Tinder downloaded on his phone. He never really expected anything to come of it, what with him looking like an average white guy and having all of his photos picked by two of his exes and someone who has no attraction to his gender whatsoever - Ned did like to argue that he had a good aesthetic understanding though. Peter can’t say he hates any of the photos or the simple description - Bi, the nerdy kind who likes science and puns and thinks succulents are pets - but he’s just not all that interested.

Identity Crisis by ILY3000 (Willow_1) (G, 3.4k)

Five times Wade doesn't recognize Peter Parker, and the first time he does. (Technically a coffee shop AU)

an itch you can't scratch by jilliancares (G, 8.4k words)

5 times Wade bumps into Peter Parker + 1 time he realizes Peter Parker is Spider-Man.

Who's Peter? by potatocakesparker (GT, 3.4k words) (this one is a mexican food place but still)

Wade shields the sun with a gloved hand as he squints over the other people in line, trying to read the menu. "Hope they have roujiamo..." The man in front of him spins around in a wave of messy, curly brown hair and Wade pretends not to notice the way his eyes, hidden behind thick-rimmed glasses, widens in shock as his mouth falls slightly open. Close your mouth, you’re attracting flies, Wade wants to say. Hadn’t anyone taught him it was fucking rude to stare? //There's a man with ridiculously curly brown hair at Wade's new favourite Shaanxi street food spot. Previously titled 'that stupid smile with those stupid freckles and the stupid crinkles at the edge of your eyes'

if i had a dime for every spideypool coffeeshop identity reveal fic I've read i would spend them all on commissioning more

[pipermca]

Writing Year in Review - 2021

Look, 2021, you had one job. Your one job was not to suck. And although you started to really shape up in the fall, you completely fumbled it at the end. Way to go.

Ugh. Seriously.

On the personal and writing front, it was a bit of a mixed bag. Our summer weather sucked, and that seriously affected my mental health. I don't do well in heat, and the heat waves were terrible. Then when the heat abated a bit, the air outside was filled with smoke from fires, so I couldn't even enjoy being outside. Living in a place where we basically only get three or four months of comfortable outdoor weather, I desperately needed to be outside... And that couldn't happen.

On the other hand, I did manage to finish Mind, Body, and Soul – by far the longest story I've ever written. I've mentioned that I think that story really ought to have been split into three "books": pre-war, war-time up until the Autobots leave Cybertron, and then landing on Earth to the end of the story. (Each one would have been about 100,000 words.) Those are the three main arcs of the story, but when I was writing they gelled so well as cohesive bits (and my brain was thinking of it as one long, continuous story) it didn't even occur to me to separate them into individual stories.

Ah well. It's just a big epic, I guess. One of my "to dos" is to explain the original plan for the story, which was much shorter but had a much more melancholy ending. After getting to know Barricade and Prowl and Bluestreak better, I decided I wanted to do better by them, and completely rethought the plot.

I finished posting Mind, Body, and Soul in March, and followed that up with a few "extras" stories to cap off the series. Then I let my muse work on other things that amused it and... overall, I think I had a pretty productive writing year! It wasn't quite as productive as 2020 (mostly because I took my foot off the gas after finishing MBS) but in some ways it was more fruitful.

In 2021 I posted 15 works to AO3, which includes the last 9 chapters of MBS. (That total also includes one short fic I wrote years ago that I transferred from Tumblr to AO3). In total I posted 123,108 words to AO3 across those 15 works. I also wrote 107,222 words, but that includes zine pieces that are not yet available, and my IDW2 reviews that I've been posting.

I'm content with those numbers. Previously I was setting a goal of about 10,000 words per month, but considering how atrocious this year's been I think I did pretty good. Interestingly, when I look at my writing tracker, there wasn't a big dip in productivity over the summer like I was expecting. You can tell that I basically went "whew, bleah!" and basically stopped writing for a few weeks after finishing the draft of MBS in early February. XD

My average words per hour is pretty consistent, especially when I set aside an hour or so to write, sometimes doing sprints. With the exception of September (hmm, no idea what happened there!) I averaged around 600-700 words per hour.

I think this is the graph that irritates me the most though. XD It's obvious that I get most of my writing done in the evening, since that's when I've got the time to write. But I know that I'm actually at my most productive in mid-morning... while I'm at work. Argh.

In December 2021 I wrote 8,113 words. I've got a new WIP I'm working on that is very intriguing to my muse, although it's slow going because I'm having to figure out new lore and new relationships on the fly. I can't wait to share that with people.

As for the goals I set for myself for 2021, I actually did pretty well, better than I thought I did!

Finish Mind, Body, and Soul YES! I DID IT!

Finish Must Like Cats and One More Night I got one of these done, finally. 50% isn't bad.

Start on The King and the Bounty Hunter Yes! I've got two chapters drafted and I've been doodling around with the third.

Start the sequel to Peer Review Nope

Apply for two zines Yes! And got in! And pieces are completed! And one of them is for sale now!

Write two comic scripts for practice Nope

So, my goals for 2022, in order of priority:

Finish Must Like Cats

Finish Sun and Moon (working title)

Apply for two zines (if something catches my eye)

Write two comic scripts for practice

Finish The King and the Bounty Hunter

Start By Fire and Flame (working title)

I am quite pleased at the number of stories I've finished, too. Like last year, behind the cut is the first sentence of each of my stories I posted, and the month is it was posted in.

January: Mind, Body, and Soul. (The first chapter posted in 2021 was chapter 64.) While the Autobots struggled to recover from their losses, the Decepticons wasted no time in pressing their advantage.

March: Knell. Barricade's spark thudded against its casing with every frantic spin.

March: War's End. Prowl scanned the dusty horizon, searching for any sign of the shuttles that he knew were inbound.

March: They Grow Up So Fast. Bluestreak stretched as he made his way down the hallway from his room, lifting his arms over his helm and extending his wings until the cables sang with tension.

April: Turn, Turn, Turn. Smokescreen was so focused on trying to get the tiny crystal cleaving to sit just right in the growth medium that he didn't hear the door to the flat open and close.

June. In Your Dreams. Hound woke from recharge to the sensation of falling through the air.

June: What Happens on a Mission... As the smoke in the cutter's cockpit cleared, Smokescreen scanned the control board in front of him.

July: Core Override. Prowl hated prison transfer detail.

September: One More Night. There was so much to do.

October: Going Against Tradition. "Chosen Wind Walker Thundercracker, the Emperor will see you now."

October: Just the Three of Us. To anyone casually walking by, the scene wouldn't have looked too odd: just a man enjoying the sun and the sand, kicked back on the hood of his sports car and listening to some tunes.

October: Claim Rejected. “While I appreciate all of your efforts to keep me safe,” Optimus Prime said, glaring – glaring!– around the meeting room at his command staff, “I cannot condone sending other Autobots in to fight Megatron for me.”

November: Debts. Just like usual, Smokescreen was waiting for Prowl outside of their usual diner.

November: A Gift from Morpheus. The crack of the rifle seemed to stop Smokescreen's spark.

December: Deck the Halls. Hound had not been prepared for what greeted him when he got home from the office on Saturday evening.

And that's a wrap! I hope everyone has a very safe, calm, and uneventful 2022. (Key point: uneventful, as in not exciting, as in completely precedented.)