#the covers and extra illustrations are gorgeous

[relto]

logging off for vacation! see you in a week. my queue has lots of posts atm and will probably keep going the entire time.

[konbartzine]

As promised folks! PRE-ORDERS ARE HERE!

It has been a long journey and it was a long Summer, however after months of hard work we are now PROUD to reveal the results of all our incredible contributors' talents!

@Domnorian graced us with a BEAUTIFUL cover for our zine, which contains over 120 pages of art and writing celebrating Kon and Bart!

We also listened to YOU and what your merchandise interests were, and your budgets by carefully examining the interest check - as a result were are glad to offer the following bundles!

Starting at 18 USD is our Friends to Lovers Bundle which includes;

1.) The Superpulse: A Konbart Fanzine SFW physical zine. 2.) A gorgeous contrasting bookmark that was voted on BY YOU designed by @vampiregokudera 3.) 2 vinyl stickers designed by @colonelbaconbits & @pup-pee

At 25 USD our Tactile Telekinesis Bundle includes things you can WEAR (it's tactile, get it?). The bundle includes;

1.) Everything from the Friends to Lovers bundle. 2.) A heart shaped button by @aquanym 3.) 2 more stickers by @cannimochi & @miratho 4.) A 6x9 print illustrated by @poltergrease

This tier will be open to the first stretch goal where an acrylic key chain will be added to all orders automatically at no extra cost if we get 25 orders! See below for the key chain reveal!

50 USD is our Lightning Rod Bundle which is the largest bundle that includes;

1.) Everything from the Tactile Telekinesis bundle (including the stretch goal key chain if unlocked) as well as 2.) 1 additional fun sticker by @jayzelnut (hey you guys said you loved stickers) 3.) 2 additional, stunning 6x9 prints illustrated by @harumel-hm & @beeqisch

This tier will contain our second stretch goal of a gorgeous enamel pin that will unlock at 50 orders and will be added to all orders of this tier at no extra cost. See below for the pin reveal!

STRETCH GOALS!

25 orders will unlock the adorable 3" acrylic key chain designed by @miratho.

50 orders will unlock the 2.75" enamel pin designed by @ftl-faster-than-life.

Are you only interested in one type of merch? Don't want ANY merch, and just want the zine? We got you covered, with our A-La Cart section where you can purchase ONLY the zine or specific merch (like the key chain or pin when they unlock) or make your own bundle.

Finally, because the interest check was CLEAR we have one more item available for purchase and that's our After Dark NSFW Zine.

The After Dark Zine is a physical NSFW zine priced at 10 USD which includes over 70 pages of art and writing encased in a spicy cover illustrated by @zeroducks-2.

Note: Kon and Bart are both over 18 years old in all zine interactions.

[gargoyleandgremlinpress]

My final Fanfic Writers' Appreciation Day package has been delivered! Ten Prides in Portland by Leiascully and Simple Machines by coffeesuperhero continue the Leverage OT3 theme I've got going on this year. The fic aren't necessarily a series, but are thematically connected, and also the authors are married to each other. (It happens! My wife and I met writing Due South and Hard Core Logo fanfic lo these many years ago!)

There are some similar things I adore about both these fics. I love the sort of playing with structure in both of them, and watching the characters evolve, and also, seeing the queer community in all of its heartfelt messy occasionally infuriating glory. I also adore the thoughtful Eliot character exploration.

First off, Ten Prides in Portland! What it says on the tin. Ten years post-series at a certain brewpub in Portland, as Elliott finds queer community and figures himself out. This book is the reason I now have rainbow ribbon for bookmarks. As you can see, I went so very literal with this one. Homemade book cloth, acrylic paint, and cardstock endpapers printed with a map of Portland.

I had way too much fun with the layout on this one! It was an easy theme to lean into.

Eliot navigates a relationship with two people he loves, runs a restaurant, and figures himself out. I love the character dynamics, the cast of queer characters, and the way the second fic in the series is structured around brewpub menu items. The titles are from the iconic Mary Oliver poem Wild Geese, which is where the bird theme comes from. I used a really lovely fancy liquid mirror silver paint for the geese on the cover, which is gorgeous in person but hard to photograph.

More geese! Some menu formatting! Also, a food-themed illustration at the beginning of each chapter to match the menu item. (Thank you, stock images on The Noun Project.) This was another fun one to play with.

Not pictured here for either book: the insurmountable printer issue I was having where any page with an illustration turned out extra-dark, and the flip side was correspondingly lighter. BUT. I'm still pretty pleased with how they both turned out, happy to have both of these on my shelf, and even happier to send them off in a set together to the authors' hands.

Happy slightly belated FFWAD, Leiascully and Coffeesuperhero!

[ultramarine-spirit]

After @lithi pointed out that you can now buy wmmap per volume on Ridibooks, I wanted to try and see if you could get a better version of the cover. The answer is yes! Kinda...

As you can see, this version of the manhwa looks pretty much the same as its printed equivalent, including panel layouts and extra content (the only exception being the congratulatory pictures other manhwa artists drew for the manhwa's ending included in chapter 125, but Spoon's comments are there). I had to do some tomfoolery to take screenshots because the Ridibooks app (the only way in which you can read wmmap per volume, you can't do it on the browser version) doesn't allow it, so please don't repost the pictures. I will find you if do you /j.

This spread looks gorgeous on a big screen. I'm sad that I can't provide better screenshots...

At the end of the volume, there are these two full illustrations, which happen to be the postcards included with volume 9 when it first released. The quality isn't suuuper HD, but it's certainly better than what we had before...

Some close-ups

I also bought volume 2 by mistake lmao, and it's a literal digital version of the printed Korean volume, so they all should included all the content present in those physical versions. I'm not crazy enough to buy wmmap yet again to see if that includes the beach extra, but that should be the case.

I will say that the overall picture quality seems to be worse than in the solo chapters, so I would still recommend buying them individually tbh.

[77yearsteam]

Preorders for THBU Zine and 77 Years Zine go back on pre-order tomorrow!

But what WAS the 77 Years Zine? Well… 🧵

It all started in early 2022, when Mod Kat had the idea to make a zine about the Master’s exile on Earth. This was too big of a project for one, so she found…

Mod Em, famed Thoschei fandom cryptid and Social Media Guy, and—

Mod Dev, literal pug and graphic design whiz. 💜

The three of them found the best and brightest of the Doctor Who fandom’s writers and artists for the project, including the amazing @wykart who designed this stunning cover art!

Through several months of Intensive Project Wrangling, the intrepid mods and contributors managed to get every fic and piece of art written, drawn, edited, tidied up, and compiled into a gorgeous book, complete with production notes from the Master himself in the special edition!

The zine chronicled the Master’s journey around the Earth- from America to Russia to the UK and back to Russia again, and it was illustrated with fashion magazine-style pictures of the Master in era-accurate styles ✨

There was also an audiobook edition, compiled by Mod Kat- here’s an exclusive behind the scenes look at the editing process for it: 👀

Then it was time to promote the zine! Throughout the preorder period, Mod Kat braved the wilds of Cardiff to photograph the zine in random places, and Mod Em relentlessly ensured that no one on dwtwt could forget that there was a zine out!

Mod Kat even made a mini zine, which made it to the BFI, the shelves of Waterstones, and the very proud hands of both Mods Em and Kat 💜💜

After months of effort, the zines finally shipped, with these gorgeous extras and packaging. They went around the world, with well over a hundred physical copies sold!

They even got a special thank you from Sacha Dhawan himself, thanks to then-contributor and now-Mod Nat finding him at a con to hand over a copy for him to keep. In the end, they donated £1083.78 to Crohn’s and Colitis UK, a charity supported by Sacha!!

Shortly after that, they started working on the next zine, and the rest, as they say, is History… 💜💙

[horriblehistorieslandfill]

The names I picked out for the animated/illustrated Horrible History characters from the show/books !! (Note that most of the names were taken from Fantasy Name Generator)

Savage Stone Age caveman = Grug

Awesome Egyptians mummy = Ma-nefer

Awful Egyptians pharaoh = Senouphis

Groovy Greeks soldier = Lossif Vallelis

Rotten Romans soldier = Septimus Sergius Silius

Rotten Romans gladiator = Postumius Volso

Cut-Throat Celt warrior = Niall Ó Mocháini

Smashing Saxons lady = Mathilda Withburga

Smashing Saxons warrior = Beorhtnoth the Hammer

Vicious Viking = Ragnar Sverre

Monk = Vierfuel Vozier

Stormin’ Normans knight = Norman (Ba-dum tss)

Angry Aztec noble = Nahuapan

Incredible Incas lady (2009 HHTV) = Tamya Ñaccha Arotinco

Incredible Incas lady 2 (HH book cover) = Yawar Chamba Allauca

Measly Middle Ages knight = Richard the Honorable

Measly Middle Ages peasant = Egbert

Radical Renaissance = Philip Amideo

Terrible Tudors commoner = Ella (Elizabeth) Amideo

Terrible Tudors headsman = Timothy Chopsalot

Roundhead officer = Victory (Canon name !)

Jacobite Soldier (Blood Scotland/Edinburgh) = Lennox Whyte

Gorgeous Georgians lady = Lady Jane

Putrid Pirate = Wycliff Gabranth

Vile Victorian commoner = Benjamin J. Harold (Funfact, his canon name is Harold)

Vile Victorian chimney sweep = Archie

Awesome USA cowboy = Daniel 'Long Shot' Osborne

Frightful First World War British soldier = Ronnie Burke

Heroic Home front british soldier = Harper Wilkins

Woeful Second World War British soldier = Howard Newman

Woeful Second World War captain = Dale Ernest

Blitz Britz Lady = Madeleine Fletcher

Troublesome 20th Century hippie = Daisy Harper

Wales miner (book) = Toby Mills

Fabulous French guard = Médard Marais (I’m calling him a guard for now there’s so much ranks and terms in the French Revolution wiki I’m getting so confused)

EXTRA CHARACTERS !!

HHTV News reporter = Simon Skirmish (Canon name) S9 EP3

BBC Launch crew (left to right) S9 EP15

Sydnie Presencia Valle

Aspen Bayard

Lennard Holmes

Eirunn (Ragnar’s daughter !!) S9 EP11

That’s about it for now, will update when I come up with more names !!

[ernmark]

Who was in charge of marketing for Harry Potter?

(This isn't about She Who Must Not Be Named or her bigotry. This is purely about the business of bookselling.)

If you were a YA reader at the time, or you're into fandom history, you might know the story: July 16, 2005, in the wee hours of the morning a car pulls up to a bunch of teens and children standing outside a bookstore, and some jackass shouts at the top of their lungs: "Snape kills Dumbledore!" and then speeds away.

That story was infamous. THE biggest plot twist of THE biggest book series in the world, spoiled before anyone could even crack the pages.

Which is... actually kinda weird, right? How'd they know?

Had they read an advance copy? Did they stand in line since like 4 PM to get their hands on the book, and then the second they got their hands on it just frantically start skimming the last hundred pages or so until they found a particularly devastating bomb to drop? (Trolls being trolls, this was not considered particularly extreme behavior).

Or were they paid to do it?

This is adult me with conspiracy goggles on, but consider: The message that was sent is not that a character killed another character, but that no matter how hard you try to avoid spoiling your favorite story, some bad-faith actor is going to jump out of the bushes and do it anyway. There's no time to wait for your library's copy to be available, no time for your friend or your sibling to finish and hand it to you-- you have to buy your own copy right the fuck now.

And everybody and their sibling (literally, people were buying multiple copies per family) around the world buying the same book in the space of the same two weeks? That is how a book guarantees a spot on every international best seller list for a long ass time.

The thing is, whether this was a deliberate move or an amazingly convenient and lucrative bit of trolling does not matter. Regardless of the source, the marketing department pounced on an opportunity. Every brick-and-mortar bookstore left had piles of bookmarks and buttons, posters plastered on the windows, dividing readers into one of two teams: either "Trust Snape" or "Snape is a Bad Man". People wearing those pins sparked conversation and debate in real life, to say nothing of what was going on in the forums. Essays and treatises and manifestos were written. Books were published-- both officially licensed materials and unofficial ones full of theories and details.

When that next and final release was coming out, you bet your ass everybody on the planet was going to be there (or risk another drive-by spoiler). When the next movie was released that November, it didn't matter that what had come before was kinda iffy in quality-- people were showing up in costume.

Even before The Drive By Spoilering, the marketing team was honestly the stuff of legend. Gorgeous hand-illustrated covers and chapter header artwork, branded title fonts that could be recognized from a mile away in the dark, big fancy displays present in every single school book fair, and then that website-- the official website was a thing of absolute beauty, especially in that time. It was colorful and had a million moving parts and secrets to uncover, it was updated frequently and with a lot of little secret extra tidbits on the character and world, and oodles of essays from the author herself that were often very endearing to the readership. It was a gathering place for fans as much as the fan-run websites.

(I should point out that with marketing this robust, I have no doubt in my mind that all those tidbits and essays were themselves run past the team for approval, to make sure nothing particularly egregious slipped through the cracks. But that kind of editing isn't cheap, and I suspect it would only really have been employed during the Important Years for the franchise.)

I remember wanting to be a writer as a teenager, embarking on that career as I got out into the world and started querying books I'd written, and for every single one of us in the writing community, that kind of marketing was the dream. The midnight releases in full costume, the gorgeous custom covers, the posters in every library and bookstore, the breathtaking website. But all of those things turn out to be heinously expensive, and for every franchise that returns on that investment, there were dozens, perhaps hundreds, who didn't make back enough, or cover their expenses at all. And that's where you get to the point where querying authors were advised to establish massive followings on social media in order to demonstrate that they were a safe bet, that half the work was already done if the publishers would just give us a chance-- and sure, for some of them that effort did get them publishing contracts. At which point, even if the publishers felt inclined to spend more than a pittance on promoting new authors' work, there wasn't any point in doing so to the degree that the Harry Potter books received. There's little room to stand out in a saturated market; a flash in the pan is only impressive if the pan isn't already on fire.

These days there's little hope of any one new author rising to that kind of fame, though with self-promotion and self-advocacy, a lot more diverse authors are starting to carve out places for themselves. But marketing yourself is exhausting, and it's expensive, and it makes you vulnerable to all sorts of stupid blunders and career-ending missteps.

I'd rather stay indie. But I wouldn't say no to that marketing team.

[nilesmoon]

actually yknow what I will Not stop talking about amprule 4th anniversary art because I know Uri (the artist who designed amprule) puts so much detail into each drawing they make of them so let's break down this banger artwork together

Let's start simple! A pink rose! Pink roses signify elegance and deeper colored ones can signify appreciation! While the characters themselves are Korean, their artist is Japanese, so I also looked up what they mean in Hanakotoba (Japanese flower language) they signify trust, happiness and confidence! Considering their dynamic, these could be the meanings they were going for!!

Up next the dog & the cat. They are possibly a Maine Coon and a Pyrenean Mountain Dog!

From what I've gathered the Pyrenees are used as a livestock guardian. Because of this they are rather protective of their family, as well as loyal and loving but also do not get along well with strangers. All of which work for a rather good descriptor of Chungsung considering how he has dedicated himself to taking care of and protecting Dongha.

Maine Coons, from what I know of them, are curious cats who'll follow you around and try to get included in whatever their owners are doing. So basically, they're giant cats that are clingy. Which, again, works well with Dongha, since he clings to the people he loves! He is afraid of being left behind by Chungsung and he has always been clinging to support he had provided for him.

Now this part might be a reach but when it comes to Uri's art I'm not leaving any idea unsaid. Compared to how the dog is sleeping peacefully in Dongha's lap, the cat is looking at somewhere else, possibly showing how Dongha is desperately trying to get his father's approval?

I would also like to add that in the extra art Uri posted, it is pretty much made clear that the animals are supposed to represent each other, thus signifying the trust they have for one another.

And at last, the color swap. It is my favorite part of the whole thing ngl. Colors mean a lot of for Amprule in my opinion, green means Dongha and red means Chungsung. In their original designs Chungsung's reds are Dongha's accessories, they're eye catching and are mostly associated with hearts. Meanwhile Dongha's greens are naturally blended into Chungsung's clothes with a gorgeous pattern inside his coat. In this illustration however they covered in each other's colors! Hell, in Dongha's case he's covered head to toe in pink!! And this is a Huge Thing especially considering how their main colors contrast each other (but when two colors are contrasting they are also complementary).

But also gold means Dongha and silver means Chungsung. In an interview with Uri, they talk about how they used the gold & silver accessories to show their power imbalance. While it's not a complete swap, bronze & pearl keeps it similar to the colors of gold & silver without losing their difference in monetary value.

It's Dongha's brooch that sums it all up perfectly, green & red and bronze & pearls together in one beautiful piece of jewelry. Put a crown on top of it and that's Amprule.

In the end, I think this is the perfect illustration to showcase how Amprule has changed and will keep changing!! And here's to hoping that sometime soon they'll wear each others colors in not so muted tones.

[if you're here because you read this whole thing, thank you 💚❤️]

[krickis]

Tension Points print edition (now with link!)

So I've already made a post like a year ago that Tension Points has a print edition. I'm just yoinking the photos of that and giving some new info for y'all. You can now buy the book directly from Lulu, you do not need to contact me or PayPal money directly to me anymore! You haven't in like a while, I just don't think I ever said that here... More info below!

So for about a year, I worked pretty tirelessly on a Tension Points print edition. I made it publicly available on Jan 1 of 2023, though at the time, I couldn't figure out how to let people buy it from Lulu without sharing it on the open Lulu market. If you search Lulu for Tension Points, you will not find it; you need a direct link.

The link will be below, but first let's share some photos and such! I took all these a year a go but like the book has not changed in that time lmao

This book is roughly 350 pages, hardcover. The actual book under the dust jacket is a tad boring (solid red with gold letters) because that's what Lulu offers. But the dust jacket is gorgeous, all artwork by my good friend @renrink​ . On that note, it is not lavishly illustrated; there is a full page black and white illustration opening every act, and a final one at the end of the story, for four illustrations (plus about the author/illustrator images).

I will not be asking for extra money for myself on this book, which is sold at cost. I will not profit off it in any way unless you feel so inclined as to send extra money. Which I won’t ask you to, and I won’t try and guilt you into it. But if you want to support me financially by buying this book, it is up to you to decide how much extra to send to me, which can be done by PayPal through this link: paypal.me/evilbun

If for any reason you cannot buy through the link below, then you should get in touch with me and I'll see what I can do. But it should be pretty straightforward for ordering it! Note that if you want something special, like a personalized note or whatever (lmao my ego, it grows ever larger) I'll need to have your book shipped to me first and then ship it to you, as I don't exactly keep spare copies on hand lol, which like I can do but the double shipping will also need to be paid for. Contact me before buying, obviously (and if you bought the book already and want a note added to your copy, contact me over that as well and we can work on it).

I think covers it! If you have any questions, I'm always happy to answer them. But anyway, here's that link for y'all!

[demi-shoggoth]

2024 Reading Log, pt 1

It begins again!

001. The Seed Detective by Adam Alexander. This was the book I was actually looking for when I stumbled upon and also picked up that awful Curious History of Vegetables. This book also has information about the history and folklore involving various vegetables, but is written by someone with a basic respect for science. Alexander is involved with seed saving networks, and a fair amount of the book is him discussing how he got a type of seed he very much likes, or untangling the history of a heritage variation. It’s a quick read and charmingly written.

002. Dark Folklore by Mark Norman and Tracy Norman. The book consists of five chapters, each covering a bit of (mostly British) folklore, and they’re basically organized in order of most to least insightful. There’s a good analysis of the Old Hag and other lore surrounding sleep paralysis, a fun miscellany of weird or magical lore related to British churches and clergy, and a look at the traits that folkloric ghosts have that reports of individual hauntings do not. And then there’s a pretty limp chapter about urban legends that’s mostly just Slenderman, and a final chapter on legend tripping and dark tourism that is basically “this is a thing that exists”. Rarely have I read a book so short that runs out of steam so quickly. It feels like this was finished to a deadline, and suffers for it.

003. The League of Lady Poisoners, written and illustrated by Lisa Perrin. This book is gorgeous. Fully illustrated in gothic style, and with the pages in a pretty, shiny, arsenical green. As the title suggests, the book consists of biographical sketches of women who killed or assaulted with poison, although the book also goes out of its way to talk about the idea of poison as a “woman’s weapon” is a meme rather than a statistical reality. A number of the stories within I’ve heard before (which isn’t a surprise, considering how many books from the bibliography I’ve read), but some of them are new to me, and some quite shocking. Queen Ranavalona I of Madagascar, for example, who may have killed as many as 20% of her subjects through the use of trial by ordeal.

004. The Story of the Universe in 100 Stars by Florian Freistetter. This is a popular science book translated into English, this time from German. As I’ve said before, I’m a sucker for “History of the World in X Nouns” formats for nonfiction. The stars covered here are not all stars—they include black holes, planets that have been mistaken for stars, and even forgotten constellations. Freistetter does a good job of covering all sorts of different types of astronomical lore, and even discusses some fringe hypotheses (like cosmic radiation being the cause of global warming, which he makes sure to debunk extra hard). The biggest flaw with the book, I don’t know whether is an issue with the English translation or the original. The numbers are all wrong. Things like the Earth being 0.8 light years from the Sun (as opposed to 8 light minutes), or the mass of the black hole in the Milky Way being 4 times the Sun’s mass in one chapter and 4 million times in another. It’s a shame, because I really liked this book otherwise, and hope that it gets a paperback edition with some better proofreading.

004a. Epidemics: The Impact of Germs and their Power over Humanity by Joshua S. Loomis. This book failed the vibe check for me. The title is a pretty good summary, although substitute “humanity” for “white people”. The book is almost entirely concerned with European and post-colonial American history and how it was impacted by disease. It therefore feels quite blinkered. The discussion of malaria, for example, focuses a lot more on how European powers were able to come in and partition Africa once quinine became available than the actual suffering of the African people (although it at least gets that the impoverished state of Africa today is due to a history of being looted). There are a number of times where it looks like it’s embracing a “Christianity versus Islam clash of civilizations” narrative, and the introduction blithely states that “most people haven’t lived through an epidemic” (obviously, this was written pre-COVID) as if the developing world or the AIDS pandemic didn’t exist. When I got to the book promoting conspiracy theories that Russia had created genetically engineered super smallpox, I gave up on it.

005. Ocean Life in the Time of Dinosaurs by Nathalie Bardet, Alexandra Houssaye, Stéphane Jouve and Peggy Vincent, illustrations by Alain Bénéteau. Another popular science book translated and made available in English, this one was originally published in French. The first half of the book is an overview of various marine reptile groups, mostly but not limited to the Mesozoic, and then the second half discusses particular fossil deposits that are rich in marine reptiles. There is definitely more European bent to the species illustrated and deposits discussed—the fauna of the Western Interior Seaway, for example, is barely mentioned. One of the most notable things about the book is the use of a single illustrator for almost all of the paleoart in the book, which gives it a very unified artistic vision. Personally, I liked Naish’s Ancient Sea Reptiles more (like Naish, I think in terms of phylogenetics, and having a single author, Ancient Sea Reptiles has a more strongly unified narrative voice), but both books are good.

[lildoodlecat]

THE TIME. HAS COME. SVSSS 4 HAS ARRIVED!!!!!!!!!!

screaming yelling etc basically I've been excited all day djdkd I CANNOT WAIT to read the extras again it's been ages since I first read a fan tl of them

Also!!!!! Bc I'm a fucking packrat I ordered the special edition (exactly the same as the regular edition) for the merch ehehe

Under the cut in case anyone's still waiting for theirs and doesn't wanna see yet but it's SO beautiful and cute I love it

Full spread first!! (Rip me but I could not find a place without glare and also good lighting at this hour)

Plus reverse side of double sided bits <33

Super cute sticker sheet by @/foxyjoy-art (Liu Qingge my beloved,,)

Cute bookmark!! Moshang,,, ｡ﾟ(*´□`)ﾟ｡

Gorgeous posters!!! Look at them crossing cups can't believe they're married (unimportant sidenote I accidentally turned on google lens taking a picture of the first one and it was like hm yes this is TGCF and I was like well. I can see how the umbrella and cn gays might make you think that but—)

Postcards of the covers!! With little bingpups on the back 🥺🥺

And I've hit the image limit for mobile oof ow ouch hey did you know displaying a tweet counts toward your image limit if you add it before you hit 10 images?? anyway here's the B&N exclusive edition foldout illustration which I don't have but is on twitter ✨✨✨

[takiisieju]

Hi! 👋 Sending in some prompts for the SWARM drabble challenge :3

8. Sunrise in Koral

9. Sunset in Koral

Honestly all the characters from your SWARM universe are wonderful, but my favorite is Acid & Base <3

Hi! Thank you so much! This'll have to be divided into two parts, but I am very thankful for two prompts.

taglist: @roofgeese @poisonedtruth @theelderhazelnut @scentedcandleibex @spacestephh

tw: descriptions of insects

SUNRISE IN KORAL

The giant orange orb shows the tip of its flaming crown far beyond the Green Sea. The pinkish rays cut through its treacherous waves, and, as if swimming up to the Koral city, they paint the walls and cliffs with gorgeous golden hour watercolors. Even the many statues on the streets look alive in this lighting.

The city wakes up.

A flock of bats flies into the open window, swarms of bugs, moths, cockroaches and centipedes follow suit. A few rats crawl out of the walls. All of them seek the same place – a piece of yellow fabric lying on the untouched bedsheets. A small pile forms under the fabric, growing with every new creature joining the others. It grows and grows and grows until the red-haired head shows from inside the wide collar. The last of bugs crawl into the Swarm’s mouth, and he opens his eyes, inhaling sharply.

Another sunrise, another birth. Another dream of many places his nocturnal “pets” visited, many cicadas they heard and the sea that tried to swallow them whole. Not all of them returned, killed and eaten by stray cats, but Swarm always kept extras. Now, they crawled under his coat, settling on the thing’s body.

Swarm stands up, looks at himself in the mirror, mixes up one of the many different dirt and clay masks, covering his face with it. It is pointless, of course. Swarm creates a perfect body for himself – with perfectly smooth, soft skin, ever perfectly clean and neatly styled hair, even his signature makeup intact. It’s all just old habits, from his first, unhappy life. Shaking off the unpleasant thoughts, he cleans his face with a wet towel, and walks into the kitchen.

“Renata!” he calls. No response. He calls her again, but she never wakes up from just that.

He sighs and walks into her room, shaking the woman a little.

“It’s sunrise, Renata,” he whispers.

She groans but crawls out of bed. Paying no mind to the thing still being here, she starts to change her clothes. Swarm turns around politely, walking back to the kitchen. There’s water to boil, food to cook. They eat together, then Renata collects her plants and heads to the market, and Swarm returns to his room to carve out another woodblock of his illustration. It has to be done by tomorrow.

There are no clocks in Koral. The sun itself decides when the locals wake up and have midday rest and go to sleep. Even Acid-und-Base wakes up with the sun. She stretches her muscles, getting ready to spend the day swimming, hunting for fish and whatever treasure the Green Sea keeps from the earth-walkers. She looks at her stone beloved with a sorrowful sigh, and as she kisses him goodbye, the only ticking clock she found at the coral reefs showing it’s half past four.

Which means that Royal Deluxe and his mother have awakened ten minutes ago. The Fortune Teller boils the water, cooks whatever her son cuts beside her. Then, as they are about to eat, she takes two cards out of her deck. It’s The Hands for her and The Lion for him. Half of the seaweed pirozhki go into Royal Deluxe’s bag to be brought to his girlfriends.

One of them, Torophya, is particularly busy in the morning, standing beside a big cauldron, tossing in eggs, seaweed, herbs and fish, until something akin to a soup is ready. People of all sorts flock to the community diner, each one well-remembered by the cook, each one well-remembering her as well.

Each one gets a plate of warm food, a quarter of flatbread and hot water, infused with mint, basil or lemongrass. Soon, the entire hall is filled with people enjoying their free warm meal, discussing work and leisure and this day’s food. Kali Kali comes in too. A hearty meal is essential for her, having hours of labour ahead. There’s always cement to mix, rocks to carry and sand to dig. And so they promise to go to Royal Deluxe together.

The first pigeons start to deliver mail, white like a surrender flag. Neela has had her breakfast already, now busy with her beloved birds. The strongest ones are to deliver mail to the mainland’s cities, the smartest – to the ever-travelling Ark, and the youngest – around Koral.

The many pigeons rest atop of the ship-building docks. People there are already making and fixing boats and ships, as if there’s no task more important, at least in their lives. It smells like resin and wood stain and sea salt. One of the workers, a crowned man in greens, is measuring the wooden boards for a young fisherboy’s boat. And while he is a professional and a worker first and foremost, Avaritie knows the dishonest boy a little too well to let it slide. The boat will be finished, and it will be one good boat, guaranteed to serve the boy for long. But as the boy’ll be thanking Avaritie’s brigade, a small red orb will fall out of his mouth into the water basket near him, the one they drink from to prevent fainting from hard work and the chemical stench.

Perhaps that makes the boy reconsider his life choices and stop selling yesterday's fish as if it were fresh.

Or, perhaps, his soul now belongs to Avaritie forever.

[kiarazuri]

Cover Appreciation: A Spider's Mate Trilogy by Tiffany Roberts

He’s spent years as a hunter, but now he’s the one ensnared in a creature’s trap. Ketahn did not want a mate. Fate has a different plan for him. When the queen he despises declares her intention to claim him, he retreats into the jungle. What he finds there changes his world. Small, delicate, and pale skinned, Ivy Foster is nothing like the females Ketahn has known. She’s not of his kind at all. Yet the moment he sees her, he knows the truth in his soul—she is his heartsthread. And now that he has her, he won’t let anything take her away. Not the jungle, not the gods, not the queen and her warriors. Whether Ivy agrees or not, their webs are entangled. No one will ever sever those threads.

(Ensnared, Amazon)

The gorgeous artwork on these covers tells you EVERYTHING you need to know:

The genre (Fantasy [technically Fantasy and Sci-fi] Romance)

That the series follows a single couple. Which is rare among Romance novels (although I've seen quite a few recently while looking for new books to read. I have to be extra careful now since I prefer serieses of standalones with an overarching plot, so being able to tell just by the covers is incredibly helpful.)

The couple’s specieses (human and spider (Oops! Silly me, he’s obviously a Vrix)

What type of monster’s getting fucked (there's literally no getting around that Ketahn's a spider. Not a spidertaur/coptaur/arachnetaur where the upper-half's human and the bottom-half's spider oh no, a full on top and bottom spider with a little big of humanoidness sprinkled in as a treat)

At least one of their genders.

What they look like (the best part of illustrated covers is that they can actually show what the characters look like... unlike a lot of stock photo covers which almost always leave me with a feeling of "that doesn't match the descriptions in the book" )

Their dynamic (big/small, dom/sub; Ketahn's obviously the one in control, look at that body language! In addition to their sexual dynamic being on display you can also see that they get closer and more comfortable with each other with each book. [Ivy's definitely looking up with heart-eyes on Enthralled])

Even the webs in the back change too, becoming more cohesive and put together with each cover. Her outfits also help tell the story, changing from the human clothes she had while on the ship into dresses made from Ketahn's own silk.

I only have a few criticisms. And the biggest one is about the last book. To get straight to it: “Bound” feels… odd. I would have probably named it something like Entangled or Enamored or something. And the reason is simply because it breaks pattern--and instead of putting a flourish on the bottom of the N they chose the top of the U... why? It just bothers me.

Now my next criticism is more so for the trilogy "box"(?) set cover.

It's gorgeous and really embodies their dynamic… except, there is something to be said about the white/black innocent/dangerous dynamic that it gives off that is very watered down in the individual covers. The webs in this one are drawn so that Ketahn's looks like a puppeteer and Ivy's his puppet which is very sinister.

While the Vrix aren’t necessarily Black coded, they ARE coded as non-white and indigenous (possibly Asian). They’re also more “primitive” (🤢) than the humans and the dark/light dichotomy does make me a bit uncomfy. If the other books (Roberts intends to write books about Ketahn's friends and their human mates) continue with the same pattern, ill become much more concerned (I'm especially nervous about what the Japanese girl’s [who's meek and shy personality is already a red flag] book cover's going to have on it).

I checked Goodreads to see if there were any alternate covers and found that only the first book (Ensnared) has one.

I do like this cover, and I wonder if Roberts will make matching covers for the other two as well. The only problem with this cover is that it's... more Horror- than Romance-oriented. That doesn’t mean I don’t like it, but it definitely doesn’t look like a Romance, especially since it doesn’t say “A Spider’s Mate” on it and instead has a very threatening tagline 😂 (having read the books, I think the tagline is great but it really does feed the whole horror-thing this cover’s got going on) as a cover it’s obviously beautiful; the black, purple, green, and white an absolutely gorgeous combination.

As a final note I wanna point out that when I first saw this cover I thought the spider was gonna be asexual because he’s got the ace-flag colors on him.

That is not the case 😅 (though I would love to use that sort of color symbolism in a story someday)

[whoslaurapalmer]

oh by the way I HIGHLY recommend this copy of pride and prejudice, it's the marjolein bastin classic edition, with the most gorgeous flower illustrations and cover and a ribbon bookmark AND!! little extra things!! dance instructions, a dance invitation, and. of course. darcy's letter to elizabeth, envelope and all

[mischief-lies-and-stories]

Top 10 Covers of Single Issue Comics I Own (Ranked)

I am just focusing on Loki-centric or Loki-featured comics. I am ranking purely on cover aesthetics, not on content of the actual comic.

Loki: Agent of Asgard, issue 17 (illustrated by Lee Garbett)

I'm obsessed with Loki's post-ego death look. I love all of the other issue covers around him. I'm less fond of the reminder that this is one of the last issues of this run, since this is my favorite series.

2. Loki, issue 1 (variant) (illustrated by Stanley "Artgerm" Lau)

Gorgeous. I love her. My shitty photo does not do the lighting of this artwork justice.

3. Marvel Voices: Pride #1 (2022) (illustrated by Amy Reeder)

The more Lokis, the better. I love all of the variants, I love all of the flags, and how the Loki in the foreground (and Croki) is standing on the rainbow flag, bringing to mind the bifrost. The only way this could be better is if his actual gender flag was here and President Loki was not.

4. Loki, issue 1 (variant) (illustrated by Rod Reis)

I love this cover for similar reasons to the above entry: all of the different faces Loki has and iterations he's been. I also like that the back of his throne is reminiscent of his crown, and that he's clearly in Jotunheim.

5. Loki, issue 2 (variant) (illustrated by Matteo Lolli)

I'm obsessed with this imagery too. The flock of magpies and how Loki's appearing or disappearing out of the magpies is just ugh so poetic and perfect. It makes me think about the last line from Where Mischief Lies: "Be the witch, and know everything."

6. Defenders Beyond issue 1 (illustrated by Natacha Bustos)

Loki as the Mad Hatter. Need I say more? Okay I will. Loki without shoes on.

7. Loki issue 3 (variant) (illustrated by Mirka Andolfo)

I've already posted about this cover. Teddy is checking Loki('s coat) out. I love it and I think it's fucking hilarious.

8. What If...? Dark Loki (variant) (illustrated by Ema Lupacchino)

Listen, I don't like the way Loki gets ahold of Mjolnir in this, and I don't like what happens as a result. But I am such a fan of Loki holding Mjolnir that I ignore everything else going on.

9. Loki issue 1 (variant) (illustrated by Todd Nauck)

So one website was calling these window shades, and maybe Loki is that extra that he's got red velvet curtains, but I saw this and I was like oh my god he's on stage! And that's what I love about this. He seems like he's in a spotlight and everything.

10. Norse Mythology issue 4 (variant) (illustrated by David Mack)

So this isn't Marvel Loki, but I love Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman. I haven't actually read the comic, but I've read the novel and listened to the audiobook (read by the author) many times. So naturally I needed to buy the comic adaptation with Loki on the cover. I love the watercolor look to it and the collage of all of his symbols surrounding him. I also love how he doesn't have one solid human shape; this idea that all of these forms are him is wonderful and also a theme in Agent of Asgard, so of course, I love the idea that Al Ewing drew on mythology for that idea.

[mskellyjo1]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: 10-Minute Hairstyles Andre Martens Hardcover Book 2015 Braids 50 Looks Technics.