#the diary revision project

[aronarchy]

A copy of the first reading list, if you dislike clicking on Google docs links:

The liberal news media is working overtime to silence Palestinian voices. As we sit thousands of miles away, witnessing the massacre through social media, the least we can do is educate ourselves and work to educate others. Apartheid threatens all of us, and just to reiterate, anti-Zionism ≠ antisemitism.

Academic Works, Poetry and Memoirs

The Revolution of 1936-1939 in Palestine: Background, Details, and Analysis, Ghassan Kanafani (1972)

Palestinians: From Peasants to Revolutionaries, Rosemary Sayegh (1979)

Popular Resistance in Palestine: A History of Hope and Empowerment, Mazin Qumsiyeh (2011)

My Life in the PLO: The Inside Story of the Palestinian Struggle, Shafiq al-Hout and Jean Said Makdisi (2019)

My People Shall Live, Leila Khaled (1971)

Poetry of Resistance in Occupied Palestine, translated by Sulafa Hijjawi (Baghdad, Ministry of Culture and Guidance, 1968)

On Palestine by Ilan Pappé and Noam Chomsky (2015)

Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on the US-Israeli War Against the Palestinians, Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé (2013)

The Politics of Dispossession: The Struggle for Palestinian Self-Determination, 1969-1994, Edward W. Said (2012)

Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique, Sa’ed Atshan (2020)

Stone Men: The Palestinians Who Built Israel, Andrew Ross (2019)

Ten Myths About Israel, Ilan Pappé (2017)

Blaming the Victims: Spurious Scholarship and the Palestinian Question, Christopher Eric Hitchens and Edward W. Said (2001)

Palestinian Walks: Notes on a Vanishing Landscape, Raja Shehadeh (2010)

The Gun and the Olive Branch: The Roots of Violence in the Middle East, David Hirst (1977)

Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom, Norman Finkelstein (2018)

Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel and the Palestinians, Noam Chomsky (1983)

Israel and Palestine: Reappraisals, Revisions, Refutations, Avi Shlaim (2010)

Politicide: Ariel Sharon’s War Against the Palestinians, Baruch Kimmerling (2006)

The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering, Norman G. Finkelstein (2015)

Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire, Jehad Abusalim (2022)

Nakba: Palestine, 1948, and the Claims of Memory, Ahmad H. Sa’di and Lila Abu-Lughod (2007)

Peace and its discontents: Essays on Palestine in the Middle East peace process, Edward W. Said (2012)

Three Poems by Yahya Hassan

Articles, Papers & Essays

“Palestinian history doesn’t start with the Nakba” by PYM (May, 2023) 

“What the Uprising Means,” Salim Tamari (1988)

“The Palestinians’ inalienable right to resist,” Louis Allday (2021)

“Liberating a Palestinian Novel from Israeli Prison,” Danya Al-Saleh and Samar Al-Saleh (2023) 

Women, War, and Peace: Reflections from the Intifada, Nahla Abdo (2002)

“A Place Without a Door” and “Uncle Give me a Cigarette”—Two Essays by Palestinian Political Prisoner, Walid Daqqah (2023)

“Live Like a Porcupine, Fight Like a Flea,” A Translation of an Article by Basel Al-Araj

Films & Video Essays

Fedayin: Georges Abdallah’s Fight (2021)

Naila and the Uprising (2017)

Off Frame AKA Revolution Until Victory (2015)

Tell Your Tale Little Bird (1993)

The Time That Remains (2009)

“The Present” (short film) (2020)

“How Palestinians were expelled from their homes”

Louis Theroux: The Ultra Zionists (2011)

Born in Gaza (2014)

5 Broken Cameras (2011)

Little Palestine: Diary of a Siege (2021)

Al-Nakba: The Palestinian catastrophe - Episode 1 | Featured Documentary

Organisations to donate to

Palestine Red Crescent Society - https://www.palestinercs.org/en

Anera - https://support.anera.org/a/palestine-emergency

Palestinian American Medical Association - https://palestinian-ama.networkforgood.com/projects/206145-gaza-medical-supplies-oct-2023

You First Gaza - https://donate.gazayoufirst.org/

MAP - Medical Aid for Palestinians - https://www.map.org.uk/donate/donate

United Nations Relief and Works Agency - https://donate.unrwa.org/-landing-page/en_EN

Palestine Children’s Relief Fund - https://www.pcrf.net/   

Doctors Without Borders - https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/what-we-do/where-we-work/palestine

AP Fact Check

https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-gaza-misinformation-fact-check-e58f9ab8696309305c3ea2bfb269258e

This list is not exhaustive in any way, and is a summary of various sources on the Internet. Please engage with more ethical, unbiased sources, including Decolonize Palestine and this list compiled by the Palestinian Youth Movement.

[hibiscuslegacy]

I'm a Bit Confused

I need someone smarter than me to tell me if I read the SCREEN Act wrong 😭 I saw some people mentioning it could impact Ao3 but it seems like it's only going to apply to visual depictions (which differs from KOSA that would have applied to every online platform) of what it believes to be content "harmful to minors". I definitely agree that the bill can and will be used to target LGBTQ+ media, especially as "obscene" and "lacks value to minors" was used and I think it sets an alarming precedent that won't stop with this and it also has a section mandating a report outlining the effectiveness of the measures, which can open the door to the bill being revised and more things being covered. The Senator that reintroduced it (Mike Lee) also promoted Project 2025. The bill is sponsored by the National Decency Coalition, which is a right-wing Christian non-profit and they sponsored other age-verification bills, and by the creators of LA Wallet (a platform that allows people to carry a digital ID).

It also seems like movies/shows with characters that engage in "sexual contact" (defined as "the term “sexual contact” means the intentional touching, either directly or through the clothing, of the genitalia, anus, groin, breast, inner thigh, or buttocks of any person with an intent to abuse, humiliate, harass, degrade, or arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person") would be impacted by this bill. So could streaming services like Netflix and Hulu require an ID to watch Supernatural or the Vampire Diaries (I don't watch a whole lot of TV and these were what came to mind 😭)?

The bill concerns me because I think it sets an alarming precedent and involves the FTC but the coverage I've been seeing so far has been focused on Ao3 and I wanna know if I'm just not well-versed in reading bills or if they're talking about future bills that could be passed or revisions that could be made to this bill once it goes to the floor or if it's to spread awareness? I think my main concern is that if people email their representatives and use non-visual media as an example when it 'seems' like it won't be impacted by the current bill, the concerns won't be taken seriously because it just signals they did not read the bill/didn't care enough to read it and won't be remembered come election time. If I'm wrong here, please correct me.

Here are links to what I read: SCREEN Act

18 US Code 2246 (cited a few times throughout the bill)

Sen. Lee One Pager

Sen. Lee's Support for Project 2025

If you have more sources, please share them.

Please don't take anything I say here as fact. I am genuinely asking if I interpreted this right because I am unfamiliar with reading bills and may lack the necessary context to understand how this bill will be applied. I'll also edit this post with the correct information and clearly label what I got wrong.

[rainboq]

Meowdy!

I just wanted to start by saying that I adore Statistics and Purity Through a Prism.

Do you have any general advice you can give to less experienced writers? I’m also hella into making LiS fics, but I’m still trying to find my footing. Plus most of my projects fizzle out around chapter 5, and I’m not sure how to get momentum back after taking a break 😂🥰 how do you write stories that go for so long?

Thanks!

First of all thank you very much for enjoying my fanfics! I'm sorry that I haven't updated anything in a while, life and original fiction projects have pretty much taken over (I'll be self publishing a novel in the next few months).

For general advice, consider the following.

Keep an idea diary. Write down your ideas, just because you have nothing to go with it doesn't mean you won't later and don't be afraid to mash things together.

Learn about story telling as a craft. Study any and every medium and think about how to apply their lessons to word smithing. I highly recommend Every Frame a Painting, Thomas Flight, Hello Future Me, and Ellen Brock.

Read everything twice. Once for pleasure, once to tear it apart to figure out how the sausage is made. Dissect word choice, structure, pacing, foreshadowing, all of it. If you want to get better as an author, get better at media analysis.

Ask yourself why a project fizzles out. Did you lose sight of your original goal? Is it not turning out the way you hoped? Can you not remember where you wanted it to go? I tend to write with a few very specific scenes fixed in my head and I need to massage the characters to make those scenes happen and make sense. For Prism that was Kate and Chloe's clifftop kiss. Everything after that was kinda ad-libbed.

Embrace failure. Enjoy failure. Fail faster. As the Frizz would say: take chances, make mistakes, and get messy! You will learn more from your mistakes than from your successes. It's okay to be disappointed and upset when things don't go your way, but then dust yourself off and figure out what went wrong where and learn your lessons. (Just because you can write a novel in 3 months doesn't mean you should)

Your ideas are crap. It's okay, mine are too. Ideas always suck, they become good when you actually write the stories and find your blind spots. Make it work in the edit. You can change things right up until you publish, so play around and have fun.

It's okay to not finish projects. Use them as learning experiences. Practice writing better and better hooks. Find character's voices. Toy around with premises.

Practice with a purpose. With everything you write, pick something you want to focus on. Dialogue, pacing, structure, action, word play, imagery, etc. Pick something, study, execute.

Keep it simple. Elevator pitches are 30 words or less. If you can't summarize the crux of your story simply and succinctly, consider revising your idea to make it less complicated. Prism's premise is literally "What if Max never went to Blackwell". Statistic's premise is "What if Chloe was a homeless trans girl dealing for Frank". Complicated premises aren't bad, but they make executing much harder, and you don't need them to tell a good story.

Don't stop. Always be reading, writing, and thinking. Your creativity is a muscle, work it out. Hit the brain gym regularly with focus and intent and you'll see the growth.

I hope these help and good luck!

[beautifulpersonpeach]

Lol.

Yeah… the more news that comes out just confirms more of what I thought. This unnamed character who moves from HYBE to ADOR, and mere weeks later, HYBE gets a ‘tip-off’ and all the incriminating documents are in his work diaries where he narrates things MHJ has supposedly said, including that she believes that Bang establishing BTS or groups with the same cache as BTS, was him copying her…. Everything that’s found in his documents is almost clinically incendiary lmao. Like, weapons-grade rage bait. Partly because of how bizarre it is. And the sinker - they tie it to Min Heejin supposedly wanting more money. MHJ has meanwhile released another, stronger statement refuting the allegations about trying to stage a management takeover, or artists contract leaks etc.

Of course, the discourse about this is going to develop predictably, especially after the mention of BTS and other groups MHJ supposedly says copied her.

This has all the makings of one thing and only one thing, to me. It doesn’t change my opinion about Bang PD but it does make me revise my view on Min Heejin, she’s a bit more naive than I assumed her to be. I feel a bit sorry for her, because she’s been got. Again. It’s similar to the ig situation that also started with ‘a gift’ her ‘friend from SM’ gave her to congratulate her on launching ADOR - a gift that ended up being the most damning controversy that almost sunk the group. A controversy where the primary demand was for her to leave NewJeans and HYBE. Now, a ‘right-hand man’ transfers from HQ to her team and it’s his uncorroborated narrations that match what’s in the ‘tip-off’… the demands are the same.

I like MHJ, but I’ve always watched her with caution because in Korea, no woman makes it to the c-suite without making a shit tonne of enemies. Imagine it to be triple the amount a regular working class man makes on his way up the ladder, because that kind of status in Korea is something you’re either born into, or born close to. It’s rare for working class men to work their way up and even more rare for women. In fact, I’d say it’s an aberration.

I see all the flack MHJ gets for being a narcissistic bitch, wanting to constantly assert ownership of her ideas, wanting to be widely associated with her successful projects, etc. I see people irritated by her arrogance, but full disclosure, I like her for it. For several reasons, but one reason is that in her environment, the default is to let your male superiors take credit for your work. It happens in corporate environments all over the world, but in Korea it’s a mentality entrenched in the DNA. Pushing against that earns you enemies every time you speak, by default. But I suspect that’s how she worked her way up from being a graphic designer to having a seat on the board of directors at SM Entertainment before leaving when they wouldn’t give her more autonomy. So, in my eyes, she’s got spunk. But also, now I see she’s clumsy.

Oftentimes with corporate drama, there’s no point using moral language because it’s just business. You either pitched the best deal or you didn’t. You either fucked up or you didn’t. It’s cold numbers and rationality - business. But… there are some cases where it’s not really about the business, cases where it’s personal.

I don’t have meaningful insider information, I’m reading the press releases and ‘leaks’ along with everyone else, so I can’t be certain and that’s why I’m talking in this long-winded ramble without coming right out to say exactly what I think. What I’ll say though is that this is less about NewJeans and more about Min Heejin. And she’s the first person who should’ve understood that and taken necessary precautions.

Clearly, it doesn’t look like she has, and in that sense she has no one but herself to blame. She’s being stupid, in fact I’d say delusional in some ways, but I guess some things can’t be helped. NewJeans isn’t exactly fucked, but it’s clear that yet again, they are collateral damage. And it’s a shame.

[chronotopes]

2024 creative/personal writing wrapped

and yes i'm proud enough of my escaprils that i'm going to list a lot of them individually. sorry.

(2023) (2022) (2021) (2020) (2019)

FICTION

Aivide the Prequel. You know her you love her I FINISHED HER THIS YEAR!!!!! It's my only completed public facing version all-OC story even if it's not 100% original fiction, and I'm still so proud and fond of it and excited to continue the story one day in whatever form that takes. This year I finished chapters 5 and 6 for a total of 73,000 words.

Vital Light. You know her, you don't know that much about her, Aivide the Prequel's more embarrassing and earnest younger/older sister. For those new: a revision of a novel from 2016 which is in itself a revision of a collaborative story from (shudders) 2012. Yes I'm insane for attempting it but also yes I feel like I've learned a lot and working on it tends to tangibly improve my life. The mess of excessively wordy first draft writing I did this year totals at just over 90,000 words.

NONFICTION

A lot of my essays this year were escapril prompts, which is a challenge meant for poetry that I cheerfully reinterpreted to be about creative nonfiction instead. Wild success!! Really excited to do it next year!! Ok let's list some essays, with the ones I think are strongest/most editable bolded. They are not going to have word counts because I Don't Feel Like It.

"Change of State," an essay about moving to Maryland.

"The Internet," a kind of underdeveloped use of paleontology as metaphor for growing up.

"Eye contact," an essay about my dynamics with my mother and my girlfriend as well as the concept of 'attention.'

"Trip," revisiting a formative camping adventure with my childhood best friends, who perhaps predictably emerged as a reocurring theme in this project.

"Spiral," an essay about my nichely significant great-grandfather and his war stories of dubious veracity.

"A childhood memory (catholic school gymnasiums)," which is the first essay of mine that mentions Jenny's siblings by name! About going to Easter Mass with her family and, relatedly, visiting your loved ones' childhood spaces.

"Portrait," about augustine and i being in gay love with each other in seventh grade art class.

"What's the truth?", about my own renegotiations of my senior year of college social fallouts.

"Bad Habit," about reading strangers' wedding websites.

"Fog," about New Year's Eve 2022 with Jenny.

"Posture," which is me in senior year of high school and the act of posturing, as I had already covered the Reprimands From My Mother in "eye contact" and had nothing to say about the concept of standing up straight.

"Oh, the light!", which I would never title an essay independently but is functionally just a longer expression of that one jesse pinkman image captioned 'how it feels to be in a transitional state'.

"Purr," about one of my friends' cats as metonym for grief.

"A recurring dream," honestly one of the weakest ones, but it's once again about my fall 2022-spring 2023 experience and the weirdness of it all.

"Beach," about visiting Esther in Florida for the first time and about my larger-scale relationship with the ocean.

"So embarrassing..., or (BEING NOTES TO MYSELF AS 2014 TURNED TO 2015)", or exactly what it sounds like.

"Truth," a sequel to "What's the truth?" that is also about Esther and Julia's wedding.

"Suspended in Air," about going to Harper's Ferry and loving my wife so much it's unreal.

"A reminder:", a total nothingburger of an essay. Essay that could have been a diary entry.

"Moth," a vivid little image of summer in Southeast Virginia as written by someone who's about to move out of there for good.

"The problem of death." Escapril prompts are really on the nose sometimes, huh? I like the central metaphor in this essay that is, in fact, about death, which involves Star Trek Two The Wrath of Khan of all things.

"Desire," about seeing myself in the end of Twelfth Night.

"Simulation," about roleplayed love confessions with Augustine.

"Unexpected Transmission," about the night I found out my boss died.

"Dark Secret," about my relationship to romantic love, especially the unrequited kind.

"Modernity," about fall 2020, taking Women and Modernism while developing my own writing fascinations with the contemporary literary micro-movements of beautiful women and theys on the internet

"The absolute limit," double essay about Reconciliation Dreams Involving The Ex-Bestie.

"Surgery," vaguely hermit-crab style set of annotated recent google searches. About budgeting and planning for the future jinxing and to a certain extent literal surgery. By far one of the strongest concepts here.

"How to exist," another Essay That Could Have Been A Diary Entry maybe but has some good prose. These last two are kind of a culmination of Personal Processes i was going through in this set of thirty essays, in which i took an artistic spin to things that had been too fucked up to write about artistically in years past.

"Tomorrow," about the month of May and my history of planning for it / of grand turnarounds occurring at the end of spring.

There were some non-escapril ones too (okay actually most of them were inspired by past escapril prompts but pretty loosely)

"Visions of the Future," about imagining my future self.

"Myopia in seventh-grade notebooks," which takes a classic trick in adapting a poem from the past into an essay.

"Eavesdropping," the product of my biannual process of rereading all of my past messages with my dead friend and wanting to kick my own ass about it all.

"Attention," about the complicated metaphysics of returning to your hometown.

POETRY

"Tampa," which engages with and somewhat ties up the Ancient Katia Tradition of writing poetry on planes titled after the destination.

An uninterestingly titled anniversary poem for jenny :)

"Pine Pollen," about how (elizabeth stokes voice) i can close the door on us but the room still exists and i know you're in it

FINAL THOUGHTS

I usually do goofy superlatives for these, but instead here are some coherent thoughts about what I think I accomplished as a writer this year and what I think I'd like to work on in the coming year. First, some strengths of this year:

I still have a lot of work to continue, but writing from prompts was wildly helpful in my efforts to formulate interesting and stylistically mature shortform creative nonfiction. Writing event-first is horrible for me and writing Spontaneous Connection-first is great when it can happen but can't be forced. Being forced to contemplate how 'so embarrassing' or whatever could most interestingly be applied to cnf kind of helped me break that barrier, which I am very grateful for. I covered a lot of new ground and revisited some old ground in an interesting way, and though the above essay list is a collection of first drafts and experiments, I'm very happy with what I gained from it.

It was wildly satisfying to finish revising Aivide and bring it to a satisfying conclusion. I still have to go back and do some smaller-scale line editing on it, and it would be a much better overall product if it was plotted and rewritten in 2023-2024 from start to finish, but Aivide the prequel also wouldn't exist without me-from-2021, so it would be very dumb to not give them significant credit. In 2024 I wrote some of the parts of this novel that are the most special to me and reflect the things I love about writing fiction most closely. It's not without its flaws, but I'm still wildly proud of it and think you (yes, you!) should read it if you like loosely-homestuck-connected science fiction or toxic homoerotic girl best friends.

It was also very rewarding to return to Vital Light, which was kind of my Shrek last year in the Prince of Egypt/Shrek analogy that I love applying to my own writing, and find that I was capable of writing Characters And Plots That Interest And Compel Me with stories other than Aivide. Vital Light is still categorized as 'the silly one' in my head, but there are at least invididual parts of it that register to me as meaningful and interesting and I think pursuing the whole project is Teaching Me New Things About Being A Writer, which is the key part.

I think for a lot of college I would make resolutions along the lines of 'this is the year I finally get published!' and would scrutinize all my non-fanfiction out-of-class writing as A Journey To Getting Published while doing nothing on the get published front because litmag submissions are the job applications of writing and we all know how much I hate doing either of those things until actively forced to. Both 'somewhat goofy prompts' and 'deep structural revision of The Novel That Owned My Soul In High School' are good exposure therapy for writing to learn, to tell myself a story, to try something and see if it works, rather than to publish.

In this coming year some of the main things I would really like to do are – 

To gather up the strength for confident and well-considered worldbuilding and get comfortable with reading lots of nonfiction to get a comfortable knowledge base in areas relevant to my subject

To write or conceptualize at least one story (it can be shortform, though shortform is its own uphill battle for me lol) starring a character or universe that did not exist before 2025,

To progress my shortform nonfiction into workable longform nonfiction,

To take at least one local writing class, not so much because I think Classes are really missing from my life but because meeting people who write and are local to you is an interesting and productive part of writing and living in a place, even if they are not interested in the same things you are and do not necessarily share an artistic ethos with you

I am not going to resolve to Submit To More Litmags because I know the kind of doomspiral that instills in me and it is also not terribly important to me right now. But I think I do want to critically examine Types Of Making Your Writing Public and explore the ones I'm comfortable with, as well as observing the mechanisms behind that comfort. Pivotally I also want to read more widely and consistently, including shortform stuff (collective BOO from the crowd!) (i'm the crowd.). First and foremost, I want to continue reading and writing from a place of pleasure and curiosity and exploration – with the obvious disclaimer that 'pleasure' does not mean Reading The Easiest Or Most Feel Good Thing, there is pleasure to be found in new and challenging things and good prose and meeting challenges – because I think that is the best way to do interesting things and never kill yourself.

[all-the-stars-hills-milky-way]

🍂 8-11-2024

Woke up at 6:30

Skipped one lesson

Wore a little makeup to school for the first time

Studied Art History

Revised before the test

Finally took the Art History test

Wrote half an essay for Spanish History and handed it in

Planned the weekend

Revised Spanish History

Tried to do an Art History project

Worked out a little bit

Took a shower

Wrote in my diary before going to bed

🕓 Total study time: four hours and a half or so

🎧 Listened: Bluza by Joker out and Buzzcut season by Lorde

📺 Watched: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders reality

📖 Read: two poems by Philip Schultz

👣 Walked: 2,4km

[stchematelier]

Dev Diary #24

Some news on what I've been up to this June :)

Firstly, I had to set aside every other project this month while I ventured my way into Neo-Twiny Jam.

The CG sets for Part 1 of 3 is close to finish in part thanks to the low-effort style I opted to went for. The art style itself is based on a couple of sketches I made back in 2019 when I had a marker-to-gel pen phase because of my muji sketchbook. The paper quality was so smooth and good, the marker inks would glide down those papers in such a way that I would be in the zone while listening to music! I also had this favourite shade of pink gel-pen I bought from Miniso at that time, which I used to doodle and do messy sketches with until it ran out of ink (second favourite of mine was the lavender shade right after the pink).

I can't find it here in Europe, but when I get the chance I'll do a supply run next time I travel back in Asia.

As of this week, I have started to set up the base for Part 2 and Part 3. Both of which has their own sets of CGs I have to finish and encode everything before the deadline ends. Unluckily, the second week of June had to be spent on my recovery, but thankfully the last few days has seen me catching up on the things to be done for the game project.

The idea itself isn't new. It was a story I've wanted to explore since it came to me during lockdown. It's partially inspired by my own long-forgotten first childhood crush, while everything else is either based on something I read and watched over the years. In retrospect, I have to blame The Lake House (2006) for making me such a sap when it comes to romance stories. It's one of those media which altered my brain indefinitely since I watched it as a kid on TV the first time.

That and because I thought it was a laugh to have the main protagonists named off after the months of the year, haha... The heroine originally was supposed to be a young male named Donnie - Donnie short for Donald - but after revising it as time went on I settled for April.

To be perfectly honest, I have zero clue how I will have to write down the synopsis nor the appropriate content warning when my sole intention is to leave everything up to interpretation. Is April mad or had she imagined this person her whole life? How do you cope when you find yourself living in two different realities? Can you even?

When I was putting down the idea, I briefly entertained to have this character passed away, but it seemed too heartless. Either way, no matter what happens, I'm glad I made kinetic-novels again.

Stay safe,

S. H.

[maverick-werewolf]

(public) Happy New Year's Eve! - Big Changes, New Focus on BOOKS (fiction & nonfiction)

Happy New Year's Eve, everyone! I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas, and I wish you a wonderful New Year's Eve!

It's 2025, and I am looking forward to everything in store. Firstly, I am announcing a big change to all my regularly-scheduled work...

I am putting all of my Facts series - Werewolf Facts, Vampire Facts, Folklore Facts, and Mythology Facts - on hold until further notice...

So that I can focus on publishing fiction and nonfiction books, including a Werewolf Facts book!

I have many big plans for books in the coming years, and I want to be certain I have time to complete them. Rather than taking the time to research and write smaller blog posts, I will be spending that time writing, editing, and compiling nonfiction reference books on many subjects, including but not exclusively werewolves. My next two goals for nonfiction books are a book of Werewolf Facts and a collection of werewolf folklore stories.

Likewise, of course, I have many plans for fiction, as well. I am tentatively eying January 25th - the day of the full moon of January, the Wolf Moon - as the release date of Knightfall and The Demon's Fang, after many unexpected delays. After that, I will move on immediately to working on other fiction, as I have been discussing in patron-only posts, including but not limited to the sequel and conclusion to Djedar Rath's series with The Curse of Ankhu.

I have also been working on revising my personal website to focus very hard on my main subject: werewolves. While I of course won't write about them exclusively, they are very much my "thing" and my focus, as always. Expect to see big announcements on my website changes very soon, along with the release of my next two books.

As for the changes over on the Patreon, you can expect me to continue posting updates on my work and how it's all going, but you can also expect the Facts series posts to end, for the time being. Tiers will reflect this change, as well as the change to focus on my writing.

ALL CHANGES to the Patreon and the tiers:

Packmate ($1) - Removed the reward of access to polls for monthly werewolf/vampire/folklore/mythology facts, as I will no longer be making monthly posts of those and thus no polls.

Shadewalker ($5) - Added mention that fiction and/or nonfiction previews and other works may not always be monthly; I will always post about why if I miss a month, such as when working on a major project (like editing a long book). Also clarified that some writing will remain exclusive to this Patreon. I have removed mention of the Writing Diaries series for now, until it actually comes to fruition (we'll see if that series ever gets to exist or if they're just special Writing Journals I post occasionally; Deep Dives are definitely staying, though).

Mooncaller ($10) - No changes (except to previously-mentioned rewards)

Huntmaster ($20) - No changes (except to previously-mentioned rewards)

Nightlord ($50) - Added: Upon becoming a patron, you will receive a signed paperback copy of Wulfgard: The Prophecy of the Six, Book I - Knightfall! (you may opt out of this)

Apex Predator ($100) - Same as Nightlord (receive a paperback copy of Knightfall upon joining, with option to opt out), and the ability to download my ebooks for free via the Patreon shop has also returned

Please note of course that KNIGHTFALL IS NOT YET RELEASED, so new and old patrons will not yet receive any copies of the book. Likewise, The Demon's Fang is not yet published, and is not yet available through my newsletter or anywhere else. These things will happen after the books are completed and published (soon!).

I'm very excited about these changes. They should give me much more time and freedom to work on books at a steadier rate, release them sooner, and release more nonfiction as well as continuing my fiction... not to mention, on the side, making more plushies and printed Wulfgard LEGO figures, both of which I also really want to do!

I will be spending today celebrating with my family, but after that, it's time for me to get back to work, and I have so much in store...

See you in 2025!

[2456788sworld]

DAILY CHECK-IN :Sat, 22 February 🫧🎀

Today's Priorities: Let's get it done ~

Complete maths notes(+understanding+search sums related to each topic)

Chinese vlog lesson+write a diary

Complete writing ( phy 2nd paper notes )+study....

Complete phy 1st paper notes+study....

Diy

Take a refreshing shower

Skincare+spf

Foot care routine

Time blocking my month,weeks( prepare routine study + self-care+language learning+others..)

Complete the draft ( if time permits)

Today's Wins ~

Maths notes

Checked my model if it's working or not

Skincare+spf

Timeblocking

Made a post

Revised project report

Studied probable questions

[featherquillpen]

Tagged by: @thejakeformerlyknownasprince

Last song: If we're talking the last song I heard, it was a jazz number by Willie 'The Lion' Smith and His Cubs on the jazz radio station my partner put on. If we're talking the last song I chose, then it was the album Climbing That Mountain by Christopher Dragone. I love elaborate fingerpicking guitar.

Last book: I've been rereading the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, because I'm very stressed, and as half of Tumblr knows, Murderbot is a comfort read.

Last movie: The Room Next Door directed by Pedro Almódovar. Amazing movie. Old woman yuri. Tilda Swinton. What more do you want?

Last TV show: Taskmaster, as usual. I've been watching Season 11. Again, I'm very stressed, and Taskmaster is the ultimate comfort show.

Sweet/Savory/Spicy: Savory and spicy. Like @thejakeformerlyknownasprince I don't have much of a sweet tooth and often regift candies and such that are given to me with the expectation that I'll like them (I won't, unless it's dark chocolate.) I am a beast for spicy food. I own a bag of dried ghost peppers, and I use them.

Relationship status: I have a nesting partner and two comet partners (a married couple who live 2 and a half hours away from me.) I love my GFs!

Last thing I searched: If we exclude things I searched for work, then it's "Geosesarma", which is a genus of extremely cute crabs.

Current obsession: Game design. I have way too many game design projects going on. I need to release version 2 of one of my games, and put the finishing touches on a game before its alpha run next month, and start writing down the great new horror game idea I have. That's to say nothing of all the revisions I will make after the two alpha runs I have coming up soon.

Looking forward to: All my games I'll be running soon, as stated above! I'm seeing my comet partners this weekend, which will be wonderful, and I'm going to a kink event on Sunday that should also be great fun.

Tagging (but no pressure): @hypokeimena @strawberry-crocodile @gengor @lellu @demenior @c-rowlesblogs

[leianaberrie]

Finally, the brand new content!

(Ramblings below the cut)

Now that I've started posting the new content from Yibbum, and not just revisions of the old chapters, I feel more mentally settled to work and finish the next fics. Take What You Want needs just one chapter. No point starting another sprawling wannabe epic. Taking Me Over Completely has a rough outline that I intend to work through the same way I did Yibbum.

[sigrid-of-solstheim]

Finally finished chapter 6! It took me quite a bit longer than I thought because kept adding things and making revisions, but here it is if anyone cares to read!

A preview:

After what we saw and heard last night, there was no debate over whether to light a fire or not; we lit one immediately and before it was fully dark, hunted around for enough wood to keep it burning brightly all night long. Whatever that thing is that hunts us waits in the darkness, watching from the shadows. I will not give it an advantage. 

To distract my mind, I will record what happened last night: ...

[citylighten]

Would you rather: start your current project from scratch or do a soft reboot focusing on a different character?

As we dig deeper into Sink or Swim, getting into this gang shit, we're gonna focus on the perspectives of other characters and I feel like you can't have one character's perspective (like Sal's) without another's (like Rosie). Otherwise, a soft reboot would be something like Raphael's perspective and we don't need that shit. 😭😭

I would like to restart Sink or Swim from scratch because there's certain things I would do differently. For example, I wouldn't make it tied to Dear Diary 'cause a lot of my newer followers haven't read that. I would just kick it off with dialogue explaining how and why Franco is in debt to the Polombo family. Or maybe a few revised scenes idk. I would introduce characters a bit differently - make a few new characters too.

Like, there'd be more people at Polombo Publishing [real talk, the only reason why the office isn't alive and filled with different workers is because I didn't want to design a bunch of guys in CAS at that moment in time.]

Since I'd retcon Dear Diary's events to an extent, I would make Gigi and Damiano be Daciano's younger siblings. I really been kicking my ass for that. Like that could've been such a great opportunity to round out the crime family. And I would honestly scrap a few early filler scenes from Sink or Swim. As you can see I have many thoughts about this. 😂 So many I can't even think of them all, but yeah! These are some major things.

[early20sfailingplenty]

I was genuinely brave today and I wanna tell the Sinclairs about it but I can't so I'm telling all of you🥹🥹🥹

Okay so yesterday when I was grocery shopping, my work senior texted me to ask if I wanted to drop one of my shifts so I would have more time for uni. That WOULD help me out BUT financially I cannot afford to lose £2-300 a month. It was just sprung on me and instead of making a snap decision I asked if I could have time to think on it and promised to tell her my decision tomorrow (today). So I think on it, I got upset and angry (still haven't quite figured out yet why I got defensive but I think it's because the way she asked me, made me feel like she was saying I'm incapable of working four days a week and doing a degree. That's NOT what she was saying, but that was my snap emotional response. Obviously I didn't act on it and just asked her for thinking time). I do all my numbers once I'm home and yes, I canNOT afford to lose that money but yes it would help me academically. So time or money, which is it?? I picked money, I had to. Mum agreed, dad disapproved last night but this morning told me he agreed with me. So, fine, it's decided. So then today, I go into work, and half hour before the end of my shift, my work senior comes up to me and says, are you ready? I say yes, we find a quiet room.

HERE'S WHERE I WAS BRAVE.

Okay so she asked me again if I wanted to drop a shift to make uni easy on me and I said no thank you, financially I can't afford it but also I just REALLY love my job and I wanna stay on my four days a week. I didn't hesitate, and I didn't hold back. I was truthful and honest and I was as polite as possible given how angry I was yesterday. She then said that she loves having me on her team and doesn't want me to lose any hours either but she's just thinking about me and my mental health because she doesn't want to find out that I've been awake for 32 hours between work and uni EVER again because I'm one of her girls and if that's happening then she isn't doing her job to take care of us properly. So then I pulled out my notebook and showed her what needs to be revised between now and October and what this year will be like (see below pictures. This is the PREP WORK alongside learning an entire computer software programme we will use regularly AND six online labs to complete).

And she sat and thought for a moment because I refuse to compromise on my job not only because I'm stubborn but also because I just genuinely can't afford losing that kinda money and then she asked for all of my assignment deadline dates, all my lecture dates, etc etc and I gave them to her (I don't have lecture dates or group project dates yet because I get them in mid September) and she wrote them in her diary and said that she's gonna make sure that I have at least two days off in a row for all of those weeks so I can fully concentrate on my assignments and she asked that when I get the other info, that I give them to her so she can pencil me in as needing a day off. She also said that when I get my textbooks and the platform opens up, to bring my laptop into work and she's gonna sit down with me and work out a day by day plan for the first week and then I can copy that for all the other weeks so that I have time for my job AND uni AND free time without sacrificing one or the other.

I'm so so happy, I was expecting to be forced to give up one shift a week and I expected to be forced into what I didn't want but she listened and was so lovely and accommodating and good to me.😭😭😭 AND THEN SHE DROVE ME HOME BECAUSE MY KNEE STILL ISN'T FULLY HEALED BUT IT ALMOST IS😭😭😭😭😭honestly she was so kind it genuinely stunned me and I feel like I'm waiting for the shoe to drop...

And I just.... Proud Sinclairs because I'm getting braver and more vocal and confident???? Please have I earned Bo's smirk and Vincent's approving "mmf" and Lester's sunshine smile???😭😭😭😭

I'm getting so much braver now and saying no more often and pushing back and finding the spine my abusers took from me almost a decade ago. I'm doing it I'm doing itttt and now I just gotta keep good on my promise and make it work and not lose myself in the process...

[olisun2]

FIRST POST

I have 6 weeks to work hard and pull myself together. I'm gonna be posting here as almost a diary/log!

To do list:

•finish writing a story (to be posted here and wattpad)

•make an oc ask blog

•start on my 3 comics/make progress✅

•start that youtube channel with my bsf✅

•make progress on my videogame project

•try to post art to my insta regulary✅

•revise for school

If more things to do come up I'll add to it!! I'm not all that excited to have a busy summer but if I don't pull it together now I never will

[huellitaa]

☀️🎀 princess project: day 12!

──★ ˙ ̟🎀 thursday 6.6.24

🗒🎀𓂃 ࣪˖ today's to do!

☀️ mental

cried a little because i was sad

girlrotted the whole night because i was exhausted

complained about my parents in my diary (real)

🎀 physical

hot girl walked

ran to and from town away from year 7s and five year olds with my best friend

cucumber water

ate lunch today

🧁 academic

did my maths exam in the morning

marked my science exam (33/55; around 30 is the average, so it's not too bad, but i will do better in future! ♡)

planned out my post-science exam revision ♡

💬 social

shopping with my best friend! ♡

gossiped with my little brother

complimented and chatted to this lady in the makeup shop because her dog was absolutely adorable

yelled at some teenage boys in town and ran off laughing with my best friend

giggled and kicked my feet because my wife is so cute

verbally abused some kid who harrasses me on the way home to my friends

🎀 leisure

spent money!!!!!!!!

bought my first twice album <3

planned out tomorrow and reset day

updated my notion

scrolled on pinterest for ages gathering inspo

all my love! 💗💬🎀