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#the ever present themes through it. theres so many but this one in particular of like
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literally like. i felt you at the beginning but needed you at the end . forgive me if you have heard this all before too many times after too much alcohol but you dont know me anymore. oh please i can't be who you need me to be. drifted from the start i ripped myself apart i'll be whatever you need me to be, i cut myself down to whatever you need me to be. i am a diamond on the inside, just add the pressure, know it's inside me but i got no map to my own treasure. i've got this doom and gloom in my mind, but i've got love in my heart. all this love i've got to keep to myself, all this effort to make it seem effortless. so real that i feel fake. i just need someone to hold me even though you don't even know me. DO U GET IT
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sparklingseb · 5 years
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Sparklingseb’s Fic Rec!
Hi everyone! I’ve practically relied on fic recs for months when I want to read something new. I have been reading fics for over a year and these are some of the fics that I absolutely adored. Also a little forewarning, my favorite fics are usually multi-chapter fics that are either mcu based, college au’s, neighbor, or bodyguard fics, and i love a good slow burn, but I’ve read some fics that dont pertain to those preferences that are amazing. Some of these fics are not finished but I still loved them so I’m including them on here. These are in no particular order btw! PSA: Some of these fics have mature themes so I will mention that in the description of the fic!
When Everything’s Made to be Broken (I Just Want You to Know Who I Am) by @cassiopeiassky
When you inadvertently become a witness to a murder and are suddenly a target for death, it takes a specially skilled soldier and his team to keep you alive and your family protected.
Mature Themes- This has to me one of my favorite fics of all time (if not my definite favorite). The raw emotions shown throughout the fic as well as the character developments just made me feel every emotion known to man. I have read this fic more than 5 times because honestly I just cannot get enough of it. I think this fic has one of the most accurate portrayals of Bucky’s character out there. I can’t recommend this fic enough, please do yourself a favor and read it!
A Lesson in Love by @buckyywiththegoodhair
(College!AU) In which you’re assigned to write a story about romance, a subject you know nothing about, and Bucky, a hopeless romantic, offers you his assistance.
I adore this fic, and its not just because I love college!Bucky fics. Nicole’s writing style is absolutely gorgeous and the way that she portrays Bucky is like the perfect blend of 40′s Bucky and post tws!Bucky all without being in the MCU timeline. This fic made me sob and I have read it so many times that I’ve lost count. I honestly could go on about this fic forever so I’ll stop myself but just know that this is honestly a piece of art.
Bloody Roses by @the--sad--hatter
What you thought was a trapped squirrel turned out to be a super soldier in need. It’s not every day an Avenger turns up in your garden, in serious need of help but you deal with it as best as you can.
And then, to your surprise, he keeps showing up.
I found this fic relatively recently compared to the rest of the fics on this list, but I absolutely adored it. As a (mostly) major introvert I really related to this fic. I feel like I’ve never experienced a writing style quite like Kara’s and its absolutely beautiful. The descriptions in this work made me feel like I was there in the moment living through every moment. Really just a beautiful fic in general. 
Safe With Me by @bitsandbobsandstuff
When an unknown threat enters your life, protection is offered at the highest level. As Bucky Barnes comes into your life, the game changes, and you realize falling for the man tasked with keeping you safe is the last thing you expected.    
Mature Themes- Here is where my weakness for bodyguard!bucky comes into play. This fic absolutely killed me. Beautifully written, the descriptions are incredible, Bucky is a pain and I love it, all in all its a fic thats definitely worth your time to read. This is the fic that started my love for bodyguard!Bucky and It’s the one that I always seem to come back to. 
Written in the Stars by @prettyyoungtragedy
You’re the type of woman who is headstrong and fiercely independent. Heiress to a fortune and one of the most brilliant minds of the 21st century. Until you’re forced into witness protection. Your “Protection” turns out to be 220 pounds of dreamy, sassy, delightful Bucky Barnes. Whatever could go wrong?
Mature Themes- I mean come on, this fic is absolutely amazing. Yes I love bodyguard!bucky, but thats not the reason that I immediately fell in love with this fic. The reader is someone I really identify with and I think that everyone and their mother should read this fic at some point (and then read it again). I feel like basically all of the characters in this fic are portrayed perfectly and overall its just pure beauty.
Next Door by hayvocado (AO3)
You haven't exactly been in the best situation these last few years, what with your boyfriend being abusive, your job being hell, and you only having one friend in the terrifying city that is New York. One day you literally fall into the arms of a sweet stranger who doesn't seem to be much of a talker, and for whatever reason, you can't help but feel safe around him.
Mature Themes- Just a bit of a warning first, this fic has very prominent abuse descriptions both physically and mentally so if you are going to read it please be aware of that. I was hesitant to put this fic on the list because of the abuse themes, but the way Bucky’s character is written is something that I knew had to include here. The Bucky and reader interactions in this fic are like nothing I have ever read before and it is absolutely beautiful.
Battle-Scarred: Aftermath by Darke15 (AO3)
You remembered it different every time, and every time there was a new detail. Every time you were one step closer to putting together the missing pieces, one step closer to solving the puzzle.
This fic is unfinished but absolutely beautiful. The transitions between past and present and the interconnectedness of both are incredible. I haven’t read many fics like this before and I really enjoyed it. The descriptions and dialogue are truly a privilage to read. 
Stray or The Relative Merits of Leaving Your Window Open in Times of Acute National Crisis by BubbleBakerPenguinPie (AO3)
You live an ordinary, fairly boring, somewhat lonely life working for a branch of Stark Industries in Washington DC. The closest you ever got to superheroes and conspiracy theories was your best friend since childhood, Skye. But all this was set to change when a gaggle of masked men fall through your window the day the Helicarriers went down. Luckily for one of them, you have a propensity for taking in strays.
I adore this fic so much. The beginning few chapters are honestly one of my favorite things that I’ve ever read. I feel like you can picture every detail from this fic and the development of Bucky’s character is something that I find beautiful. Please read this if you have the chance, I promise you won’t regret it. Oh, also its unfinished so theres that, but its still 100% worth it.
I am 100% sure that I am missing some fics but these are the ones that I first thought of. I hope this helped someone!
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jamesdazell · 5 years
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Un Monstre Sacré
Un Monstre Sacré
ART AND REPRESENTATION
(2019)
Enamorado de ti, de tu vida y de lo que quieres.
- Frida Kahlo
1
   I’m tired of reconsiderig my story in the mind of the idealism of present fashionable criticism.
  Concentrate on what you have to say and the images which manifest themselves to you. Stories are more than their features, their meaning runs much deeper than its costume. Consider the representation and diveristy only if it tells your story better, makes your characters explore their themes better, adds to their own story. You can make whatever art you want to make. No matter if it goes against the idealisms of the day. Idealisms come and go, the whole of art history shows us, but no one has the right to shut down your own stories and interpretation of life that you need to express. We’re running close to a prescribed imagination, not a free one, where the manifesto is a total and political movement, not an arts movement. Full of ideals but not ideas. Right now its like the Puritanical movement, if not a bonfire of vanities, against those who transgress the ideals of the day. Make whatever art that has been revealed to you to make. Make art with whatever great inspiration you had to make it and do not apologise for how it is manifested.
  Your imagination is a cerebral reflex. Don’t apologise or criticise it for not representing the ideals of the movements of the day. I’m not bothered about representation in art as I think it goes against the whole job of art.
  Artists and writers are representations of the cultural history of their time (they're not the only that, but even that is informative about the time). Not everything about them is going to be golden, maybe everything will be bad taste and bad intelligence. But in any case, it is far far more important think with them as if in conversation and disucssion. Their purpose is to stimulate thought not to emboss on it on the minds who receive it.  To be honest it seems clear why the Bibles were so effective. Most people want to be told what to think and to have their own thoughts amplified back at them, they want to have something celebrate them, and to rise up in significance by celebration.
  No matter where or who the work comes from, I wouldn't favour anyone for their cultural representation but for the talent and ideas their work carries. Great work is recognisible immediately. It affects on a cross-cultural level. I'm always looking to become foreign to myself, both in culture and time. The act of de-culturising seem more to the task than to represent it. Foreignness might illuminate and ignite dormant aspects within me that my own culture may not. So it is better to be in conversation than to outright reject, because it mattered, and if it mattered enough to be remembered and preserved, and to be copied (often by hand) through the centuries or ever just the last hundred years, then it probably meant something on a deeper level that is beyond their cultural representations, into a deeper part of humanity, whether the good or bad side. So through them we can understand ourselves.
  The purpose of representative writers is more needed by institutions and publishers etc but in artist's work the aim ought to be to dissolve those differences and to find the human being in experiences and the stories we tell. Like Susan Sontag said in conversation with John Berger about story-telling, she doesnt need to be a Russian man in Russia, or even feel like one, to read Tolstoy. And any reading of it in that way would be a superficial reading. That's not what’s on offer in a work of that magnitude. Likewise to quesiton whether the lead in a story is a man or a woman. It doesn't matter in itself. It only matters to the dramatic nature of the story. There are so many possible ways to unravel a narrative, that the lead doesn't signify anything but a focus. The lead could be positive or negative traits, the purpose of a lead could be celebratory or negation. The point is the same as ever. To tell great stories.
   It annoys me when people say how sexist Japan is (and it always comes from the Anglosphere who have a terrible time of seeing themselves as they are). When Japan has such a great history of female lead characters (and female charaters in general) who are both heroic and admirable, that Japan should rather be an inspiration for telling female lead stories more than the west's tradition. What representative writing is doing (though is not saying) is suggesting that certain ideas and arts belong to different races, genders, sexualities. There are certainly particular experiences only certain people will be able to tell, but then you run in the problem that certain races, genders, sexualities, are supposed to tell stories in a certain stereotyped way because it represents them. Take class for instance; that a working class writer is supposed to write about working class life and in a stereotypical way. It makes no sense but to write with and read it with your own humanity. That is the point of reading and writing, to reengage with our humanity. Hemmingway innovated, but that style doesn't belong to his race and sexuality. At the end of the day, no matter how representative, all you're doing is telling a story and or making an artistic choice, and it needs to be coming from your deeper humanity, that dissovles boundaries and shows there isn't a difference between us. I don't believe there is necesarily homosexual art anymore than homosexual science. The purpose isn't to write autobiography. I would never begin to think of Lorca's poetry as a homosexual perspective. His poetry is universal, he transgressed those social, political, cultural representations. He dissolved as he defied them: as a human being. He humiliated them as he transgressed representation. He became everyone, on everyone's essential journey, a primordial everyone. That rather seems the ambition and the proper task. So, I can never see the seduction in representational writing.  Art’s very purpose is to liberate ourselves from the privilege of an authorial stance of representation. To dissolve differential representation back into a unity of a human being. To reveal, from the cultural political delusion, the communalness and universals of our being human.
2
   Characters exist to embody a theme to tell a story, they define their character by decisions and actions they make. Without that they would be autonomous, independant from the story, representing exactly what they are for the sake of being. We have a name for that: reality TV. Reality TV as the fulfillment of modern dramatic theory; the most naturalistic, identifiable, devised, post dramatic, audience participation, theatrical entertainment one can imagine, unfolding in real time along the lines of life without the logic of narratives.
   Turn on the TV and Reality TV is there either as the news, people eating, people dating, people’s jobs, people’s cultural aspirations, or people selling things on the market. A frieze of national life as an interactive game show. We even now demand that fictional characters are played by their representative real life identity. Reality TV is all people really want. Real life stories about real life people, played by real life people for real life people. There is no question who the ideal character is. Theres no point in having idealistic characters, because they have nothing to learn. They are in themsevles a fulfilment. What journey do they have to go through. What themes are they able to explore.  Reality is more conplex than there being good people whose attitudes we like and bad people whose attitudes we don't.
  Characters are representations of themes, they help explore themes. If the themes and meaning of the story is good, then the characters will be good. Then the representation will be justified. What matters is from how a deep an instinct, an interpretation, if for lack of a better word a soul the story sprung from.
3
Progressives in art: I always find progressives in arts, especially those who outright reject the past, to be a continuation of that same spirit, which they are sadly too ignorant to have perceived. It was rather that they have found a different expression, maybe a more honest expression of the same spirit. And the very idea that it was able to seem progressive was because the culture had changed underneath. That it was this time and not another. In in the final analysis of their progressiveness you see they were bondaged to the time their lived in that it hardly seems a progressive act at all but one that was merely an expressive of prevailing conscience of the time that had erupted in a few people. But there is no such thing as progess in the arts. Every activity in art is the art of a human or a group of humans. Their life is its own condition within a certain set of condiitons. They are representative only of the condition it was made. Their lifespan cannot be compared to the life of another in terms of progress. Neither has art a goal to measure progress upon. And if it did, are we further towards a goal now than in any earlier time? And any possible yes, then an earlier time must have had the same goal as the progressors in art to.... I give up. There is no progress in art. Everything is a representation merely of a human being, the community, or the age that it was made it, each with its own values and ideas that belong to being a human being, not the progress of human beings. For in fact nothing in humanity progresses, because the measurement of progress itself depends on parameters of leaning towards or away from our values, which can only be a subjective axiom.
  Anything "progressive" means an old aspiration conducted more openly and honestly; which appeals to all subterranean risings; perhaps a crisis which for a long time has been in conflict with a masterful way which, to the subterranean, now seems simply an old fashioned idealism. But it is only a re-expression. Even the masterful way was really their way but unfaithful to its condition. Whatever becomes progressive is merely a more honest approach, a step towards being more faithful to its impetus condition. Progress is a condition striving to express itself more honetly and value itself more openly. "Improvement" is arbitrary to the matter.
  Popular culture is often more conservative than so-called elite culture because it reflects a caricature of the general public, and so isn't intellectual curious or demanding enough to be ahead of the curve by the ideas it embodies. It perpetuates old ideals in flashy new colours.
   Now we're surrounded by ordinariness masking itself as extraordinary. The ordinary is no longer embarrassed before itself. It has even become critical of the extraordinary. Instead of being humbled by the great achievements of the past we are arrogant even before the future.
People now have so little historical minds. All those who want to break from the past are always the most ignorant of it. Art right now lacks an intellectual energy that has soaked up the intellectual thought of humanity and can say "this is an intelligent thought in 2020 that on its own merit could be in conversation with the thoughts past and knows where it would be placed in the lineage.” However, people are having anti-intellectual ahistorical attiudes. People are attacking history for not being diverse in cultural representation, are attacking the best minds for not being their Jesus figure of imitation, and have great disbelief in things which they cannot do themselves. There is no genius that belonged to this race or that, or this religion but not that, or this gender or that. We talk of them because of what they had done, and what that meant to the time, and to us, and that we dont talk about some of the people worth talking about is an historical expression of the time. There are many clever people, many talents, but the genius is the humanity within it, that they transgressed their “character” into something more fundamental either about ourselves or the world around us. That they dissolved their cultural and political position, and became a human being.
  However, people are now saying the literature canon needs revision. Kafka said on how to choose a book that literature should be the axe that smashes the frozen ice within you. Discover your books that mean the wrold to you. Read whatever you want, but don’t read a canon. Read whatever makes your heart beat, your breathing clearly, what positively changes your brain, and makes you feel at home in their words. Any really great writer will ascend beyond what they are. Discovering art should not be deprived to us. And we should not expect children to admire the artists and writers they were taught about at school, no matter if it is revised. These schooled artists will always be those artists they had to study and do homework on. On rarely will they become the artists they love.
  I dont think we should revise anything. An education is not being taught what to learn, its discovering your own thoughts. And real educatioin isn’t like stacking knowledge up in a warehouse but mixing wine in to water, it alters the whole composition. Being knowledgable is knowing more things - there are game shows for that - a real eduation requires much forgetting. We should be far more encouraging of independent guided learning. School should help develop general characteristics of the brain. The Greeks had their nine canonical of poets, the japanese had 36 inmortals of poetry (one for men and women). They dont have to be our favourites. No one has robbed you of that choice. But these canons tell us about the way people thought at a time. And no time, no matter how blind by its idealism can be, no time is the truth and end of a conversation. It is easy to look back and dismiss it, to avoid the harder choice of measuring up to its cultural affect.
   Every artistic decision has a psychologically relative world view. Artistic choices are reflexes. In art (rather in everything) nothing is purely theoretical. Everything is fully representational of your conditional perspective, and feeling of existence. You always have to wind it back to that. Everything else is a secondary effect. Ideas and attitudes are just reflexes. An art cannot be a definition of its form, but only of the condition of the artist who made it, which subsequently gives us some impression of the age it was made in depending on its context. No painting defines painting, no music can define music, no poem poetry, nor dance dance.
4
  People go to the theatre not to think but to see a caricature of their own views, executed with the technique of a children's toy commercial. Showing them everything they love. Now people read books this way too. In valuing books, people only want to see themselves reflected in them. Even when great books are in vogue, they choose to read them because they already know what they are about and going to say and they finish with the same mind as they had begun reading them.  People read 1984 because they already know what it is about, and what it is going to say. Most people simply want to amplify their own point of view.
  Right now stories are like a dramatised op-ed article, featurig their token selling point of diversity, with critics acting as the puritanical bonfire of transgressions of the ideals of the day. But the game is the same as always: to make incredible stories. To interpret life artistically. You have to research in order to find the right symbols for your work. Like going through layers and layers and doors and doors but you keep running into the same symbols. For a visual culture were actually really bad a symbols.
  So you have an idea, fine, but thats not enough, you have to be able to pull it off in the form of a great story. Its not enough just to say youre against something and that you made your work from an ideal. You have to tell great stories, or make great performances. Our story telling is becoming conceptual where the idea behind it is supposed to mean more than the actual merit of the work of art. Which shows our minds are becoming conceptual, less artistic, and more scientific. The concentration on the technique of great arts, of all great arts and great artists, is an insight and experience of reality much higher than that of science.
5
   There has been an increase in melodrama this century. All American television and film (that wasn’t but somewhat including the Marvel / DC films)  seems to have been melodrama (of course French cinema, and independant, has been for longer - its their penchant). Melodrama is sadistic. Its full of pathetic characters who if they werent so pathetic they wouldn't be in this mess. If not of their own fault then they deal with it in a pathetic way. The effect on me is not pity but frustration, like watching a sympathetic horror movie. Sympathy is a sin in art. It makes your characters pathetic and all i can think whilst watching them is if they werent so patheric they wouldnt be in this mess and this wouldnt be a story. If a solution is befitting and negates its whole existence, the idea of the story is bad. Its not their circumstance, its the sympathy that is requested. Melodrama is sadistic - and this is coming from a guy obsessed with Greek tragedy. Euripides wrote melodrama, he wrote romanticism, satyr play, and tragi-comedy, but Euripides did not write tragedy. Character drama/study is always melodrama because it depends on the investigation of the 'soul' the innermost of them. Tragedy is concerned with overarching events that reveal the religious (Dionysian - most closely today related to Shiva that they’re almost the same) nature of the universe, people as agents of action, but not people as characters.
6
  Art can be whatever.  Yes. But don't just go with your instincts like an amateur. You have to understand the meaning of choices, in order to change your instincts. To make your instincts artistic. Otherwise there's no difference between you and your audience. And you don't take them anywhere than they arrived. 
    Then there is the insistance on “accessibility” which can be unhealthy because it rejects the high bar and creates stereotypes of styles. It creates new idealism in the character of the work. And it gives marit of accomplishment just for showing up. Make accessibility wide but on the same basis of making great art In respect and recognition of where the high bar is set.
7
   The worth of a book, music, film today is merely judged by how much it is needed at the time it arrives. The public and the critic have the judgement of the tradesman weighing cattle at the market, as they estimate everything merely for value of supply and demand.
Frida Kahlo "I dont give a shit what the world thinks"
   Critics and social media seem to be having their own insular conversation and they go to movies or listen to music or whatever and judge it on how much they can continue to have that conversation whilst experiencing the work of art, which cannot exist on the merits of its own.
   Majoritism is to anoit bad taste and bad talent over good. To put amateurs in charge. I think less educated and amateur care much more about it.
"There is one good opinion which must always be of consequence to you, namely, your own." R. W. Emerson
  Social media has created the method audience. Instead of the method actor disagreeing with the director over the way a character is portrayed its the audience. Or maybe they feel themselves executive producers. But certainly anything but an audience. They complain as if theyve been forced to pay at gun point.
  The idealism our age has just put a chip on people's shoulder and given all a licence to have an attitude about everything. The opinions of the public dont matter, thats why they feel their deep rights to have them. I'm not an audience first type of artist. The public come to market, and the market sways, but it has no reigns on the artistic activity that has travelled further in its pursuit of ideas than they may have ever been. To make a work of art involves obliterating and exhausting oneself, in pursuit of techniques and ideas that inform the works direction and merit, and reassembling oneself. To dicard that for the public who come to market and place it on the weighing scale of ideals is a joke.
  Plesse be rude, derogatory, offensive, insensitive. Its a cruelest humanity that sacrifices its cruelty. It's against our nature. The 21st century is the conservative 40s and 50s, with the yuppies of the 80s, that overturned the free spiritedness of the 20s and 30s, 60s and 70s.
8
  Make whatever goddamn work you want to make, and that will be the work you made. Just be proud to have manifested what you had envisioned in whatever form you wanted to tell it and be proud it has your name attached to it. And dont take criticism from those who do not inspire you.. Being an artist is to be your own beast. Un monstre sacré.
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so-shiny-so-chrome · 6 years
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Witness: Supergirrl
Creator name (AO3): supergirrl
Creator name (Tumblr): le-temps-viendra36
Link to creator works:  https://archiveofourown.org/series/343042
Q: Why the Mad Max Fandom?
A: I’ve never seen the original three movies, so I went into Fury Road having no idea what I was about to watch, and it changed my life. I’d never seen a movie that looked or felt like Fury Road, and it blew my mind. What inspired me to write fanfiction for the movie were the women, especially the sisters. I had never seen survivors of sexual assault/domestic violence portrayed in that way, and it made me want to write about them.
Q: What do you think are some defining aspects of your work? Do you have a style? Recurrent themes?
A: I think the defining aspects and recurrent themes of my work are feminism and magical realism/mythical steampunk, and the intersection of those different ideas. Those ideas are all present in Fury Road, I try to delve into them more and expand them beyond the scope of the film. 
Q: Which of your works was the most fun to create? The most difficult? Which is your most popular? Most successful? Your favourite overall?
A: I don’t know if I can pick a favorite work or one that was most fun, because they’ve all been really rewarding in different ways, but the most difficult one was definitely the Furiosa chapter of Our Words. It took almost two years to write because I really struggled with getting inside Furiosa’s head. Even though I enjoy her a lot as a character, I don’t relate to her the way I do to the sisters. Although they’re all victims of Joe, they occupy very different roles in his regime, with Furiosa occupying a more conventionally ‘masculine’ role as an imperator and the sisters occupying the ‘feminine’ role of breeders/wives, thought they ultimately use their different positions within Joe’s patriarchal hierarchy to overthrow and kill him. As a more conventionally ‘feminine’ person, I relate to them more strongly than I do to Furiosa. 
Q: How do you like your wasteland? Gritty? Hopeful? Campy? Soft? Why?How do you like your wasteland? Gritty? Hopeful? Campy? Soft? Why? 
A: I think my wasteland is a blend of gritty, soft, and hopeful, but I focus on the hopefulness the most. For me, the wasteland represents our current world and my own mental health/life, and I have to believe that we can make things better (as they ultimately do in the movie).
Q: Walk us through your creative process from idea to finished product. What's your prefered environment for creating? How do you get through rough patches?
A: I either write things in one intense late night writing fest, or in bits and pieces over time. I only write when I’m alone, and I like to either have instrumental music playing or silence. 
Q: What (if any) music do you listen to for help getting those creative juices flowing?
A: I have a huuuuge long playlist of music that goes with/inspired each part of Words, composed mainly of film and TV scores, that I listen to whenever I write.
Q: What is your biggest challenge as a creator?
A: Finding the time/energy to actually write my fics down. I think about them all the time throughout the day, I am just really bad at actually physically typing them. 
Q: How have you grown as a creator through your participation in the Mad Max Fandom? How has your work changed? Have you learned anything about yourself?
A: I think my work has gotten weirder and more magical/mythical, because I’ve been inspired by the inherently weird, quasi-magical world of Fury Road, and writing Fury Road fic has helped me work through my own experiences as an SA survivor.
Q: Which character do you relate to the most, and how does that affect your approach to that character? Is someone else your favourite to portray? How has your understanding of these characters grown through portraying them?
A: I relate to all five of the sisters in different ways, but especially to Toast. Overall it makes writing her (and Angharad and Cheedo, who I also relate to very strongly) easy and fun. I think I’ve come to see that their different archetypes aren’t mutually exclusive-in their own ways, they’re all knowing and fragile and capable, and so on. 
Q: Do you ever self-insert, even accidentally?
A: Yes, I definitely project some of my own thoughts and experiences onto the Sisters, especially with regards to their being survivors of sexual assault. But I think that it’s impossible to completely remove yourself from your writing/characters.
Q: Do you have any favourite relationships to portray? What interests you about them?
A: So many! I really love the relationships of the five sisters, with each other in particular but also other characters, like Furiosa, Max, and Nux. I think their unique personalities, their strong bonds with each other, and their dynamic is endlessly fascinating. 
Q: How does your work for the fandom change how you look at the source material?
A: I definitely pay closer attention to minor details, like how the characters’ clothing changes throughout the movie, and what characters are doing in the background, because it’s such a detailed world and there’s a lot you can pick up on in those little things. 
Q: Do you prefer to create in one defined chronology or do your works stand alone? Why or why not?
A: My series Words consists of several multi-chapter fics and oneshots that all exist in the same chronology, but I also have some oneshots that stand alone. Overall I prefer to write in the Words universe because it feels more real and detailed to me. 
Q: To break or not to break canon? Why?
A: I break canon all the time and I think it’s generally a good thing. For me, I’m usually doing it because I want to tell a story that fits into the broader themes of Fury Road without necessarily aligning with all the specific facts of the film. 
Q: Share some headcanons.
A: I have so many! Most are in my fics, but one that I’ve never had the chance to incorporate into my writing is that Miss Giddy used stolen War Boy paint to write the words left in the Vault for Joe to find.  
Q: What are some works by other creators inside and outside of the fandom that have influenced your work?
A: Within the fandom, @jaesauce’s modern AUs have definitely influenced how I write Toast and Capable, both as individuals and in the context of their relationship with each other and with Slit and Nux respectively. Outside the fandom, I’ve been really strongly influenced by Jo Graham’s Numinous World series, with its themes of magic, the divine, and social justice.  
Q: What advice can you give someone who is struggling to make their own works more interesting, compelling, cohesive, etc.? 
A: It sounds a little trite, but in my mind, ultimately fanfiction is for yourself. If other people like it, then great, but that isn’t my purpose in writing it. So I write what I find interesting and compelling, and sometimes other people are interested and sometimes they aren’t, but it’s okay either way. As for maintaining internal cohesion, I find it helpful to re-read what I’ve previously written to make sure I haven’t forgotten anything. 
Q: Have you visited or do you plan to visit Australia, Wasteland Weekend, or other Mad Max place?
A: I have not yet, I would like to visit Australia someday, and I think the Wasteland Weekend would be really fun to attend one year.
Q: Tell us about a current WIP or planned project.
A: Right now I’m just working on Knowing, the last fic planned in the Words universe, set from Toast’s POV. I’ve got it all worked out in my head, I just need to get it on the page!
Thank you @le-temps-viendra36
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topfygad · 4 years
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5 Best Backpacker Hostels in Cairns, Australia
Cairns, in tropical North Queensland, is someplace you truly just cannot skip when backpacking Australia. It’s renowned as the gateway to the Fantastic Barrier Reef but this tropical city is also one particular of the most fun bash towns for backpackers and is surrounded by loads of astounding working day visits like Cape Tribulation and the UNESCO shown Daintree Rainforest. With all these activities remaining a backpacker in Cairns can seriously incorporate up so luckily there are so numerous amazing backpacker hostels in Cairns.
Australia can be a genuinely expensive region to visit so it’s important for backpackers to preserve cash and keeping in backpacker hostels is a good way to have a pleasurable, sociable and comfortable stay with out breaking the bank.
Cairns Lagoon by Martin Valigursky/Shutterstock
  Most backpacker hostels in Australia also have communal kitchens so you can invest in food at the grocery store and cook dinner for on your own instead of taking in out at high priced dining places which will preserve you a great deal of dollars. I ended up in Cairns 3 moments (I was doing the job in an outback Queensland pub) so I managed to examine out fairly a several of the hostels. 
Forget about keeping in grimy backpacker hostels, most of the Aussie hostels are far more like tropical holiday getaway resorts with swimming pools, bars, hammocks, BBQ areas and movie lounges – some even have on web page night golf equipment and gourmand pizza ovens.
Hostels are also excellent places to meet other travellers and numerous consist of brilliant freebies like absolutely free breakfast and free wifi to assistance you preserve even a lot more revenue and set on night entertainments like pub crawls, BBQs and film nights to enable backpackers socialise and have exciting. See extra causes why its magnificent being in hostels here 
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Not all hostels are equal though, and wherever to stay can genuinely make or split your vacation, particularly if you are a solo traveller searching to make close friends, so its important to select your hostel carefully.
To help you system your excursion here’s my record of the 5 really greatest backpacker hostels in Cairns.
The Ideal Backpacker Hostels in Cairns
Traveller’s Oasis
Traveller’s Oasis received the title of greatest backpacker hostel in Cairns in 2018 and was also voted as the best hostel in Australia for 2018 by Hostelworld. The hostel is positioned future to Cairns Central station which is about a 15 minute walk from the lagoon. It’s a smaller, cosy, homely, spotlessly clean, relaxed and welcoming hostel with tremendous practical staff members. It is not one particular of all those huge, impersonal hostels – they can only match 50 friends at a time.
There’s free wifi, totally free parking, absolutely free tea and coffee, free of charge luggage storage, 2 thoroughly equipped communal kitchens and laundry amenities. You are going to never ever be bored as there is a Tv space with Lcd Tv and DVD participant and a challenging travel that has 1500 motion pictures as nicely as online games, publications and a e-book exchange. The outdoor spot is a good place to meet up with individuals. You can chill out in the hammocks underneath the palm trees, consider a dip in the open up air swimming pool or use the BBQs on the out of doors terrace.
There are dorms and non-public rooms, a single of the finest matters about this hostel is that there are no bunk beds in the dorms and the non-public rooms contain TVs and a fridge. Look at it out and you will see why Travellers Oasis is constantly rated just one of the finest backpacker hostels in Cairns. Simply click in this article to book!
  The Northern Greenhouse
The Northern Greenhouse is a fashionable, vacation resort fashion flashpacker hostel that is conveniently centrally located correct in the coronary heart of Cairns that means all the most important attractions are in uncomplicated strolling length. The entire hostel is definitely clean and the workers are super friendly and handy.
All rooms are air conditioned, there are blended ensuite dorm rooms, as effectively as spacious male-only or female-only dorms. The private balconies and courtyard gardens are beautiful places to chill out as is the lush, tropical outdoor swimming pool and bar place that serves seriously affordable drinks. It’s a terrific put to fulfill other travellers and make new pals.
There’s also free of charge breakfast and absolutely free tremendous rapid wifi, a shared kitchen area and pool tables. The staff members are super welcoming and useful and set on exciting occasions in the hostel each working day and night time as effectively as displaying attendees wherever the best affordable backpacker bars are. There’s also a absolutely free BBQ every Sunday. Elegant, helpful and fun with a good deal of freebies – this is a single of the greatest backpacker hostels in Cairns. Simply click here to reserve!
  Gilligan’s Backpacker Hostel & Resort
Gilligans is 1 of the most renowned and most well-known backpacker hostels in Cairns, especially for those people who love to social gathering. Gilligans is a substantial resort design hostel found in the coronary heart of Cairns that is a very hot place for partiers thanks to the onsite night time club which is 1 of Cairn’s most well-known nightspots.
The hostel has dorms and personal rooms, all of which are air-conditioned and have ensuite loos, and theres a communal chill out spots with TVs and a shared kitchen area on each and every of the hostel’s 4 floors so you won’t want to wait around to prepare dinner. They also present a cost-free airport select up from the airport amongst 8am and 8pm and a occupation shop on website to assist you if you are seeking for get the job done.
There is also a lagoon-style swimming pool, fitness center, world wide web café, a nightclub and open up deck bar with significant monitor TVs exhibiting all of the recent sporting gatherings. Ladies will adore the powder place that has hair dryers and hair straighteners free of charge to use. The hostel also operates loads of pleasurable themed nights, games and occasions. This is the most effective backpacker hostel in Cairns for celebration people today. Click listed here to e book!
    Mad Monkey Backpackers
Mad Monkey is a tiny, new chain of backpacker hostels that is owned and operated by two Australian most effective close friends. This flashpacker style celebration hostel is clear, stylish, vivid, spacious and a person of the funnest backpacker hostels in Cairns.
There is non-public rooms, combined and feminine only dorms. The hostel was absolutely renovated in 2017 and all rooms manufacturer new major quality mattresses, mattress linen, air conditioners, substantial safety lockers and fashionable designer bogs and kitchens.
Mad Monkey hostels are the fantastic sites to bash and meet up with other backpackers at the outside pool oasis finish with sunbathing cabanas and an outside bar with super affordable drinks. There is even a gourmand pizza restaurant and a motion picture screen with comfy bean luggage to chill out on.
There’s also free tremendous rapidly wifi and a totally free incredibly hot breakfast and the workers organise situations each and every day and evening. They truly have 3 backpacker hostels in Cairns so if ones’s complete do not fret you could also test out the many others.  Click below to reserve!
  Globe Trotters Global
Globetrotters is a welcoming, comfortable, family members run resort design and style hostel located near the esplanade close to the center of Cairns. It is good benefit for income as there are masses of freebies, which include unlimited superfast Wi-Fi in all rooms, served breakfast, which consists of right espresso!, free of charge night meal and cost-free luggage storage, which make it 1 of the finest backpacker hostels in Cairns. The hostel operates a BBQ evening twice a 7 days and can also organize discounted reef and rainforest excursions.
There is a communal kitchen area that even has fridge lockers so you really do not have to stress about other backpackers thieving your foods! There is also a obvious swimming pool, sunlight deck, hammocks, garden region and video games region which is a wonderful spot for conference other travellers.
As opposed to a lot of backpacker hostels in Cairns, Globetrotters is not a party hostel so you can unwind and get pleasure from a excellent evenings snooze. If you want to go out and occasion then the hostel also has every day nightclub offers so it is a get acquire! Click on listed here to book!
Read through Extra:
Most effective Backpacker Hostels in East Coastline Australia
Ideal Backpacker Hostels in Sydney
Ideal Backpacker Hostels in Melbourne
Have you stayed in any great backpacker hostels in Cairns? Depart a remark down below with your tips and you’ll be serving to out other backpackers
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lawlightfan42069 · 8 years
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iyo when you write non-straight characters should you specify their sexuality/gender? I mean I'm personally a very 'not into labels at all' person for my own sexuality but support ppl who do find comfort in labels. but when I write I also tend to go toward the 'he just loves who he loves !!!' that sounded stupid but idk how to explain it.. so... like I was wondering why you feel strongly about explicitly stating someone's queerness instead of it being implied (at least u come off as that sorta)
i do definitely feel like that so!! i happen to have a lot of feelings about this so get ready for a Long Ramble. this is a precaution before ive even started typing i just know im gonna write a lot
i think before we start saying anything, we’ve got to acknowledge the difference between people who say that they dont like labels, and writing characters who Don’t Like Labels™. pointing out the problems of the latter is not a condemnation of the former. if someone rly doesnt feel like labeling their sexuality or gender, thats totally alright. the difference between these two is the person is a nuanced, multifaceted human being who may have lots of personal reasons for feeling that way, while the second is a fictional character that is Created and informed by cultural views of the creator. a person is not “created” by one single author and characters arent like…real living agents that have their Own Free Will, they are what their creators make of them. anyway i just feel like this is a rly important distinction that gets lost often!! i’m also more willing to look favorably on someone who self describes that way writing characters based on their own experiences, bc this perspective is inherently different from a straight person writing these sorts of characters. but moving on. 
whats also important to understand, beyond writing characters, is how being openly not straight is shunned. queer people are not allowed to Exist as openly queer and they have not been allowed historically. even these days among people who consider themselves progressive, you’ll often hear that “its alright if someone is gay but do they have to shove it in my face all the time.” this attitude isnt somehow formed in vacuum, but created in a society that treats been openly queer as a taboo. we aren’t allowed to be open about our sexualities the way straight people are. we can’t acknowledge that we’re queer lest someone tells us to Stop Shoving It In Their Face (not missing the irony as we’re surrounded by 400 billboards of hetero couples everywhere). i dont wan’t to delve into other aspects of discrimination and get too off track here, i just want to focus on how being Openly queer is treated as a taboo, particularly among people who still want to call themselves ‘accepting.’ the only way society allows queer people to exist is if they never remind anyone, Ever that they are not straight.
this is Integral to understanding why the i Don’t Like Labels characters are so frustrating. the unwillingness to Explicitly talk about queer people carries over quite handily to media. the same faux progressive people that demand queer people never talk about being queer bc its Too Much Information, will praise queer coded characters that hint at their sexuality but never confirm it. the reason these characters are written is not to genuinely explore why someone might feel uncomfortable with applying labels to themselves, but to appease people who will accept queerness as long as they never have to acknowledge it. this way, u can court queer people interested in representation And people who might like the story but will be uncomfortable with explicit queerness. its an attempt for writers to cash in on peoples desires for interesting queer characters without ever actually fully committing to representing them. you dont get to claim to support queer people if ur also out there providing comfort for peoples homophobia. you cant have a foot in both doors. 
describing queer experiences without calling them queer means that youre okay with this story as long as u dont acknowledge it as something Explicitly not straight and like…why?? why is it suddenly not okay when u take that bundle of experiences and use the word that theyre defining?? theres Weight behind using words like bi, gay, lesbian and if u reject them are u Really okay with lgbtq people? or are you okay with them Despite the fact that theyre lgbtq and not because you take into account theyre lgbtq. acceptance is not tolerating people Despite something, its acknowledging it and validating it as an okay thing to be. especially when it is something that historically Not been validated as okay. dismantling structural systems of queerphobia does not go about by ignoring queerphobia…shit this doesnt just fade away by chance, it takes active work. and part of this active work is Acknowledging Peoples Queerness As Something that is okay Out In The Open. the You in this isnt directed at you anon, just people who have these sentiments. 
throwing vague statements like ‘they just love who they love’ Also creates this level of ambiguity. you might say “well why do u need the certainty when ur describing what is at the very least, something obviously very not straight” and to that i say youd be fucking surprised at how goddamn hard straight people will try to erase the queerness out of a character. like i’m going to use a game called life is strange as a example. i’ll give some background: in the game, the main character max can romance both chloe and warren. note that max is not one of those blank state wholly customisable bioware-esque player characters, she has a personality outside of the choices u make. anyway, the conclusion that is Logically drawn from this is that she is most likely bisexual. or at the very least in some way, not straight. and Yet i have seen discussions that say “she doesnt have a set sexuality it just depends on the playthrough so shes not rly a Queer Character.” even more than that, ive seen people that saw “well even in the chloe one shes not necessarily gay or bi maybe shes just Making an Exception for chloe bc their relationship transcends sexuality” and like ??? Why??? why cant she just be bi?? even when given a queer romance, why do u try and interpret it in a way that sets her up as straight?? ive seen people say “its not a romance its just something that Transcends Words” as if this is… mutually exclusive from being a romance. like… Why doesnt this happen when hetero relationships are depicted?? ive literally never seen someone say “u know, maybe hes not attracted to women and just Making an Exception so hes not straight” why dont u see people try to erase the romance aspect out of hetero romances by claiming their relationship is “Beyond Words.” this treatment is 1000% only ever afforded to queer characters. this attempt to play off romance as not rly romantic is only done to queer characters, even if its done subconsciously. people will Refuse to accept a character is queer as fuck if you dodge around it, because heteronormativity is so ingrained in every interaction that even obviously queer characters get filtered through this lens. the problem with this isnt necessarily apparent until u look at it within historical context, where queer people are repeatedly not allowed to be openly queer. these arent isolated incidents, but manifestations of the idea that queer people shouldnt ever be open about their sexuality. youve got to tackle the discomfort that people have with words like gay/lesbian/bi/etc
i think this particular character trope wouldnt bother me so much if it wasnt like… the only narrative ever present. time and time again, i have to see characters proclaim that they dont like labels while never once even hearing people breathe the word bisexual. if it existed alongside characters who were explicitly queer it would be less frustrating But its literally one of the few ways (semi positive attempts at least) queer characters are ever portrayed. this is particularly true for bisexual characters lmao like… yes…theres people who dont like labels…but theres also millions of bi people that just wanna see a fucking bi character Talk about being bi and all we ever get is a vague “i dont like labels” (that is often never explored further than that and treated as a throwaway line anyway). is creating characters who say that a genuine attempt to characterize someones struggles with labels or is it just a way to avoid saying the word Bisexual.
same with queer romance in media. its only ever Okay if u just hint at it- see dumbledore being gay. see- the korrasami thing (though i dont fault the writers for this bc they pushed hard for what they got, its issues with the network). why are queer people relegated to drawn out stares that May imply something while straight characters are allowed to get into explicit relationships. when u create ambiguous characters that May be interpreted as straight (even if youve really gotta stretch) ur prefer to maintain the negative “neutral” of the heteronormative status quo and allow homophobes to live with their views unchallenged more than u care about addressing queerness in characters. 
 its not a coincidence that we dont do this to straight romance or straight characters. this is particularly important for queer kids!! its good to see queer characters out there being openly queer. while me and u can often pick up on queer themes and narratives, a 8 year old is not going to get that. especially when theyve been conditioned to see straight romance as the only feasible choice. they wont realize the character youre writing is gay or bi or whatever Because they havent been exposed to the connotations we associate w certain phrases. its so important for queer kids to see queer characters Owning that theyre queer. its especially importantly to normalize words like gay or bi or pan. being gay is often Extremely hypersexualized (which is why so many people will tell u they dont care what u do in the bedroom bc they can only picture queerness is a sexual context) so when u Dont treat these words as things only adults can say, u help get rid of the stigma surrounding them. u help remove the idea that being queer is inappropriate for kids to hear about and that the only possible aspect to being queer is sexual. 
anyway this has been Quite the Ramble but the point is that yes, we need to write more characters who are absolutely explicit about their sexuality and move away from the expectation that queer people need to create euphemisms to comfort homophobes desires to never hear about queerness.
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Top writers choose their perfect crime
New Post has been published on https://writingguideto.com/must-see/top-writers-choose-their-perfect-crime/
Top writers choose their perfect crime
Crime fiction is now the UKs bestselling genre. So which crime novels should everyone read? We asked the writers who know …
On Beulah Height by Reginald Hill Val McDermid
This is the perfect crime novel. Its beautifully written elegiac, emotionally intelligent, evocative of the landscape and history that holds its characters in thrall and its clever plotting delivers a genuine shock. Theres intellectual satisfaction in working out a plot involving disappearing children, whose counterpoint is Mahlers Kindertotenlieder. Theres darkness and light, fear and relief. And then theres the cross-grained pairing of Dalziel and Pascoe. Everything about this book is spot on.
Although Hills roots were firmly in the traditional English detective novel, he brought to it an ambivalence and ambiguity that allowed him to display the complexities of contemporary life. He created characters who changed and developed in response to their experiences. I urge you to read this with a glass of Andy Dalziels favourite Highland Park whisky.
Insidious Intent by Val McDermid is published by Sphere.
The Damned and the Destroyed by Kenneth Orvis Lee Child
My formative reading was before the internet, before fanzines, before also-boughts, so for me the best ever is inevitably influenced by the gloriously chanced-upon lucky finds, the greatest of which was a 60 cent Belmont US paperback, bought in an import record shop on a back street in Birmingham in 1969. It had a lurid purple cover, and an irresistible strapline: She was beautiful, young, blonde, and a junkie I had to help her! It turned out to be Canadian, set in Montreal. The hero was a solid stiff named Maxwell Dent. The villain was a dealer named The Back Man. The blonde had an older sister. Dents sidekicks were jazz pianists. The story was patient, suspenseful, educational and utterly superb. In many ways its the target I still aim at.
The Midnight Line by Lee Child is published by Bantam.
Bleak House by Charles Dickens Ian Rankin
Does this count as a crime novel? I think so. Dickens presents us with a mazey mystery, a shocking murder, a charismatic police detective, a slippery lawyer and a plethora of other memorable characters many of whom are suspects. The story has pace and humour, is bitingly satirical about the English legal process, and also touches on large moral and political themes. As in all great crime novels, the central mystery is a driver for a broad and deep investigation of society and culture. And theres a vibrant sense of place, too in this case, London, a city built on secret connections, a location Dickens knows right down to its dark, beating heart.
Rather Be the Devil by Ian Rankin is published by Orion. Siege Mentality by Chris Brookmyre is published by Little, Brown.
The Hollow by Agatha Christie Sophie Hannah
This is my current favourite, in its own way just as good as Murder on the Orient Express. As well as being a perfectly constructed mystery, its a gripping, acutely observed story about a group of people, their ambitions, loves and regrets. The characters are vividly alive, even the more minor ones, and the pace is expertly handled. The outdoor swimming pool scene in which Poirot discovers the murder is, I think, the most memorable discovery-of-the-body scene in all of crime fiction. Interestingly, Christie is said to have believed that the novel would have been better without Poirot. His presence here is handled differently he feels at one remove from the action for much of the time but it works brilliantly, since he is the stranger who must decipher the baffling goings on in the Angkatell family. The murderers reaction to being confronted by Poirot is pure genius. It would have been so easy to give that character, once exposed, the most obvious motivation, but the contents of this killers mind turn out to be much more interesting
Did You See Melody by Sophie Hannah is published by Hodder.
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier SJ Watson
SJ Watsno
I first came to Rebecca, published in 1938, with one of the most recognisable first lines in literature, not knowing exactly what to expect. That it was a classic I was in no doubt, but a classic what? I suspected a drama, possibly a romance, a book heavy on character but light on plot and one Id read and then forget. How wrong I was.
It is a dark, brooding psychological thriller, hauntingly beautiful, literature yes, but with a killer plot. I loved everything about it. The way Du Maurier slowly twists the screw until we have no idea who to trust, the fact that the title character never appears and exists only as an absence at the heart of the book, the fact that the narrator herself is unnamed throughout. But, more importantly, this thriller is an exploration of power, of the men who have it and the women who dont, and the secrets told to preserve it.
Second Life by SJ Watson is published by Black Swan.
Mystic River by Dennis Lehane James Lee Burke
To my mind this is the best crime novel written in the English language. Lehane describes horrible events with poetic lines that somehow heal the injury that his subject matter involves, not unlike Shakespeare or the creators of the King James Old Testament. Thats not a hyper-bolic statement. His use of metaphysical imagery is obviously influenced by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Mystic River is one for the ages.
Robicheaux by James Lee Burke is published by Orion.
The Expendable Man by Dorothy B Hughes Sara Paretsky
Author Sara Paretsky for Arts. Photo by Linda Nylind. 15/7/2015.
Today, Hughes is remembered for In a Lonely Place (1947) Bogart starred in the 1950 film version. My personal favourite is The Expendable Man (1963). Hughes lived in New Mexico and her love of its bleak landscape comes through in carefully painted details. She knows how to use the land sparingly, so it creates mood. The narrative shifts from the sandscape to the doctor, who reluctantly picks up a teen hitchhiker. When shes found dead a day later, hes the chief suspect, and the secrets we know hes harbouring from the first page are slowly revealed.
Hughess novels crackle with menace. Like a Bauhaus devotee, she understood that in creating suspense, less is more. Insinuation, not graphic detail, gives her books an edge of true terror. Shes the master we all could learn from.
Fallout by Sara Paretsky is published by Hodder.
Killing Floor by Lee Child Dreda Say Mitchell
What is it about any particular novel that means youre so engrossed that you miss your bus stop or stay up way past your bedtime? A spare, concise style that doesnt waste a word. A striking lead character who manages to be both traditional and original. A plot thats put together like a Swiss watch. Childs debut has all these things, but like all great crime novels it has the x-factor.
In the case of Killing Floor that factor is a righteous anger, rooted in personal experience, that makes the book shake in your hands. Its the story of a military policeman who loses his job and gets kicked to the kerb. Jack Reacher becomes a Clint Eastwood-style loner who rides into town and makes it his business to dish out justice and protect the underdog, but without the usual props of cynicism or alcohol. We can all identify with that anger and with that thirst for justice. We dont see much of the latter in real life. At least in Killing Floor we do.
Blood Daughter by Dreda Say Mitchell is published by Hodder.
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler Benjamin Black (John Banville)
The Long Goodbye is not the most polished, and certainly not the most convincingly plotted, of Chandlers novels, but it is the most heartfelt. This may seem an odd epithet to apply to one of the great practitioners of hard-boiled crime fiction. The fact is, Chandler was not hard-boiled at all, but a late romantic artist exquisitely attuned to the bittersweet melancholy of post-Depression America. His closest literary cousin is F Scott Fitzgerald.
Philip Marlowes love and surely it is nothing less than love for the disreputable Terry Lennox is the core of the book, the rhapsodic theme that transcends and redeems the creaky storyline and the somewhat cliched characterisation. And if Lennox is a variant of Jay Gatsby, and Marlowe a stand in for Nick Carraway, Fitzgeralds self-effacing but ever-present narrator, then Roger Wade, the drink-soaked churner-out of potboilers that he despises, is an all too recognisable portrait of Chandler himself, and a vengefully caricatured one at that. However, be assured that any pot The Long Goodbye might boil is fashioned from hammered bronze.
Prague Nights by Benjamin Black is published by Viking.
Love in Amsterdam by Nicolas Freeling Ann Cleeves
Although Nicolas Freeling wrote in English he was a European by choice an itinerant chef who roamed between postwar France, Belgium and Holland, and who instilled in me a passion for crime set in foreign places. He detested the rules of the traditional British detective novel: stories in which plot seemed to be paramount. Love in Amsterdam (1962) is Freelings first novel and it breaks those rules both in terms of structure and of theme.
It is a tale of sexual obsession and much of the book is a conversation between the suspect, Martin, whos been accused of killing his former lover, and the cop. Van der Valk, Freelings detective, is a rule-breaker too, curious and compassionate, and although we see his investigative skills in later books, here his interrogation is almost that of a psychologist, teasing the truth from Martin, forcing him to confront his destructive relationship with the victim.
The Seagullby Ann Cleeves is published by Pan.
Laidlaw by William McIlvanney Chris Brookmyre
I first read Laidlaw in 1990, shortly after moving to London, when I was aching for something with the flavour of home, and what a gamey, pungent flavour McIlvanneys novel served up. A sense of place is crucial to crime fiction, and Laidlaw brought Glasgow to life more viscerally than any book I had read before: the good and the bad, the language and the humour, the violence and the drinking.
Laidlaws turf is a male hierarchy ruled by unwritten codes of honour, a milieu of pubs and hard men rendered so convincingly by McIlvanneys taut prose. His face looked like an argument you couldnt win, he writes of one character, encapsulating not only the mans appearance but his entire biography in a mere nine words.
This book made me realise that pacey, streetwise thrillers didnt have to be American: we had mean streets enough of our own. It emboldened me to write about the places I knew and in my own accent.
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov Laura Lippman
Im going to claim Lolita for crime fiction, something I never used to do. But it has kidnapping, murder and its important to use this term rape. It also has multiple allusions to Edgar Allan Poe and even hides an important clue well, not exactly in plain sight, but in the text of, yes, a purloined letter. And now we know, thanks to the dogged scholarship of Sarah Weinman, that it was based on a real case in the United States. (Weinmans book, The Real Lolita, will be published later this year.)
Dorothy Parker meant well when she said Lolita was a book about love, but, no its about the rape of a child by a solipsistic paedophile who rationalises his actions, another crime that is too often hidden in plain sight. Some think that calling Lolita a crime novel cheapens it, but I think it elevates the book, reminds us of the pedestrian ugliness that is always there, thrumming beneath the beautiful language.
Sunburn by Laura Lippman is published by Faber.
The Moving Target by Ross Macdonald Donna Leon
Ross Macdonald, an American who wrote in the 60s and 70s, has enchanted me since then with the beauty of his writing and the decency of his protagonist, Lew Archer. I envy him his prose: easy, elegant, at times poetically beautiful. I also admire the absence of violence in the novels, for he usually follows Aristotles admonition that gore be kept out of the view of the audience. When Archer discovers the various wicked things one person has done to another, he does not linger in describing it but makes it clear how his protagonist mourns not only the loss of human life but also the loss of humanity that leads to it.
Macdonalds plotting is elegant: often, as Archer searches for the motive for todays crime, he unearths a past injustice that has returned to haunt the present and provoke its violence. His sympathy for the victims is endless, as is his empathy for some of the killers.
The Temptation of Forgiveness by Donna Leon is published by William Heinemann.
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins Nicci French
http://www.theguardian.com/us
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PIN’s: The Future of Private Link Building
1,116 Comments 20 minutes
What I’m going to reveal in this blog post is a strategy that will likely weed out a certain section of the ViperChill audience. In other words, I’m fully aware that this blog post will make a particular type of person unsubscribe from ViperChill and likely never return. It’s certainly not going to end up on the homepage of Inbound.org.
If you are loyal to Google guidelines, the teachings of blogs like Moz and love playing by the book, then you’ll probably realise with this article that we possess a very different perspective. When I first started my internet journey – where I spent day and night trying to make a living online – I tried and tested more website ideas and angles than you would believe.
Today, I’m still pushing the boundaries to see what works. These boundaries most often pertain to SEO, since it’s what I’ve enjoyed the most over the last 11 years.
I’m in the fortunate position that my business it not tied to some employer who dictates how I have to do things when it comes to promoting web properties. As such, I’m always willing to ignore everything I previously thought about marketing and to be open to new ideas and opportunities.
This blog post details one such opportunity, but I realise it will not be for everyone. Not everyone is the position to implement it for their online business, and even if you are, you may question the ethics of what is coming up.
With that disclaimer out of the way, today I’m going to introduce you to the world of PIN’s. Just before I do that, I want to talk about why I think they’re necessary.
I Predict We’ve Got Four to Five Years Left to ‘Do SEO’ As We Know It
This isn’t some “SEO is Dead” article you see go viral in the SEO blogosphere every six months, but a genuine prediction based on how Google search results have evolved over the last few years.
Google make all of their money via ads so quite simply want more people to click on them (and more often). The less success people have with SEO, the more likely they are to move to Google’s advertising platform.
Long gone are the days when we’re presented with just 10 blue links on a page.
The White Space Between Search Results Has Increased
It’s known that the higher up the page a search result, the more clicks it will receive. Therefore, when organic search results are pushed further down the page they’re going to be receiving fewer and fewer clicks. Not only are they lower down now in mobile results due to spacing, but the change is being tested across desktop results as well.
The search result on the left includes the new extra spacing with the ads taking up far more vertical space than the search result on the right (graphic via SEMPost).
There Are More ‘Featured Snippets’ Than Ever Before
There isn’t much to say on this one besides feature snippets are to be found for millions of search queries in every industry imaginable. What, when, how and why questions are often answered with a featured snippet box.
This not only pushes ‘organic’ search results further down in search results, it also attempts to give you the answer right from the results page. We can argue whether or not it’s useful for searchers, but for SEO’s, it gives new meaning to having the top result in Google.
‘Map Packs’ Completely Changed Local Search Results
Some call them ‘map packs’, some ‘the local pack’ and some even call them the ‘snack pack’. Whatever your term of choice, after being introduced a few years ago SEO’s have been trying to figure out how to get themselves and their clients into the pack to compensate for a lack of expected search results.
After all, these local listings take up a large portion of screen real estate.
I’m not complaining about this change; I’m simply pointing it out. There’s no doubt it makes search results more useful and that is Google’s aim (usually) after all. While Google did reduce the listings from seven to three back in August of 2015, the redesign of the listings with adding spacing means not much changed in terms of organic results being seen.
Those Map Packs Now Contain Ads, Too
We’re not going back to Google updates of a few years ago to make a point about Google evolving. Just last month Google announced that the map / local / snack pack would now include ads, as shown below.
This image is a mockup by Barry Schwartz, though the real thing looks very similar
It’s interesting to follow both PPC and SEO guys on Twitter and see the difference in reaction. PPC guys are over the moon since it gives them more traffic opportunities for their clients and SEO guy’s, well…I’m sure you can guess the reaction.
Based on how Google’s past, it’s not one of surprise.
They Have All The Answers
The knowledge graph was released in May of 2012 and it’s almost disappointing when you don’t see it for queries when looking for quick answers. For example, when I want to see how my football team, Newcastle, have fared against Liverpool, I literally don’t have to click anywhere.
Whether you want to learn about how old someone is, what 12 x 56 is or who discovered Radium, Google has the results right there for you. As a searcher, I love these quick answers, but as an SEO, it’s just one more thing which has lessened the likelihood of people clicking on my website if it doesn’t appear in this box.
They Continue to Make People Scared of Link Building
Google are great at making people fearful of performing any type of SEO. After all, this was the company that introduced the rel=”nofollow” attribute so we could link out to websites without giving them “link juice”.
That isn’t the real headline for the article – I’ve got to have some fun in these serious posts – but Google have publicly cracked down on pretty much everything when it comes to link building. The list includes, but is not limited to:
Guest posting for links
Using directories for links
Utilising private blog networks
Adding links to website themes
Adding do-followed links to widgets
They literally created a ‘no-follow’ tag
That’s not all; they openly share how much human intervention is involved in finding people abusing the guidelines, rather than algorithmic. This tweet speaks volumes.
Anglo Rank was a small network being promoted on the Black Hat World forums.
Just think about this for a second. One of Google’s first employees (and former Head of Web Spam), worth millions of dollars, dedicated his time to actively targeting a tiny little network on some private forum just to scare other people away from doing the same.
The simple fact is that Google can’t figure out with absolutely certainty which links are earned, or bought, or manipulative, very effectively.
Now I’m not taking anything away from Google here. Their company is worth hundreds of billions and mine, well…isn’t. They have undoubtedly created the world’s most sophisticated search engine.
But as I said earlier, it’s far easier for them to get us to police ourselves than it is for them to police us.
Big Brands Dominate the Long Tail
As SEO becomes increasingly difficult and searches are more and more dominated by big brands, the long tail will be the final frontier of search traffic opportunities.
When I said we only have a few years left to do SEO as we know it, the long tail will be where the majority of SEO’s focus their time through on-site SEO changes and content marketing.
While we’ll still have opportunities for SEO to ‘work’, long tail search results just don’t seem to be as diverse as they were in the past. It makes sense to me that Google have some kind of ‘filter’ whereby if they’re not sure what to list for a search result, they simply show more results from an authoritative site to be on the safe side.
Logically, this makes sense, but as an SEO, it could be a worrying sign of things to come. You can see this lack of diversification above in my screenshot of the map packs as well, with Yelp dominating the first three organic search results.
The Lack of Diversity in Search Results Will Only Get Worse
If you’ve only found ViperChill recently then it was likely because of my recent article, How 16 Companies Are Dominating the World’s Google Search Results. It has been shared thousands of times on social media and been read over 40,000 times, making it one of the most popular articles I’ve ever written here.
In the article I highlighted how Hearst Media were using their brands like Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan and Woman’s Day to point footer links to a new website of theirs, BestProducts.com.
That strategy, which would get the rest of us penalised, continues to work incredibly well.
“Just follow the Google guidelines.” Why?
Since that post, I was also contacted by a few people associated with the brands I had featured. One of those people I talked with was Tre who works in the growth department of About.com. I had already mentioned in the article how About planned to spin off into many more verticals over the coming months, which he confirmed.
I admit I’m being a little pedantic with my highlighting, but when you’re Director of Growth for About.com you’re going to share which terms are driving traffic to one site with the team that is in charge of another.
I appreciate Tre’s replies and I’m sure there’s only so much he can say, but About.com’s real goal with their spin-off’s is to no doubt own ten search results, instead of one.
PIN’s: My Version of Fighting Back While I Still Can
When I talked about why I started using private link networks and then continued to use them after Google’s “crackdown”, my primary reason was very simple: Writing quality content and getting ‘whitehat’ links wasn’t working for me. I was being outranked by people with crappy link networks who could build their own ‘relevant’ links on a whim and I decided to fight back.
You could view PIN’s in a similar light. I am utilising them because we’re not competing on a fair playing field, and what is supposed to work is very rarely what ranks, at least in the industries that I operate in.
While I don’t wish to reveal those exact industries, let me give you an example closer to home, with ViperChill.
I will say in advance that this is a search term I really don’t care about ranking for. I have no idea how many times it’s searched for each month and honestly, I doubt it gets many searches at all.
Here are the search results for the query, ‘Future of blogging’.
My site is usually either in 10th or 11th for that term, yet by every SEO standard metric I should be number one.
I have more links to the page ranking than anyone else
I have more ‘domain authority’ than most other pages
My title tag seems more relevant than half of them
Yet in order to get more traffic for this search term, which I think I ‘deserve’ from a 10,000 word article which took me weeks to put together, all I have to do is one thing.
It’s not getting more links. It’s not improving my on-site SEO. It’s not building better connections with influencers.
All I need to do to get my traffic back is to add a sentence to the start of the article which says ‘Last updated: July 25th 2016‘.
This is a search result where how recent an article was posted is more important than whether it’s actually a good page to rank.
I don’t actually have to update the article; I literally just need to make it appear to Google – thanks to that one sentence – that my article was updated recently. This one sentence, this ‘trick’, would bring me back the ranking I feel I deserve. (Though, again, I doubt this even gets searched for. It’s just an example).
This is not theory. If you look at the first sentence of my WordPress SEO guide that’s exactly what I’ve done before, with great results.
This little change is not too dissimilar to what I need to rank in other industries. I don’t need better on-site SEO. I don’t need to build natural links from relevant sites through content marketing. I simply need to add more domains to my private link network and write more guest blog posts.
Yes, these are both tactics that are looked down upon by Google, but they still work incredibly well. In 2014 when I covered Google’s crackdown on private blog networks I did mention that they would now be less likely to care about private link networks.
In my exact words:
What I expect to happen is that Google will ease off looking into private networks. The damage is mostly done.
Why? Because they’ve already made people scared to build them. The best way to deal with people trying to game the system is essentially making us as a community police ourselves so we don’t try to game the system in the first place.
The continued use of private link networks and guest posting for SEO is part of the reason why I will get a lot of criticism from this post. How to implement these tactics more effectively, which I’ll talk about later, will be the larger reason for criticism.
The Approach to Take
One of the first ideas I had when I started out online was to assemble a team of people who could work together to build a huge website. At the time I was following the growth of TechCrunch and Mashable and saw how quickly they were able to grow thanks to having a team of writers.
My idea was to essentially connect a team of people who all worked on one website and in return everyone had a percentage ownership. The logic being that working as a team would result in the site growing faster and even if revenue or a sale price was split, we would have more success than working on our own.
It’s a similar idea a number of ViperChill readers had after reading my last article on the small number of brands dominating Google search results.
While it’s a nice idea, in theory it doesn’t work so well.
Some will want to dictate the direction of a site that others don’t agree with and more importantly, some people will put in far more work than others. If you’re writing more content than others and your articles are getting better traction, you’re going to want to increase your ownership compared to someone barely putting in any effort.
There is another option you can utilise if you wish to team up with others though, and that’s a PIN.
It comes with all of the benefits of creating your own team, without the downsides of worrying about who is contributing what work.
What the Hell is a PIN?
A PIN is a play on the acronym PBN, which is commonly referred to as a private blog or link network.
I’ve received my fair share of critics over the years for talking about PBN’s and their success – and continuing to build them – but there’s a reason I do: They work.
I simply don’t believe that playing by Google’s rules is always going to get me the results I want. In some industries I wouldn’t make the money I do without them. I don’t use them for clients, but do for my own websites.
Going forward, I think PIN’s are going to be crucial to my success in certain industries, and I think they are going to be crucial to a number of people reading this as well.
PIN, stands for Private Influencer Network.
Before you think that just means making some “friends” online and building up your connections, allow me to continue.
I define a Private Influencer Network as a group of people looking to rank their websites in Google in similar industries (but not the same) who work together to help each other reach their objectives.
Essentially, they use any opportunities they have to build links (such as private blog networks, guest blogging, interviews, blogger round-ups) to send backlinks to other people in their network. In return, other people do the same for them.
The end result is that for the work you would do to build ten backlinks, you can get twenty to forty (of the same quality) in return.
A $100,000/m PIN Operating Right Under Your Nose
I first came across a Private Influencer Network a little over a year ago. A few ‘influencers’ in a particular field were using their private blog networks to – quite simply – link to each other.
I didn’t think much of the tactic at the time, until I found another example of this happening just a few months later.
Then three months after that, I found my third example. This time it really got my attention.
A group of just five people (from what I could tell) were ranking in one of the most profitable industries online and undoubtedly making over $100,000 per month in the process. I operate in the niche, which is how I found their collaboration, and know the numbers very well.
This is when I started working on building my own, PIN.
Finally, the idea to write this blog post came to me when I found yet another PIN. One of the members of this network is one of the most well-known SEO’s on the planet and is reading this article. He already “knows I know.”
If you follow the SEO blogosphere, you’ll undoubtedly know who he is.
One of the sites they are promoting also very likely also makes more than $100,000 per month. I’m not involved in the niche, but I know others who are and with the rankings they have, those numbers wouldn’t surprise me.
I reached out to the owner of the ‘money site’ they had all teamed up to promote. I keep a private database of paid link opportunities and one of them costs more than $10,000 per year. I found their website there, so sent the main owner an email.
One months revenue spent on link building is a small price to pay when you’re doing huge numbers thanks to gaming Google.
While some would view four to five guys linking to each other to make more than $100,000/m from a one-year-old website as shady and unethical, I’m personally impressed at how well they are crushing a very competitive niche so quickly.
While there is a chance that a PIN could be “outed”, the last two examples I found were so well put together that I’m almost certain I was the only person who connected the dots.
If you’re not trying to rank in an obvious industry that’s constantly monitored by SEO’s – like blogging and internet marketing – the chances of your PIN becoming uncovered are relatively low. Much lower than having your private blog network discovered.
As you’ve probably already figured out more succinctly than I am at getting to the point, members of a PIN use any opportunity they have to ‘link out’ to take care of their whole team.
While I’ve been fairly slow on the uptake to building my own PIN, I have been slowly building them in a few industries over the last few months and I’m excited to see what the future holds.
I didn’t want to write this blog post until I had a better understanding of how to build and manage them, because managing them is actually the most time-consuming part.
You have to make sure everyone in the network is pulling their weight and giving (and getting) equal opportunities. Opportunities, of course, is code for links.
A Real-World Example of How a PIN Works
One of the websites I find myself checking for ideas and inspiration is Entrepreneur.com.
I recently found an article on the website, published by a contributor and not a staff member, which could serve as a great example for how PIN’s work.
Let me say it in bold (for those just skimming) that the example below is totally legitimate.
I’m highlighting it because it’s natural, but could have been used in a non-natural way.
While the screenshot below might be the longest ever embedded by me into a blog post, there is something much more important that I have to say about it.
There is no specific reason I have singled out this article. It was simply the first article on Entrepreneur.com when I was looking to give an example for this post. Proof of that is the date. This article is going live on July 25th whereas this article I’m featuring below is from July 22nd.
It just happened to be a great example to see a PIN (or what could be a PIN), in action.
I made the article a little shorter than the original (the screenshot was long enough, I know) but you can see the majority of it here. The first thing you’ll notice is four mentions of Weekdone. Unsurprisingly, these are all links to the company that the author works for.
A good guest article, utilised for a PIN, will link to other recommended resources that are connections of the author. The links should be relevant, but also to other people in your network so that you are ‘owed’ a link back.
Now on the surface (without my large logos stuck over the text) this looks like a totally normal article (albeit with a little overuse of linking back to the authors employer). If you do a little more research, you’ll learn that the other two highlighted companies, Zlien and Mavrck, are actually clients of Weekdone.
In other words, Weekdone likely earn some bonus points from their clients for mentioning them in an article on Entrepreneur.com. I see nothing wrong with this and it’s a one-off occurrence so it’s not done for SEO manipulation; I’m just trying to show how a PIN link looks without actually revealing one.
Essentially everything looks natural until you look under the hood. It’s normal for a client to talk about a company they use, as shown below where the relationship continues.
Once again, I’m not saying they’re doing anything wrong here. It was one of the top articles on Entreprenuer.com as I was finishing up this article (the post is only three days old) and happened to make a good example.
The truth is that Entrepreneur.com, along with Forbes and the business sections of the Huffington Post, are great resources to see mini PIN’s in action. The people who write content for these sites generally try to get as much out of writing for them as possible.
They link to their friends, and their friends link to them.
A PIN in Action
I wanted to create a graphic for this section but your understanding of the concept is far more important than your ability to decipher my poor Photoshop skills. Before it gets a little bit crazy, I have assumed that there are just two ‘influencers’ in your private network.
The yellow box is your money website (the website you wish to rank in Google).
The brown boxes are private blog sites you own (optional).
The grey boxes are link opportunities you’ve created through guest posting or similar.
While the graphic is admittedly not the prettiest (I did warn you), the concept is very simple.
Some of your private network domains will point links to the other influencer in your network, as will some of your guest posts on other websites.
In return, the other influencer will do the same for you.
Once you start adding more people to your network, things get a little bit more messy, but the principle remains the same.
When I try to visualise this with four influencers as part of your PIN it gets a little ugly, but here goes.
The golden rule you need to remember is this: If you receive a link from someone from a specific source, you need to replicate the link in kind.
So if you receive a link in a guest post from someone in the network, you need to give them a link from a guest post you write. Essentially meaning that the work you do for 10 links for yourself gets you 30-40 links in return. This number varies because sometimes it’s a bit risky (such as using blog networks) to link out to the same sites which are linking to you but you still receive more links than you would have without your network, for essentially the same work.
The Types of Links Which Are Shared
I originally tried to write these guidelines as if there were four people in a PIN but it became a little bit too complicated to read (and write). Instead, I’ll assume there are only two people in your PIN and show you what types of links you could generate or other ways to help each other.
If there are more people in your PIN, which I highly recommend, then understand that Influencer #1 will sometimes link to #2, while #4 sometimes links to number #3 and so on. It’s basically just varying the following link opportunities to keep things fair for everyone.
The types of reciprocation that can take place.
You can tweet or Facebook share an article from another influencer
You can retweet or publicly thank another influencer for mentioning you
You can utilise a guest post opportunity to link to a relevant quote or article from another influencer
If you use build private blog networks, you can use some to link to other influencers
If you find articles where comments drive traffic to your site, you can inform other influencers
When being interviewed you can link to a relevant quote or article from another influencer
Sharing link opportunities you find on your site they can utilise for theirs
Offering website design advice
Utilising Web 2.0 properties to give links and get the same in return
If performed properly, there is no reason to hide that you have a connection with other influencers in your niche. The only thing you would have to care about is that the obvious mission for having these connections is to help each other’s search engine rankings.
If you are outside of the internet marketing world you don’t really have to worry about other people finding your private link networks, but always keep a few rules in mind to avoid footprints.
Ready to Build Your Own PIN? Here’s My Advice
If you see the benefits of utilising a PIN for your own search engine rankings, and actually getting more than rankings in return, then here’s my advice for setting one up.
A PIN Must Have a Leader
As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t want to write about this topic until I had attempted to do it myself.
My short but relevant experience tells me that there has to be one person (or two at most) who is in control of the group you gather together to make sure that everyone in the team is pulling their weight.
In other words, you need to make sure that the people who are receiving links are doing their part in giving them as well.
The leader must also make sure that members of the team are active. It’s no use everyone playing along for the first few weeks while the idea is hot and then dropping off the map.
Bringing Together Your Team
While some of you may be excited about getting started on this – and some horrified that I’m even talking about it – there’s one important caveat to keep in mind.
Do not bring anyone into your team who has never shown any self-drive in terms of search engine optimisation.
If someone:
Doesn’t already have a website they wish to rank
Doesn’t regularly produce content for their own sites or others
Doesn’t have at least a basic knowledge of SEO fundamentals
Don’t invite them to be part of your network.
I assumed this would be the case from the start of building my own, but I’m even more sure of it after trying to get other people excited about the idea who weren’t actually willing to contribute to the rest of the teams’ success as a whole.
A simple test to see if someone would be right to join your network is to send a candidate over to this article and have them read about this concept for themselves.
If they don’t immediately “get” the idea and they don’t reply with something like “I can see this working well” then it’s not someone you want on your team.
You shouldn’t have to convince anyone to work with you. They should see it for themselves. If they’re against it because of ethical reasons, then that’s totally fine (and understandable) but again, it’s a sure sign that they’re not someone you want in your team.
As far as communication goes, there are a few platforms out there that would be useful.
You could create a Skype group where people get together. I certainly recommend that everyone get on a call together at least some point to make sure you all understand each other’s roles.
Slack is another good option, as you can keep up to date via their mobile app and have a history of previous agreements.
A private Facebook group is another good option.
Both Slack and Facebook allow there to be a leader who can add or remove members to the network.
The platform is really up to you. My only recommendation is not to lay out all your plans in Google Docs ;).
Take One Step Back from Your Current Niche
It should be obvious but I’ll state it anyway: You don’t want to work with people who are targeting the same keywords as you.
However, you still want to connect with people who are in a relevant niche (I’ll give you the chance to connect with ViperChill readers at the bottom of this post). For instance, if you’re promoting your real estate website then it makes sense to team up with other realtors, just not for the same region.
If you’re in the weight loss niche then it makes sense to collaborate and grow your audience with other people in that niche, but target different keywords and / or promote different types of products and services.
Whatever niche you’re in, imagine you’re shopping for that specific industry on Amazon but go back one category to find people to work with. Again, I’ll give you the opportunity to find PIN partners at the end of this article.
Footprints are Hard to Find, But Still Be Careful
From the PIN’s I’ve discovered and the ones I’m working on myself, I’ve found you really don’t have to be too careful when it comes to leaving some kind of footprint. After all, it doesn’t ring any alarm bells when Copyblogger keeps mentioning Problogger or Mashable keep linking to TechCrunch. It’s “natural” and something you can expect from the owners of websites who have developed friendships with each other.
Where you have to be careful is primarily with private blog networks and not creating footprints of clearly linking back and forth to each other from the same sites at all times. Of course, you don’t have to use private networks, but remember for each link you give out, you can get three to four back, so it can dramatically speed up the process of ranking your site.
You Need to Know How the Microphone Works
And how to sing.
One of my favourite authors, Daniel Priestley, said the following in his book The Key Person of Influence;
You don’t need to know how the microphone works, you need to know how to sing.
He was referring to the technology behind the microphone and how, when it was first invented, your time would have been better spent learning how to sing than how a microphone worked, if you wanted to reach a lot of people.
When it comes to ranking in Google, I don’t think that’s the case. You need to know how the microphone works and how to sing.
There are going to be people who worry I’m encouraging armies of people to come together to take over the Google search results.
The truth is that I don’t believe people who can’t sing – in this case, can’t produce great results for search engine users – will have much long-term success.
There’s no point putting all of the work into your PIN if the end result is going to be a crappy website.
The third example of a PIN that I mentioned earlier now easily does in excess of over $100,000 per month. What I didn’t yet tell you is that they built a fantastic resource for their industry. The site doesn’t have many pages (less than 50), but each one genuinely solves a question that a particular searcher is looking for an answer to.
I don’t view utilising a PIN as a way to “sneak” up the Google results and send thousands of visitors to an ad-riddled website.
Instead, I see it as a way to help you start getting great content noticed that could attract natural links once it is.
I mentioned at the start of this article that I would likely weed out some of the audience of ViperChill. I want to make it clear though that I’m not trying to help people with shitty websites rise to the top of Google.
While I believe there is a great opportunity here, it isn’t easy. Turning the concept into reality sounds much easier on paper (or in a blog post).
The truth is that when it comes to making money online, most people are, quite simply…lazy.
They may be excited about this idea for a few weeks but if you’re going to use this to rank in an industry worth ranking for, you should be aiming for keywords that take a few months to get any serious traction for.
Links Aside, The Connections You Build Can Be Invaluable
I’ve already briefly talked about the other benefits this kind of network can have, besides link building.
You can connect with people who have a genuine passion for your industry who in turn spur you on to put more work into your site and help you improve your online ventures. Whether that’s giving advice on your design, your writing, your strategy or anything else.
Working online can seem lonely at times, especially if your offline friends don’t have an inkling to do anything online. When you’re aiming to make money from your web projects it’s nice to find other people on the same journey.
In my future of blogging post a few years ago, one of the most popular on the site, I mentioned how some bloggers had worked together to help grow their respective audiences in the same industry.
TechCrunch and Mashable grew incredibly quickly at the same time while investors were putting more and more of their money into web-based projects. They mentioned each other thousands of times.
Smaller operations – though still huge – like Copyblogger and Problogger would guest post on each others’ sites, promote each other’s products, send traffic to each other via their email lists and essentially enhanced both of their own images through their connection.
I took the time to actually figure out how many times some sites mentioned each other, which you can see in the graphic below.
While links were a key factor in all of these partnerships, I wouldn’t essentially class them as private link building. Most of the links didn’t include any specific anchor text and they weren’t to random affiliate sites or anything like that. All of them were trying to build authoritative online businesses and found someone with a similar passion on the same journey.
While TechCrunch and Mashable were almost in direct competition with each other, they still highlighted the stories that the other site got to first. Michael Arrington later sold TechCrunch to AOL for $25m. Pete Cashmore is still the CEO of Mashable though according to Politico.com, is trying to sell the site for around $300-$350m.
That’s a partnership that certainly paid off for both of them. Pete holding out six years on his sale seems to have been a smarter choice, however.
A Facebook Group to Find PIN Partners
For what is probably a very limited time only, I’m giving access to a private Facebook group where people can assemble together to potentially build their own Private Influencer Network.
I don’t want the comments here to be full of pitching opportunities, so let’s take this elsewhere to see what industries you’re working with. To be approved for the group you must leave a comment here with your Facebook name or put your Facebook initials at the end of a comment. Facebook will likely recommend the group to people who have no idea what PIN’s are and I don’t want to do a lot of moderating.
Don’t reveal your exact niche when you start a discussion, just simply zoom out of your niche and reveal a higher category that you would like to work in. You can find the group here (remember to comment to be approved).
Thank you, as always, for reading.
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5 Best Backpacker Hostels in Cairns, Australia
Cairns, in tropical North Queensland, is someplace you truly just cannot skip when backpacking Australia. It’s renowned as the gateway to the Fantastic Barrier Reef but this tropical city is also one particular of the most fun bash towns for backpackers and is surrounded by loads of astounding working day visits like Cape Tribulation and the UNESCO shown Daintree Rainforest. With all these activities remaining a backpacker in Cairns can seriously incorporate up so luckily there are so numerous amazing backpacker hostels in Cairns.
Australia can be a genuinely expensive region to visit so it’s important for backpackers to preserve cash and keeping in backpacker hostels is a good way to have a pleasurable, sociable and comfortable stay with out breaking the bank.
Cairns Lagoon by Martin Valigursky/Shutterstock
  Most backpacker hostels in Australia also have communal kitchens so you can invest in food at the grocery store and cook dinner for on your own instead of taking in out at high priced dining places which will preserve you a great deal of dollars. I ended up in Cairns 3 moments (I was doing the job in an outback Queensland pub) so I managed to examine out fairly a several of the hostels. 
Forget about keeping in grimy backpacker hostels, most of the Aussie hostels are far more like tropical holiday getaway resorts with swimming pools, bars, hammocks, BBQ areas and movie lounges – some even have on web page night golf equipment and gourmand pizza ovens.
Hostels are also excellent places to meet other travellers and numerous consist of brilliant freebies like absolutely free breakfast and free wifi to assistance you preserve even a lot more revenue and set on night entertainments like pub crawls, BBQs and film nights to enable backpackers socialise and have exciting. See extra causes why its magnificent being in hostels here 
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Not all hostels are equal though, and wherever to stay can genuinely make or split your vacation, particularly if you are a solo traveller searching to make close friends, so its important to select your hostel carefully.
To help you system your excursion here’s my record of the 5 really greatest backpacker hostels in Cairns.
The Ideal Backpacker Hostels in Cairns
Traveller’s Oasis
Traveller’s Oasis received the title of greatest backpacker hostel in Cairns in 2018 and was also voted as the best hostel in Australia for 2018 by Hostelworld. The hostel is positioned future to Cairns Central station which is about a 15 minute walk from the lagoon. It’s a smaller, cosy, homely, spotlessly clean, relaxed and welcoming hostel with tremendous practical staff members. It is not one particular of all those huge, impersonal hostels – they can only match 50 friends at a time.
There’s free wifi, totally free parking, absolutely free tea and coffee, free of charge luggage storage, 2 thoroughly equipped communal kitchens and laundry amenities. You are going to never ever be bored as there is a Tv space with Lcd Tv and DVD participant and a challenging travel that has 1500 motion pictures as nicely as online games, publications and a e-book exchange. The outdoor spot is a good place to meet up with individuals. You can chill out in the hammocks underneath the palm trees, consider a dip in the open up air swimming pool or use the BBQs on the out of doors terrace.
There are dorms and non-public rooms, a single of the finest matters about this hostel is that there are no bunk beds in the dorms and the non-public rooms contain TVs and a fridge. Look at it out and you will see why Travellers Oasis is constantly rated just one of the finest backpacker hostels in Cairns. Simply click in this article to book!
  The Northern Greenhouse
The Northern Greenhouse is a fashionable, vacation resort fashion flashpacker hostel that is conveniently centrally located correct in the coronary heart of Cairns that means all the most important attractions are in uncomplicated strolling length. The entire hostel is definitely clean and the workers are super friendly and handy.
All rooms are air conditioned, there are blended ensuite dorm rooms, as effectively as spacious male-only or female-only dorms. The private balconies and courtyard gardens are beautiful places to chill out as is the lush, tropical outdoor swimming pool and bar place that serves seriously affordable drinks. It’s a terrific put to fulfill other travellers and make new pals.
There’s also free of charge breakfast and absolutely free tremendous rapid wifi, a shared kitchen area and pool tables. The staff members are super welcoming and useful and set on exciting occasions in the hostel each working day and night time as effectively as displaying attendees wherever the best affordable backpacker bars are. There’s also a absolutely free BBQ every Sunday. Elegant, helpful and fun with a good deal of freebies – this is a single of the greatest backpacker hostels in Cairns. Simply click here to reserve!
  Gilligan’s Backpacker Hostel & Resort
Gilligans is 1 of the most renowned and most well-known backpacker hostels in Cairns, especially for those people who love to social gathering. Gilligans is a substantial resort design hostel found in the coronary heart of Cairns that is a very hot place for partiers thanks to the onsite night time club which is 1 of Cairn’s most well-known nightspots.
The hostel has dorms and personal rooms, all of which are air-conditioned and have ensuite loos, and theres a communal chill out spots with TVs and a shared kitchen area on each and every of the hostel’s 4 floors so you won’t want to wait around to prepare dinner. They also present a cost-free airport select up from the airport amongst 8am and 8pm and a occupation shop on website to assist you if you are seeking for get the job done.
There is also a lagoon-style swimming pool, fitness center, world wide web café, a nightclub and open up deck bar with significant monitor TVs exhibiting all of the recent sporting gatherings. Ladies will adore the powder place that has hair dryers and hair straighteners free of charge to use. The hostel also operates loads of pleasurable themed nights, games and occasions. This is the most effective backpacker hostel in Cairns for celebration people today. Click listed here to e book!
    Mad Monkey Backpackers
Mad Monkey is a tiny, new chain of backpacker hostels that is owned and operated by two Australian most effective close friends. This flashpacker style celebration hostel is clear, stylish, vivid, spacious and a person of the funnest backpacker hostels in Cairns.
There is non-public rooms, combined and feminine only dorms. The hostel was absolutely renovated in 2017 and all rooms manufacturer new major quality mattresses, mattress linen, air conditioners, substantial safety lockers and fashionable designer bogs and kitchens.
Mad Monkey hostels are the fantastic sites to bash and meet up with other backpackers at the outside pool oasis finish with sunbathing cabanas and an outside bar with super affordable drinks. There is even a gourmand pizza restaurant and a motion picture screen with comfy bean luggage to chill out on.
There’s also free tremendous rapidly wifi and a totally free incredibly hot breakfast and the workers organise situations each and every day and evening. They truly have 3 backpacker hostels in Cairns so if ones’s complete do not fret you could also test out the many others.  Click below to reserve!
  Globe Trotters Global
Globetrotters is a welcoming, comfortable, family members run resort design and style hostel located near the esplanade close to the center of Cairns. It is good benefit for income as there are masses of freebies, which include unlimited superfast Wi-Fi in all rooms, served breakfast, which consists of right espresso!, free of charge night meal and cost-free luggage storage, which make it 1 of the finest backpacker hostels in Cairns. The hostel operates a BBQ evening twice a 7 days and can also organize discounted reef and rainforest excursions.
There is a communal kitchen area that even has fridge lockers so you really do not have to stress about other backpackers thieving your foods! There is also a obvious swimming pool, sunlight deck, hammocks, garden region and video games region which is a wonderful spot for conference other travellers.
As opposed to a lot of backpacker hostels in Cairns, Globetrotters is not a party hostel so you can unwind and get pleasure from a excellent evenings snooze. If you want to go out and occasion then the hostel also has every day nightclub offers so it is a get acquire! Click on listed here to book!
Read through Extra:
Most effective Backpacker Hostels in East Coastline Australia
Ideal Backpacker Hostels in Sydney
Ideal Backpacker Hostels in Melbourne
Have you stayed in any great backpacker hostels in Cairns? Depart a remark down below with your tips and you’ll be serving to out other backpackers
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By the way, I have used affiliate one-way links in this publish. If you discover my suggestions for the very best backpacker hostels in Cairns beneficial and you want to e-book via my one-way links then I can gain a tiny commission at no further price to you which will help preserve this web-site going. Many thanks really substantially for your guidance!
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  source http://cheaprtravels.com/5-best-backpacker-hostels-in-cairns-australia-2/
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topfygad · 4 years
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5 Best Backpacker Hostels in Cairns, Australia
Cairns, in tropical North Queensland, is someplace you truly just cannot skip when backpacking Australia. It’s renowned as the gateway to the Fantastic Barrier Reef but this tropical city is also one particular of the most fun bash towns for backpackers and is surrounded by loads of astounding working day visits like Cape Tribulation and the UNESCO shown Daintree Rainforest. With all these activities remaining a backpacker in Cairns can seriously incorporate up so luckily there are so numerous amazing backpacker hostels in Cairns.
Australia can be a genuinely expensive region to visit so it’s important for backpackers to preserve cash and keeping in backpacker hostels is a good way to have a pleasurable, sociable and comfortable stay with out breaking the bank.
Cairns Lagoon by Martin Valigursky/Shutterstock
  Most backpacker hostels in Australia also have communal kitchens so you can invest in food at the grocery store and cook dinner for on your own instead of taking in out at high priced dining places which will preserve you a great deal of dollars. I ended up in Cairns 3 moments (I was doing the job in an outback Queensland pub) so I managed to examine out fairly a several of the hostels. 
Forget about keeping in grimy backpacker hostels, most of the Aussie hostels are far more like tropical holiday getaway resorts with swimming pools, bars, hammocks, BBQ areas and movie lounges – some even have on web page night golf equipment and gourmand pizza ovens.
Hostels are also excellent places to meet other travellers and numerous consist of brilliant freebies like absolutely free breakfast and free wifi to assistance you preserve even a lot more revenue and set on night entertainments like pub crawls, BBQs and film nights to enable backpackers socialise and have exciting. See extra causes why its magnificent being in hostels here 
Pin Me
Tumblr media
Not all hostels are equal though, and wherever to stay can genuinely make or split your vacation, particularly if you are a solo traveller searching to make close friends, so its important to select your hostel carefully.
To help you system your excursion here’s my record of the 5 really greatest backpacker hostels in Cairns.
The Ideal Backpacker Hostels in Cairns
Traveller’s Oasis
Traveller’s Oasis received the title of greatest backpacker hostel in Cairns in 2018 and was also voted as the best hostel in Australia for 2018 by Hostelworld. The hostel is positioned future to Cairns Central station which is about a 15 minute walk from the lagoon. It’s a smaller, cosy, homely, spotlessly clean, relaxed and welcoming hostel with tremendous practical staff members. It is not one particular of all those huge, impersonal hostels – they can only match 50 friends at a time.
There’s free wifi, totally free parking, absolutely free tea and coffee, free of charge luggage storage, 2 thoroughly equipped communal kitchens and laundry amenities. You are going to never ever be bored as there is a Tv space with Lcd Tv and DVD participant and a challenging travel that has 1500 motion pictures as nicely as online games, publications and a e-book exchange. The outdoor spot is a good place to meet up with individuals. You can chill out in the hammocks underneath the palm trees, consider a dip in the open up air swimming pool or use the BBQs on the out of doors terrace.
There are dorms and non-public rooms, a single of the finest matters about this hostel is that there are no bunk beds in the dorms and the non-public rooms contain TVs and a fridge. Look at it out and you will see why Travellers Oasis is constantly rated just one of the finest backpacker hostels in Cairns. Simply click in this article to book!
  The Northern Greenhouse
The Northern Greenhouse is a fashionable, vacation resort fashion flashpacker hostel that is conveniently centrally located correct in the coronary heart of Cairns that means all the most important attractions are in uncomplicated strolling length. The entire hostel is definitely clean and the workers are super friendly and handy.
All rooms are air conditioned, there are blended ensuite dorm rooms, as effectively as spacious male-only or female-only dorms. The private balconies and courtyard gardens are beautiful places to chill out as is the lush, tropical outdoor swimming pool and bar place that serves seriously affordable drinks. It’s a terrific put to fulfill other travellers and make new pals.
There’s also free of charge breakfast and absolutely free tremendous rapid wifi, a shared kitchen area and pool tables. The staff members are super welcoming and useful and set on exciting occasions in the hostel each working day and night time as effectively as displaying attendees wherever the best affordable backpacker bars are. There’s also a absolutely free BBQ every Sunday. Elegant, helpful and fun with a good deal of freebies – this is a single of the greatest backpacker hostels in Cairns. Simply click here to reserve!
  Gilligan’s Backpacker Hostel & Resort
Gilligans is 1 of the most renowned and most well-known backpacker hostels in Cairns, especially for those people who love to social gathering. Gilligans is a substantial resort design hostel found in the coronary heart of Cairns that is a very hot place for partiers thanks to the onsite night time club which is 1 of Cairn’s most well-known nightspots.
The hostel has dorms and personal rooms, all of which are air-conditioned and have ensuite loos, and theres a communal chill out spots with TVs and a shared kitchen area on each and every of the hostel’s 4 floors so you won’t want to wait around to prepare dinner. They also present a cost-free airport select up from the airport amongst 8am and 8pm and a occupation shop on website to assist you if you are seeking for get the job done.
There is also a lagoon-style swimming pool, fitness center, world wide web café, a nightclub and open up deck bar with significant monitor TVs exhibiting all of the recent sporting gatherings. Ladies will adore the powder place that has hair dryers and hair straighteners free of charge to use. The hostel also operates loads of pleasurable themed nights, games and occasions. This is the most effective backpacker hostel in Cairns for celebration people today. Click listed here to e book!
    Mad Monkey Backpackers
Mad Monkey is a tiny, new chain of backpacker hostels that is owned and operated by two Australian most effective close friends. This flashpacker style celebration hostel is clear, stylish, vivid, spacious and a person of the funnest backpacker hostels in Cairns.
There is non-public rooms, combined and feminine only dorms. The hostel was absolutely renovated in 2017 and all rooms manufacturer new major quality mattresses, mattress linen, air conditioners, substantial safety lockers and fashionable designer bogs and kitchens.
Mad Monkey hostels are the fantastic sites to bash and meet up with other backpackers at the outside pool oasis finish with sunbathing cabanas and an outside bar with super affordable drinks. There is even a gourmand pizza restaurant and a motion picture screen with comfy bean luggage to chill out on.
There’s also free tremendous rapidly wifi and a totally free incredibly hot breakfast and the workers organise situations each and every day and evening. They truly have 3 backpacker hostels in Cairns so if ones’s complete do not fret you could also test out the many others.  Click below to reserve!
  Globe Trotters Global
Globetrotters is a welcoming, comfortable, family members run resort design and style hostel located near the esplanade close to the center of Cairns. It is good benefit for income as there are masses of freebies, which include unlimited superfast Wi-Fi in all rooms, served breakfast, which consists of right espresso!, free of charge night meal and cost-free luggage storage, which make it 1 of the finest backpacker hostels in Cairns. The hostel operates a BBQ evening twice a 7 days and can also organize discounted reef and rainforest excursions.
There is a communal kitchen area that even has fridge lockers so you really do not have to stress about other backpackers thieving your foods! There is also a obvious swimming pool, sunlight deck, hammocks, garden region and video games region which is a wonderful spot for conference other travellers.
As opposed to a lot of backpacker hostels in Cairns, Globetrotters is not a party hostel so you can unwind and get pleasure from a excellent evenings snooze. If you want to go out and occasion then the hostel also has every day nightclub offers so it is a get acquire! Click on listed here to book!
Read through Extra:
Most effective Backpacker Hostels in East Coastline Australia
Ideal Backpacker Hostels in Sydney
Ideal Backpacker Hostels in Melbourne
Have you stayed in any great backpacker hostels in Cairns? Depart a remark down below with your tips and you’ll be serving to out other backpackers
Tumblr media
By the way, I have used affiliate one-way links in this publish. If you discover my suggestions for the very best backpacker hostels in Cairns beneficial and you want to e-book via my one-way links then I can gain a tiny commission at no further price to you which will help preserve this web-site going. Many thanks really substantially for your guidance!
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  from Cheapr Travels https://ift.tt/2V7BC3e via https://ift.tt/2NIqXKN
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