#theres also the fact that its not unlikely theyve met before??

[rosewoodconch]

RWCH Readathon 2024: Day 7

Undercover Princess - Chapter 19

Everything about this opening is amazing and I can really imagine it as a movie scene, panning around as you get used to the brightness and you see the curtains to the lighting to finally the throne room

Wilhelmina is a terrifying force, theres undeniable power in how shes introduced. Weve already met both ellies parents, but not her grandmother. So this introduction really consolidates how important and intense this is

Ellie and Jamie having no reaction really demonstrates how much of this verbal abuse theyve had to see and face and it's really quite scary

On the other hand, Lottie is so reactive and shows the drastic difference

The background check is really really scary, revealing more and more to the audience.

Again I'm coming back to how we learn these characters names. Ellie being unlike her true self in the prologue, and only being addressed by her full name and her title when shes in Maradiva, but introduced as Ellie when she has more freedom.

Lottie was more comfortable at home in her little attic, and we only learn her name is Charlotte when shes nervous and introducing herself to Binah.

Now, when Lottie is most scared and uncomfortable, her whole life being read before her by complete strangers, do we as the reader even learn her full name.

And i think thats a really powerful thing to have kept from the reader until this point, especially as the text brings up her dad for the first time too.

It shows incredibly well how embarrassed she is. This isnt on her terms. Shes scared and confused and wants no part in this. And we as the reader feel uncomfortable reading it and lwarning about it when shes not consenting to it.

But also Ellie and Jamie stopping them. Amazing, and it shows how much solidarity they all have to each other already

Its just such a brilliant way to convey this whole scene, using information even we don't know.

The sentences getting shorter and shorter as Lotties panic grows fills the reader with anxiety echoing her own

Jamie smirking at the mention that shes the 2nd highest in english is so funny to me i love that boy

The fact that they knew something that not even Lottie knew, about being chosen by Devine. Its so scary, it really fully reaffirms how different she was.

I appreciate that the King really did wish for Ellie to do well, for her to have her freedom

DEVINE COMING IN CLUTCH HELL YEAH

Lottie breaking every single rule to brag about her and show how truly impactful ellie has been, even if it doesnt reflect that on her paperwork

The Queen is so womderful, shes unassuming but also has a beautiful air of power, and the way she introduces the concept of a portman as "signing your life away to the maravish family"

Iconic

Love her

Want her to narrate my life please

In summary, i love the trial scenes.... so im doing the second half tomorrow. Mostly because im probably gonna squeeze 20 and 21 into one liveblog because theyre so short

See yall tomorrow for the wrap up of part one and the start of part 2!

[hornetposting]

Hornet x Quirrel shippers really be like "But Lace tried to kill Hornet" and skip over the fact Hornet tried to fight Quirrel (most likely killing him had he not had monomons seal) in the comics 🤔 (Not saying all hornet x quirrel fans are like this, a few I know have said this)

I dont think hornet wouldve actually killed him but she CERTAINLY didnt want him to stay there. Theres also just honestly 0 chemistry between them like they really think theyd fit personality-wise?

[viralhottopics]

The ‘Something To Wrestle’ podcast sparks nostalgia for old-school WWE hilarity

By conventional podcast standards, Something To Wrestle with Bruce Prichard should not be a hit. The episodesoften shoot past the three-hour mark. The topics sometimes are the kind of minutiae only hardcore wrestling fans from 30 years ago would remember. And the hosts arent household names—Prichard was a memorable WWE, then known as WWF, character in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but spent most of his wrestling career behind the cameras. Co-host Conrad Thompson owns a mortgage company in Alabama.

But somehow, the two have sliced open a vein in wrestling fans conscience, and though the podcast is only eight months old, close to a million people are downloading Something To Wrestle every week.

There are no stars. There are no guests. There are no short shows. Why, then, does this podcast work so well, even when it probably shouldnt?

People arent as interested in star power as they are in content, Thompson, who owns 1st Family Mortgage Company, told the Daily Dot. Maybe its enough to start a podcast. But is it going to be enough to bring them back? Contrast that with our show. Weve involved our listeners. Its because of our inside jokes, its because of our chemistry, its because of Bruces storytelling. Its as close as anybody is going to get to being inside Vince McMahons head.

The mind of the WWE CEO is still real estate people want to explore. Pro wrestling is that way, in general, especially if you grew up watching Hulk Hogan or Andre the Giant or Stone Cold Steve Austin, the Rock, or John Cena. Prichard and Thompson have no problem feeding listeners with oodles of information—some of it arcane, some of it absolutely essential—about a variety of topics in yesterdays world of pro wrestling.

Its a world the two have been obsessed with for decades. Thompson grew up watching the WWF in Huntsville, Alabama, and he continues to be a fan. He also co-hostsWhat Happened When, a podcastthat is focused on the disbanded NWA/WCW promotion with former commentator Tony Schiavone.

Prichard is a lifer in the business. He started selling posters for the Houston Wrestling promotion when he was 10 years old, and as he says, if something in the company needed to be done, Prichard was the one to do it. By 12, he was the assistant director of the promotions local TV show. By 14, he was announcing matches. Two years later, he was a referee, and by 18 years old, I was running the place, he said.

Prichard was passionate about the business and hungry to learn as much as he could. He listened to the stories of old-time wrestlers. He asked questions. He learned something new every day. He wasnt interested in becoming a full-time in-ring performer. He wanted to stay in the shadows and have a hand in controlling the entire thing.

You can go out and be one character, or you could be behind the scenes, create many characters, and develop all of them, Prichard told the Daily Dot. I got to be everybody.

By his mid-20s, Prichard had joined the WWF, and eventually, he would become one of the most important people in the front office, helping write storylines, produce promos, engage in talent relations, and run the TV shows. Oh, and he got to perform in front of thousands of people as Brother Love, the fake televangelist with a bright red face who had a penchant for telling everybody (in his smarmy way) that he loved them.

Perhaps the main reason Something To Wrestle works so well is because Prichard has an uncanny ability to remember most everything that happened around him during his 22 years in the WWF/WWE. Thompson asks him a question about minor details from a match that happened in 1997, and most of the time, Prichard can answer him with precise description.

Still, Prichard originally wasnt sold on participating in a podcast. He didnt think people would care about the memories of an old wrestling hand, and he didnt realize the appetite fans had for nostalgia. He met Thompson through wrestling legend Ric Flaira few years back, and they became casual friends, then co-workers in Thompsons mortgage business. Prichard would tell Thompson old wrestling stories, and one day, after Prichard recounted the tale of how a group of WCW wrestlers, known as the Radicalz, jumped to the WWF in 2000, Thompson looked at Prichard and said, This is a podcast.

Prichard laughed it off—he wasnt keen on sharing his stories, because they were his stories and because he didnt think anybody would care.

I guess I was wrong, Prichard said.

The first podcast, which told the tale of Dusty Rhodes in the WWF, garnered about 60,000 downloads. Eight months later, on theWrestlemania 13 episode, it scored400,000 downloads in the first 24 hours.

Thompson thought a podcast could work, because instead of recapping the latest WWE TV shows and storylines, this would be a longform discussion on a singular topic from the past. The podcast has stayed true to that initial idea, but its also morphed into something more.

Theres an undeniable chemistry between Thompson and Prichard—they yell at each other and insult each other, though its also clear the two are great friends with a bevy of inside jokes that seem to never stop being funny—and Prichard has a talent for impersonating the wrestlers and characters with whom he worked. Those caricatures have become a highlight of every episode, especially when Prichard goes into an impression of McMahon, Rhodes, Macho Man Randy Savage, or former wrestling promoter Jerry Jarrett. (Prichards impersonation of Jarrett explaining to a waiter how to make chicken salad might be the top moment in Something To Wrestle history.)

Thompson and Prichard want to make their listeners feel like part of the family—as Thompson said, its not unlike the way Howard Stern built his enormous fanbase—and for pro wrestling fans who already are trained to love these kinds of insider gags and lingo, its a godsend.

I realized there was an appetite for it, Prichard said. That people were interested in the business. They love the business, and they wanted more. They wanted to feel more a part of it. They were longing for an opinion from someone other than somebody who had never been there and who had never done it.

And people stay and listen. Though Prichard and Thompson were told they shouldnt run over 90 minutes on each podcast episode—that the audience would lose interest and hit the stop button—the opposite has happened. If a podcast is less than three hours in length, Prichard and Thompson hear complaints. Not only that, but they said their research has shown that 86 percent of people listen to the podcast all the way through, a statistical anomaly in the podcasting world.

Said Prichard: Weve broken the rules on everything.

Theyve also introduced innovative marketing ideas. Whenever a fan buys a shirt from Prichard on Pro Wrestling Tees, Prichard makes sure to give that person a phone call to chat for a few minutes and to say thank you. But even more inclusive is the fact that the podcast listeners get to choose the topics of the next show. The show posts new episodes every Friday, and on that same day, Thompson and Prichard unveil a poll to the @PrichardShow Twitter account. Whichever topic gets the most votes wins for the next week.

Said Thompson: Its sales 101. In sales, you should ask the buyers, ‘What are you in the mood to buy?’ Rather than us playing darts in the dark.

The two also implemented a strategy to procure iTunes reviews—which has helped make them one of the highest-ranked and best-rated wrestling podcasts around. If they could get 1,000 reviews, they tell viewers theyll post a bonus show. For 1,500 reviews, theyd post another bonus show. And for 2,000 reviews, theyd post a show detailing why and how Prichardwas twice fired by the WWE. As of this writing, Something To Wrestle has nearly 2,500 reviews.

Vote Houston Wrestling @PrichardShow NOW http://pic.twitter.com/3lTsPEyQy6

— #LoveToKnow (@PrichardShow) February 12, 2017

Hearing lots of haters debate our numbers this week. Someone says we do 300k per week? Try 991k. Look at WM13 from Friday, 502k. #RollTide http://pic.twitter.com/oXrV0FUZWo

— Conrad Thompson (@HeyHeyItsConrad) March 28, 2017

But the podcast also eats up plenty of Thompsons time. One reason the show works so well is because Thompson asks such probing questions about the tiniest details. The reason Thompson knows to ask is because he spends about eight hours per episode researching the topic, which involves re-watching old pay-per-views, reading archived wrestling newsletters, and skimming through wrestler autobiographies.

There are no restrictions on what Thompson can ask, and unless the query is about the amount of money earned by specific wrestlers, Prichard answers just about everything. That kind of honesty on this kind of show has also led Prichard back to the wrestling ring. He was released by the WWE for the final time in 2008, but after seeing the impact of Something To Wrestle, Impact Wrestling (basically, the second most important wrestling promotion in the U.S. today) hired him last month as a consultant (probably in part because Prichards show attracts exponentially more listeners than Impact does for its TV shows).

On Sunday, the WWE will present Wrestlemania 33 on its biggest day of the year. Prichard and Thompson will have already completed their first live show, an event in Orlando, Florida, the night before that sold out within a few weeks of it being announced. Fans will watch the current-day wrestlers win titles and take crazy bumps and try to make themselves legends.

But next week, when the wrestling world goes back to normal, nearly a million people will download the latest episode of Something To Wrestle and journey back to a time when Hulk Hogan ruled the world and when fans chanted for Austin and the Rock all night long. Prichard and Thompson will trade insults, gags, inside jokes, and impersonations. People will listen for three hours.

Then, theyll wait hungrily for more.

Read more: http://bit.ly/2o2cxXz

from The ‘Something To Wrestle’ podcast sparks nostalgia for old-school WWE hilarity

[mavwrekmarketing]

Venture debt has been much in the news lately. Earlier this month, for example, we learned that ModCloth, an online company that sells vintage womens apparel, is being acquired by Jet.com for less than investors poured into the company largely because ModCloth was tripped up by unsecured bank debt.More recently,we learned that after failing to land an investor or buyer, themusic streaming service SoundCloud decided to raise a $70 million debt round.

Are desperate times beginning to call for desperate measures? That might be an overstatement. At the same time, theventure debt firm Western Technology Investmenthas seen plenty of cycles and amassed plenty of dataover its 37 years in the business, and CEO Maurice Werdegarsays the firm just finished its busiest quarter ever.

We talked with him late last week in a chat thats been edited for length.

TC: It seems like venture debt is popping up in more deals. True or not true?

MW: Thelong trend is definitely that venture debt continues to play a moderately increasing role. The role its intendedto play is to complement a companysequity strategy to help extend [funding] from one round to the next, adding time and giving companies and their teamsthe optionality of having more data and reaching certain inflection points beforeheading into that next round.

TC: And youve traditionally focused on early-stage companies as a result. You provided debt to Jet.com as part of itsmassive Series A round, for example. But it seems like later-stage companies are using more debt, too.

MW: Weve been very busy in late-stage rounds, too. I think people raise a little too little capital; they underestimatehow long it will take to raise their next round, so debt has become an interesting supplement to that.

TC: Are you seeing an uptick in the number of older companies knocking on your door?

MW: We cant get all the deals coming to us [there are so many]. Of course, theres always the adverse selection question that goes hand-in-hand with that demand: Are you getting the call becausethings arent going well or are these companies that are trying to be more thoughtful and strategic and proactive about their fundraising?

TC: Can you name names or sectors?

MW: Its just a giant pool of companies. If you think of the 30 most important companies over the last 15 years, we visited with more than 20 percent of them. Its a core part of the way that companies think about optionality.

TC: What do you make of this SoundCloud deal?

MW: The lenders in that [deal] arecounting on SoundClouds enterprise value being enough to cover its debt [as collateral].That wouldnt be a bet that Id necessarily be as comfortable with. Things can go wrong and collateral can be worth less than you think. When things fail, they fail badly. Companiesjust go out of business.They can definitely go to zero in this industry. Ive never met withSoundCloud and Im not saying anything about thecompany specifically, butthe idea of being the last-resort stop is dangerous.

TC:Yourindustry is known for taking money back when it gets nervous. Do you think founders fully understand how covenants work?

MW: We dont take covenants, actually. Other approaches [from other debt lenders] are to take more risk but to be able to get their cash back if they are nervous. So they monitor companies performance and if theyre nervous, they can either force VCs to put in more money or get their money back. Its a little likethe insurance policy that doesnt work when youre in anaccident.

[Silicon Valley Bank]s debt is very inexpensive, for example, but it comes with covenants. Were on the more expensive side, but its more like equity.Were pretty open about the fact that wevelost money more than 100 times, and by the way, we always see the trouble coming.

TC: Is more trouble coming now, broadly speaking?

MW: Everyone needs to grow into their valuations, and thats not easy to do if you raised in 2015, which was the high-water mark in a lot of rounds. So Id say instead that a lot of insiders are looking at debt as complementary, to make each roundlast longer. You can only do so many inside rounds before insiders get tired.

TC: So it does sound like youre seeing more older startups.

MW: Were having the most active quarter in our 37 year history period.Is there an uptick in older companies? Yes, but they feel like healthy companies that are nearing profitability [and theyre coming to us for a variety of reasons]. Their investors might be tired. They might not like the valuation theyd get if they were to head out right now. They might want to wait on a strategic [investor or acquirer] to get a better price. They might be wanting to make an acquisition and to use venture debt for that.

They might also be looking to refinance other venture debt. In some cases, lenders wont renegotiate, so companies are looking for other ways to [stretch out their funding]. Its not unlike refinancing your home to get a lower payment.

TC: How can founders be sure theyre striking the best deal when it comes to venture debt?

MW: Different lenders take different approaches, some with hidden covenants and clauses, but Id say its their law firms job to advise them. Theyve seen every lender 50 times so should be able to advise on what these different deals mean.

TC: How big is this market right now?

MW: There are around18 venture debt players; its avery robust market. We represent about 10 percent of the venture market, if you were to market size it. So if you read that startups raised $20 billion last year, then that probably includes about $2 billion of venture debt.

Read more: http://ift.tt/2nfWj9I

 The post Yep, more later-stage companies are taking on venture debt appeared first on MavWrek Marketing by Jason

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