#unless drawn means drafted and drafted is not published

[fideidefenswhore]

Chapuys was full of news. The Emperor was stirring and the Pontiff was about the act. Her mother's case was settled; the validity of her marriage rite proclaimed. Once more, and for the last time, Henry would be summoned to dismiss his 'concubine'. An interdict was drawn. A holy war would be proclaimed, and every prince in Christendom would be required to execute this judgment of the Church. The Scots were arming in her cause, and James, her cousin, was proposing for her hand. Desmond was marching at the head of twenty thousand men. What wonder that the girl at Hatfield Lodge refused to hear the Queen?

History of Two Queens, William Hepworth Dixon

[torturingpeople]

WIP 001: Hilbert's Grand Hotel

Synopsis:

Being a doctor is a hard but rewarding job. And there was nothing more important to this young, recently-qualified doctor than his beloved Hippocratic Oath. It detailed all of his beliefs in his profession as a pathologist perfectly; first, do no harm, I must not play at God, I will not be ashamed to say “I know not” and so on and so forth.

But this was all upended when he landed himself in a paradoxical hotel, be it by circumstance or fate, hiding in his room with no home to call his own. As the halls and doors shifted around him, payment of his hotel bills eluded him (or rather, he evaded them) for three full months. Keeping to his room, reticent, he tended to avoid the prowling Staff Members; he knew all too well of their desperation to pounce on the opportunity laying right in front of them to send him to a fate worse than death. Once he was inevitably discovered, they leapt, and he was stripped of all his possessions. His room was wiped clean, as if he had never set a foot in it.

He would have very well died, there was no doubt, unless fate hadn't smiled upon him, in its own strange, reprobate way. 

Descending from upon high comes Dr. Roland Hanna, the Lead Doctor at Hilbert’s Grand Hotel, to save him. Impossibly charismatic, spoiled with power, cruel and unusual, the maddened tyrant wastes no time in making him an offer he can’t refuse. Quite literally, lest he fall back into the hands of the Staff - so he falls forward into the hands of evil. Even if the doors of Heaven close on him at Judgement Day, if he wants to keep his life now, he has no choice; his arm is twisted; he has to say ‘yes’.

Tag to navigate all of my posts about HGH

(Character summaries and some more notes under the cut ^_^)

The Main Character (a.k.a. "The Pathologist" or "MC")

The main character, unnamed through the entire book, hails back to some of the most classic whump-y protagonists of the 20th century, much like Nick Carraway from The Great Gatsby or Winston Smith from 1984. He takes barely any action and merely lets tragedy happen to him until he needs to act, and following his gut never ends well. He is hopelessly attracted to the codependent and horribly toxic relationship he has with his boss, Roland Hanna, but refuses adamantly to acknowledge it despite it bleeding through the plot constantly. He is perfectly inept in everything he does and perfectly insecure for Dr. Hanna to manipulate. All-in-all, he is the ideal victim of a main character -- he writes the book himself in first-person and you are privy to his inner monologue and descent into madness through the book.

The Lead Doctor, Roland Hanna (a.k.a. "Dr. Hanna" or "Roland")

Roland is very much the epitome of a Machiavellian villain. The ends will, without a doubt, justify whatever means he needs to use to get them, and he will see nothing standing in his way to get what he wants. He is a master of manipulation and a manager of both his own and others' human emotions; there is never a moment where you can guess if he is sincere or not. (He most likely isn't.) He also has some pervasive sort of attraction to the main character but is never truly explicit about it, always being hidden under some subterfuge to pull the main character closer into his grasp. Standing at seven feet, frighteningly saccharine, it's impossible not to be drawn into his charm and euphemistic language, and just as impossible to pull yourself out of it.

Other Notes

i felt like it was about high time to post about my wip! considering the first draft is nearly done! it's a little crazy to think about LOL. originally this was based on hilbert's paradox of the grand hotel after thinking about what the hotel would be like if it were real... and it erupted into this massive thing thanks to my english teachers encouraging me to write it haha. it's become my magnum opus right now and i'm so close to finishing my first draft, and i'm hoping to take it to a publisher once i have a few more drafts done! (i hope posting about it here doesn't cause me any problems with trad publishing down the line ^_^;;)

[duckprintspress]

Giving Quality, Motivating Feedback

A guest post by @shealynn88!

The new writer in your writing group just sent out their latest story and it’s...not exciting. You know it needs work, but you’re not sure why, or where they should focus.

This is the blog post for you!

Before we get started, it’s important to note that this post isn’t aimed at people doing paid editing work. In the professional world, there are developmental editors, line editors, and copy editors, who all have a different focus. That is not what we’re covering here. Today, we want to help you informally give quality, detailed, encouraging feedback to your fellow writers.

The Unwritten Rules

Everyone seems to have a different understanding of what it means to beta, edit, or give feedback on a piece, so it’s best to be on the same page with your writer before you get started.

Think about what type of work you’re willing and able to do, how much time you have, and how much emotional labor you’re willing to take on. Then talk to your writer about their expectations.

Responsibilities as an editor/beta may include:

Know what the author’s expectation is and don’t overstep. Different people in different stages of writing are looking for, and will need, different types of support. It’s important to know what pieces of the story they want feedback on. If they tell you they don’t want feedback on dialogue, don’t give them feedback on dialogue. Since many terms are ambiguous or misunderstood, it may help you to use the list of story components in the next section to come to an agreement with your writer on what you’ll review.

Don’t offer expertise you don’t have. If your friend needs advice on their horse book and you know nothing about horses, be clear that your read through will not include any horse fact checking. Don’t offer grammar advice if you’re not good at grammar. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give feedback on things you do notice, but don’t misrepresent yourself, and understand your own limits.

Give positive and constructive feedback. It is important for a writer to know when something is working well. Don’t skimp on specific positive feedback — this is how you keep writers motivated. On the other hand, giving constructive feedback indicates where there are issues. Be specific on what you’re seeing and why it’s an issue. It can be hard for someone to improve if they don’t understand what’s wrong.

Be clear about your timing and availability, and provide updates if either changes. Typically, you’ll be doing this for free, as you’re able to fit it in your schedule. But it can be nerve wracking to hand your writing over for feedback and then hear nothing. For everyone’s sanity, keep the writer up to date on your expected timeline and let them know if you’re delayed for some reason. If you cannot complete the project for them, let them know. This could be for any reason — needing to withdraw, whatever the cause, is valid! It could be because working with the writer is tough, you don’t enjoy the story, life got tough, you got tired, etc. All of that is fine; just let them know that you won’t be able to continue working on the project.

Be honest if there are story aspects you can’t be objective about. Nearly all of your feedback is going to be personal opinion. There are some story elements that will evoke strong personal feelings. They can be tropes, styles, specific characterizations, or squicks. In these cases, ask the writer to get another opinion on that particular aspect, or, if you really want to continue, find similar published content to review and see if you can get a better sense of how other writers have handled it.

Don’t get personal. Your feedback should talk about the characters, the narrator, the plotline, the sentence structure, or other aspects of the story. Avoid making ‘you’ statements or judgements, suggested or explicit, in your feedback. Unless you’re looking at grammar or spelling, most of the feedback you’ll have will be your opinion. Don’t present it as fact.

Your expectations of the writer/friend/group member you are working with may include:

Being gracious in accepting feedback. A writer may provide explanations for an issue you noticed or seek to discuss your suggestions. However, if they constantly argue with you, that may be an indicator to step back.

Being responsible for emotional reactions to getting feedback. While getting feedback can be hard on the ego and self esteem, that is something the writer needs to work on themselves. While you can provide reassurance and do emotional labor if you’re comfortable, it is also very reasonable to step back if the writer isn’t ready to do that work.

Making the final choice regarding changes to the work. The writer should have a degree of confidence in accepting or rejecting your feedback based on their own sense of the story. While they may consult you on this, the onus is on them to make changes that preserve the core of the story they want to tell.

Some people aren’t ready for feedback, even though they’re seeking it. You’re not signing up to be a psychologist, a best friend, or an emotional support editor. You can let people know in advance that these are your expectations, or you can just keep them in mind for your own mental health. As stated above, you can always step back from a project, and if writers aren’t able to follow these few guidelines, it might be a good time to do that. (It’s also worth making sure that, as a writer, you’re able to give these things to your beta/editor.)

Specificity is Key

One of the hardest things in editing is pinning down the ‘whys’ of unexciting work, so let’s split the writing into several components and talk about evaluations you can make for each one.

You can also give this list to your writer ahead of time as a checklist, to see which things they want your feedback on.

Generally, your goal is going to be to help people improve incrementally. Each story they write should be better than the previous one, so you don’t need to go through every component for every story you edit. Generally, I wouldn’t suggest more than 3 editing rounds on any single story that isn’t intended for publication. Think of the ‘many pots’ theory — people who are honing their craft will improve more quickly by writing a lot of stories instead of incessantly polishing one.

With this in mind, try addressing issues in the order below, from general to precise. It doesn’t make sense to critique grammar and sentence structure if the plot isn’t solid, and it can be very hard on a writer to get feedback on all these components at once. If a piece is an early or rough draft, try evaluating no more than four components at a time, and give specific feedback on what does and doesn’t work, and why.

High Level Components

Character arc/motivation:

Does each character have a unique voice, or do they all sound the same?

In dialogue, are character voices preserved? Do they make vocabulary and sentence-structure choices that fit with how they’re being portrayed?

Does each character have specific motivations and focuses that are theirs alone?

Does each character move through the plot naturally, or do they seem to be shoehorned/railroaded into situations or decisions for the sake of the plot? Be specific about which character actions work and which don’t. Tell the writer what you see as their motivation/arc and why—and point out specific lines that indicate that motivation to you.

Does each character's motivation seem to come naturally from your knowledge of them?

Are you invested (either positively or negatively) in the characters? If not, why not? Is it that they have nothing in common with you? Do you not understand where they’re coming from? Are they too perfect or too unsympathetic?

Theme:

It’s a good idea to summarize the story and its moral from your point of view and provide that insight to the writer. This can help them understand if the points they were trying to make come through. The theme should tie in closely with the character arcs. If not, provide detailed feedback on where it does and doesn’t tie in.

Plot Structure:

For most issues with plot structure, you can narrow them down to pacing, characterization, logical progression, or unsatisfying resolution. Be specific about the issues you see and, when things are working well, point that out, too.

Is there conflict that interests you? Does it feel real?

Is there a climax? Do you feel drawn into it?

Do the plot points feel like logical steps within the story?

Is the resolution tied to the characters and their growth? Typically this will feel more real and relevant and satisfying than something you could never have seen coming.

Is the end satisfying? If not, is it because you felt the end sooner and the story kept going? Is it because too many threads were left unresolved? Is it just a matter of that last sentence or two being lackluster?

Point Of View:

Is the point of view clear and consistent?

Is the writing style and structure consistent with that point of view? For example, if a writer is working in first person or close third person, the style of the writing should reflect the way the character thinks. This extends to grammar, sentence structure, general vocabulary and profanity outside of the dialogue.

If there is head hopping (where the point of view changes from chapter to chapter or section to section), is it clear in the first few sentences whose point of view you’re now in? Chapter headers can be helpful, but it should be clear using structural, emotional, and stylistic changes that you’re with a new character now.

Are all five senses engaged? Does the character in question interact with their environment in realistic, consistent ways that reflect how people actually interact with the world?

Sometimes the point of view can feel odd if it’s too consistent. Humans don’t typically think logically and linearly all the time, so being in someone’s head may sometimes be contradictory or illogical. If it’s too straightforward, it might not ‘feel’ real.

Be specific about the areas that don’t work and break them down based on the questions above.

Pacing:

Does the story jump around, leaving you confused about what took place when?

Do some scenes move quickly where others drag, and does that make sense within the story?

If pacing isn’t working, often it’s about the level of detail or the sentence structure. Provide detailed feedback about what you care about in a given scene to help a writer focus in.

Setting:

Is the setting clear and specific? Writing with specific place details is typically more rooted, interesting, and unique. If you find the setting vague and/or uninteresting and/or irrelevant, you might suggest replacing vague references — ‘favorite band’, ‘coffee shop on the corner’, ‘the office building’ — with specific names to ground the setting and make it feel more real.

It might also be a lack of specific detail in a scene that provides context beyond the characters themselves. Provide specific suggestions of what you feel like you’re missing. Is it in a specific scene, or throughout the story? Are there scenes that work well within the story, where others feel less grounded? Why?

Low Level Components

Flow/Sentence Structure:

Sentence length and paragraph length should vary. The flow should feel natural.

When finding yourself ‘sticking’ on certain sentences, provide specific feedback on why they aren’t working. Examples are rhythm, vocabulary, subject matter (maybe something is off topic), ‘action’ vs ‘explanation’, passive vs. active voice.

Style/Vocabulary:

Writing style should be consistent with the story — flowery prose works well for mythic or historical pieces and stories that use that type of language are typically slower moving. Quick action and short sentences are a better fit for murder mysteries, suspense, or modern, lighter fiction.

Style should be consistent within the story — it may vary slightly to show how quickly action is happening, but you shouldn’t feel like you’re reading two different stories.

SPAG (Spelling and Grammar):

Consider spelling and grammar in the context of the point of view, style and location of the story (eg, England vs. America vs. Australia).

If a point of view typically uses incorrect grammar, a SPAG check will include making sure that it doesn’t suddenly fall into perfect grammar for a while. In this case, consistency is going to be important to the story feeling authentic.

Word Count Requirements:

If the story has been written for a project, bang, anthology, zine, or other format that involves a required word count minimum or maximum, and the story is significantly over or under the aimed-for word count (30% or more/less), it may not make sense to go through larger edits until the sizing is closer to requirements. But, as a general rule, I’d say word count is one of the last things to worry about.

*

The best thing we can do for another writer is to keep them writing. Every single person will improve if they keep going. Encouragement is the most important feedback of all.

I hope this has helped you think about how you provide feedback. Let us know if you have other tips or tricks! This works best as a collaborative process where we all can support one another!

[mkstrigidae]

Current WIPs and Fic Concepts

I promised I would do this yesterday, and then I forgot!!! (I was very sleep deprived). Anyways, here are a bunch of the WIP premises that I have in my 'unfinished drafts' folder. Most have at least a few pages written for them, but I love them all! ☺️💕

- A Santa Clarita Diet AU (Jonsa) Takes place in sunny southern California, where a shitty dinner at a mediocre restaurant turns into a huge problem for Jon and Sansa when Sansa's heart stops beating. Although she seems fine, Jon is flabbergasted several days later as he watches his wife- who alphabetizes their pantry and refuses to let anyone wear shoes in the house- rip the throat out of one of the sleazy new partners at their law firm, eating half of him before anyone processes what's going on. Hilarity ensues as Sansa's inhibitions and filter disappear, Arya ropes an extremely confused Gendry into helping figure out what the hell is going on just because he moderates the zombie forum on reddit, and Jon tries to deal with the fact that the woman he loves more than anything is now a humanitarian. He really could use a drink. (This one is actually mostly complete, but i need to refine a few things- i really love it. It's as gory and irreverent as the show, so viewer discretion advised, but it's a BLAST to write).

- A Thor/MCU AU (Jonsa, Steve Rogers/Sansa)- Asgardian prince Aegon is banished to Midgard after one too many arrogant decisions, and is promptly hit by a van containing Dr. Sansa Stark, Dr. Barristan Selmy, and Margaery Tyrell- two astrophysicists studying wormholes and Sansa's best friend and pseudo-intern. Marg yells at him, he yells back, Sansa tases him, and Barristan didn't sign up for the kind of heavy lifting that getting a 200+ pound slab of muscle into the back of a van takes. And then Aegon's younger brother, Jon, shows up, in the middle of an identity crisis because, apparently, he's adopted. He wasn't intending to stay, but he's rather drawn to Dr. Stark and her brilliance, and against her better judgement, she starts to trust him, and maybe even like him. This story is in about three parts so far- the first is based on 'Thor' and the second on 'The Avengers' and are fully Jonsa, and the third started as a family bonding story between the Stark kids and Tony (Ned and Tony are second cousins, and Ned was really supportive of Tony in rehab without expecting anything in return), and accidentally turned into a Steve Rogers/Sansa Stark story, which is a pairing i am HERE for. A lot of this one is written, but it needs some fill in before publishing, although it's one of my favorites that i've written to go back and actually read.

- A Star Wars AU (Jonsa) where Sansa and Arya are Alderaanian princesses who are off planet when Alderaan is destroyed- Sansa as a senator and Arya as a pilot, both working for the rebellion, and jon is a smuggler who does not know how all of these people got on his ship and why two princesses are sassing him. His copilot, Tormund (yes he's a wookie), thinks it is hilarious. I started this one just the other day, and it's already thirty pages long, most of them involving Sansa and Arya sassing people. Dany is a leader in the rebellion, Roose Bolton is the emperor, and Barbrey Dustin is a disgruntled former jedi trying to live in peace on a remote planet until another Stark crashes into her life and harangues her into teaching again.

- A witches/magic AU (Jonsa) where the Starks run an apothecary and spellcasting supplies shop. Jon had been completely in the dark about magic before his mother confessed to being born into a family of witches. He finds himself traveling to her hometown, trying to understand her world more clearly, and what it means for him. On the way, he develops something of a crush on the red-headed shop clerk who brews the best headache potions in town. Featuring lots of magical shenanigans, this is one of my favorites in the folder :)

- A 24 hour diner AU (Jonsa) where Jon is a local mob boss, and Sansa works the late shift at Seaworth's diner to buy textbooks for the PhD she's working on in botany. Sansa's running from memories, and Jon has a soft spot for the red-headed waitress who always remembers how he likes his coffee.

- An East of the Sun, West of the Moon AU!!! (Jonsa) This is one of my fav fairy tales, and of course i couldn't resist Jon as a direwolf striking a deal with the starks!

- A Roomates AU (Jonsa)- Arya, Jon, Tormund, and Sam have been renting the same house together off Winterfell's campus for years- but when Sam moves in with his girlfriend, they need one more person on the lease. Sansa, about to relocate to Winterfell for grad school, finds out that her boyfriend has been cheating on her and that her housing plans have fallen through, all on the same day. Needless to say, she's a bit upset when she calls Arya to relay the news. There's a simple solution here, if Arya and Tormund can stop teasing Jon about his crush for five minutes. (any excuse to write tormund and arya roasting jon, tbh).

- A Fae AU (Jonsa)- When Sansa, a baker living in the city, washes her face in an enchanted spring on a camping trip, she gains the sight as a result. Suddenly able to see the fae underworld all around her is disorienting and terrifying. Sansa tries to conceal it- afraid of what might happen if the fae around her know that she can see them- but slips up, and catches the attention of Jon Snow- one of the lords of the unseelie court.

- A nuclear winter wasteland AU (Jonsa)- (?? I don't even know how to describe this premise, haha) where the Starks are living and running the Free Winterfell settlement in Siberia after a worldwide nuclear meltdown. Before the fallout, Sansa was one of the world's preeminent researchers in plant genetics and pathology, and works at the settlement to create newer, disease and radiation resistant crops to distribute for free to other settlements, aiming to break up the monopoly that Lannister Corp has on the market. Jon is a scavenger, searching throughout Siberia for his sister Rhae who disappeared several years previously. When he runs across Arya Starkovna, helping her fight off another band of radiation ravaged scavengers is just instinct- he doesn't think twice about it. In thanks, she brings him to the Winterfell settlement, where her brother Robb offers Jon sanctuary and resources, in exchange for serving as a bodyguard for Sansa when she travels to other settlements. Sansa is not particularly thrilled by this arrangement, but given that multiple parties seem to want her dead, she doesn't have much of a choice but to accept his company.

- A reincarnation AU (Jonsa)- of sorts. Robb is an archaeologist who finds a strange set of runes at a site up north, and immediately calls in Jon Snow- a historian and expert in said ancient language, as well as an old university friend of Robb's. When he arrives though, Robb shows him their most valuable finds- two mysterious ice blocks, with what appear to be perfectly preserved bodies from over a thousand years ago. No one could ever have imagined that either of them were still alive, but when the ice melts, revealing two very alive girls, the entire crew is instantly buried in NDAs, and given an assignment from the Westerosi government to figure out what the hell was going on. Sansa and Arya wake up, extremely confused about the world they live in, trying to adapt and mourning all that they've lost, even as the people around them wear familiar faces.

- Soulmates AU (Jonsa)- (Yes, another one, I love this dumb trope) Trauma surgeon and medical resident Sansa Stark is having a very bad day, and ends up meeting her soulmate during what she thinks is a mugging gone wrong. Fortunately, he’s not the one mugging her, just an intervening bystander, but she ends up slightly shot nonetheless. Sansa’s fretting about bleeding on the upholstery in his car, but Jon is a bit more worried about her injuries than the blood stains. He’s a bit confused when she threatens him if he takes her to a specific hospital, nearly has a nervous breakdown when she insists on doing her own triage, and is very charmed when she insists on ice cream after taking pain meds at the hospital. On Sansa’s part, she’s a little less concerned about being shot, and a bit more concerned about whatever weird first impression she’s making to her soulmate while high as a kite on pain pills. (this one just needs some tweaking to be postable- I'm not sure if it's going to be a oneshot or a series, but i love what I have already)

- A Demon/Archivist AU (Jonsa)- where Sansa works in the university's historical archives in Oldtown, and is learning to restore old texts with her fellow student and friend, Alleras (Trans Sarella is an amazing concept). When Joffrey Baratheon shows up with a pile of old books from his family's library to donate, Sansa is eager to get away from his sleaze, and accidentally takes one of the books home with her in her rush to leave. Unbeknownst to her, it's more than it appears, and when she leaves it open overnight, she accidentally summons forth Jon- an ancient, powerful, and extremely annoyed demon who is under a curse, and now hers to command. As Jon and Sansa try to get used to this new normal, the Lannisters (unaware that Joffrey had donated the tome) try desperately to find the book and it's owner, wanting Jon's power for themselves, and putting Sansa in considerable danger unless she can figure out how to break Jon's curse. Fortunately, she's a pretty good researcher, even if Jon is initially a bit of a grump. (This is based on a total wish-fulfillment mary-sue type premise for something I wrote when I was thirteen, and I revisited it and wanted to see what it would look like if i took it very seriously, and i am really enjoying it so far. It's a love letter to the terrible, heartfelt writing i was doing in middle school that created the foundations for my writing today, and so much fun).

The one that I am MOST excited about though:

- A Pacific Rim AU!!!! (Ned/Cat, Gendrya, Braime, Sansa/Jon Umber)-Twins Sansa and Robb Stark have always been completely in tune with each other, and when your parents are Jaeger pilots and your mother invented the neural handshake, what option is there but the Jaeger academy? Sansa studies to be an engineer, but ends up copiloting the Jaeger 'Winter Wolf' with her twin brother, after they lose Ned Stark to cancer. When Robb is ripped out of the conn-pod and killed by a kaiju while he's still connected to Sansa, she barely manages to kill the creature before stumbling back to shore, traumatized, grieving, and swearing that she'll never pilot again.

Unfortunately, the Kaiju don't stop just because Sansa does, and when the end of the world is imminent, Marshall Catelyn Stark orders both her daughter and former pilot Jaime Lannister (who lost his twin and copilot, Cersei, several years previously) back to Hong Kong for one final stand. Forced to face both her demons and an irate Arya, furious that Sansa had abandoned the rest of them after Robb's death, Sansa and Arya have to figure out how to pilot Winter Wolf together before the apocalypse comes for them all.

Featuring Marshall Catelyn Stark (commander of the Hong Kong Shatterdome, inventor of the neural handshake, former Jaeger pilot, and BAMF), Sansa x Jon Umber (Yes i know it's a rare pair but i've always kind of loved the idea of them, even though we know so little about him), Kaiju parts dealer and smuggler Petyr Baelish, bickering kaiju biologist Dany and theoretical mathematician Jon Snow, LOCCENT officer Theon, lots of snark, lots of angst and heartfelt conversations, and a weird friendship between snarky-grieving-asshole Jaime Lannister and kind-quiet-grieving Sansa Stark, who are the only two people in the world who know what it's like to lose a copilot and a twin in the drift.

Thanks for reading guys!! There are more, but some of them I just don't know how to explain quite yet, haha. I'd love to hear what you guys think about these!

[ingek73]

Buckingham Palace banned ethnic minorities from office roles, papers reveal

Exclusive: Documents also shed light on Queen’s ongoing exemption from race and sex discrimination laws

by David Pegg and Rob Evans

Published: 15:00 Wednesday, 02 June 2021

The Queen’s courtiers banned “coloured immigrants or foreigners” from serving in clerical roles in the royal household until at least the late 1960s, according to newly discovered documents that will reignite the debate over the British royal family and race.

The documents also shed light on how Buckingham Palace negotiated controversial clauses – that remain in place to this day – exempting the Queen and her household from laws that prevent race and sex discrimination.

The papers were discovered at the National Archives as part of the Guardian’s ongoing investigation into the royal family’s use of an arcane parliamentary procedure, known as Queen’s consent, to secretly influence the content of British laws.

They reveal how in 1968, the Queen’s chief financial manager informed civil servants that “it was not, in fact, the practice to appoint coloured immigrants or foreigners” to clerical roles in the royal household, although they were permitted to work as domestic servants.

It is unclear when the practice ended. Buckingham Palace refused to answer questions about the ban and when it was revoked. It said its records showed people from ethnic minority backgrounds being employed in the 1990s. It added that before that decade, it did not keep records on the racial backgrounds of employees.

Exemptions from the law

In the 1960s government ministers sought to introduce laws that would make it illegal to refuse to employ an individual on the grounds of their race or ethnicity.

The Queen has remained personally exempted from those equality laws for more than four decades. The exemption has made it impossible for women or people from ethnic minorities working for her household to complain to the courts if they believe they have been discriminated against.

In a statement, Buckingham Palace did not dispute that the Queen had been exempted from the laws, adding that it had a separate process for hearing complaints related to discrimination. The palace did not respond when asked what this process consists of.

The exemption from the law was brought into force in the 1970s, when politicians implemented a series of racial and sexual equality laws to eradicate discrimination.

More than 50,000 people call for inquiry into use of Queen's consent

The official documents reveal how government officials in the 1970s coordinated with Elizabeth Windsor’s advisers on the wording of the laws.

The documents are likely to refocus attention on the royal family’s historical and current relationship with race.

Much of the family’s history is inextricably linked with the British empire, which subjugated people around the world. Some members of the royal family have also been criticised for their racist comments.

In March the Duchess of Sussex, the family’s first mixed-race member, said she had had suicidal thoughts during her time in the royal family, and alleged that a member of the family had expressed concern about her child’s skin colour.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex in a horse-drawn carriage after attending the Queen’s Birthday Parade in 2018.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex after attending the Queen’s birthday parade in 2018. Photograph: Niklas Halle’n/AFP/Getty Images

The allegation compelled her brother-in-law, Prince William, to declare that the royal family was “very much not” racist.

Queen’s consent

Some of the documents uncovered by the Guardian relate to the use of Queen’s consent, an obscure parliamentary mechanism through which the monarch grants parliament permission to debate laws that affect her and her private interests.

Buckingham Palace says the process is a mere formality, despite compelling evidence that the Queen has repeatedly used the power to secretly lobby ministers to amend legislation she does not like.

The newly discovered documents reveal how the Queen’s consent procedure was used to secretly influence the formation of the draft race relations legislation.

In 1968, the then home secretary, James Callaghan, and civil servants at the Home Office appear to have believed that they should not request Queen’s consent for parliament to debate the race relations bill until her advisers were satisfied it could not be enforced against her in the courts.

At the time, Callaghan wanted to expand the UK’s racial discrimination laws, which only prohibited discrimination in public places, so that they also prevented racism in employment or services such as housing.

James Callaghan pictured with the Queen in 1977, welcoming the then French president, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, to Windsor Castle.

James Callaghan pictured with the Queen in 1977, welcoming the then French president, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, to Windsor Castle. Photograph: PA

A key proposal of the bill was the Race Relations Board, which would act as an ombudsman for discrimination complaints and could bring court proceedings against individuals or companies that maintained racist practices.

‘Not the practice to appoint coloured immigrants’

In February 1968, a Home Office civil servant, TG Weiler, summarised the progress of discussions with Lord Tryon, the keeper of the privy purse, who was responsible for managing the Queen’s private finances, and other courtiers.

Tryon, he wrote, had informed them Buckingham Palace was prepared to comply with the proposed law, but only if it enjoyed similar exemptions to those provided to the diplomatic service, which could reject job applicants who had been resident in the UK for less than five years.

According to Weiler, Tryon considered staff in the Queen’s household to fall into one of three types of roles: “(a) senior posts, which were not filled by advertising or by any overt system of appointment and which would presumably be accepted as outside the scope of the bill; (b) clerical and other office posts, to which it was not, in fact, the practice to appoint coloured immigrants or foreigners; and (c) ordinary domestic posts for which coloured applicants were freely considered, but which would in any event be covered by the proposed general exemption for domestic employment.”

“They were particularly concerned,” Weiler wrote, “that if the proposed legislation applied to the Queen’s household it would for the first time make it legally possible to criticise the household. Many people do so already, but this has to be accepted and is on a different footing from a statutory provision.”

By March, Buckingham Palace was satisfied with the proposed law. A Home Office official noted that the courtiers “agreed that the way was now open for the secretary of state to seek the Queen’s consent to place her interest at the disposal of parliament for the purpose of the bill.”

The phrasing of the documents is highly significant, because it suggests that Callaghan and the Home Office officials believed it might not be possible to obtain the Queen’s consent for parliament to debate the racial equality law unless the monarch was assured of her exemption.

As a result of this exemption, the Race Relations Board that was given the task of investigating racial discrimination would send any complaints from the Queen’s staff to the home secretary rather than the courts.

In the 1970s, the government brought in three laws to counter racial and sexual discrimination in the workplace. Complainants in general were empowered to take their cases directly to the courts.

But staff in the royal household were specifically prevented from doing so, although the wording of the ban was sufficiently vague that the public might not have realised the monarch’s staff had been exempted.

A civil servant noted that the exemption in the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act had been “acceptable to the palace, largely because it did not explicitly single out persons employed by Her Majesty in her personal capacity for special exception” while still removing them from its scope.

The exemption was extended to the present day when in 2010 the Equality Act replaced the 1976 Race Relations Act, the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act and the 1970 Equal Pay Act. For many years, critics have regularly pointed out that the royal household employed few black, Asian or minority-ethnic people.

In 1990 the journalist Andrew Morton reported in the Sunday Times that “a black face has never graced the executive echelons of royal service – the household and officials” and “even among clerical and domestic staff, there is only a handful of recruits from ethnic minorities”.

The following year, the royal researcher Philip Hall published a book, Royal Fortune, in which he cited a source close to the Queen confirming that there were no non-white courtiers in the palace’s most senior ranks.

In 1997 the Palace admitted to the Independent that it was not carrying out an officially recommended policy of monitoring staff numbers to ensure equal opportunities.

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: “The royal household and the sovereign comply with the provisions of the Equality Act, in principle and in practice. This is reflected in the diversity, inclusion and dignity at work policies, procedures and practices within the royal household.

“Any complaints that might be raised under the act follow a formal process that provides a means of hearing and remedying any complaint.” The palace did not respond when asked if the monarch was subject to this act in law.

[makeste]

Bnha is a little too irregular for me right now (covid is the worst :( ), so I started reading One Piece and it's like, soooo long. Got me thinking, how long do you think Bnha will be? Personally I think we're just before time skip and it will take, like 300-400 chapters to end? So manga would be 600-700 chapters long. I could be wrong of course. Thoughts?

One Piece is fucking awesome, and the beauty of it is that is is 12 million chapters long so it will take approximately 182 years to finish reading, and you are almost guaranteed to be entertained for the vast majority of that time lol. I actually took a break from it a little ways into the Wano arc (sometime in the middle of what would later become volume 92) because it was getting harder for me to keep up with the plot week by week, especially since I was really into BnHA fandom by that time. my plan was to binge it once Wano ends. however when I was looking at the list of chapters on Wikipedia just now I saw that Oda is only 11 chapters away from breaking the 1k mark, which is pretty awesome. so I might try to catch up in the next month or two in celebration of that milestone, because damn.

with BnHA though, my own guess for how long the series will be is actually a lot shorter than most estimates I’ve seen. first of all, full disclosure that I am definitely biased regarding the timeskip part, because I personally am not the biggest fan of BnHA timeskip theories, unless they’re really short timeskips like the 3-month one we got recently. the thing is, this is explicitly a manga about their time at UA. it’s in the title and everything lol. and I like that. I like reading about them as kids, little hero eggs gradually growing into little hero chicks who will eventually become big hero birbs, but not just yet. a lot of the story’s appeal for me comes from that. there’s a certain... I don’t necessarily want to say innocence, but idealism, maybe?, that’s associated with stories about young adults, and doesn’t always carry over into the stories about those same adults once they’ve grown up. and I want the story to keep that.

there are a lot of things about the current setting that I’m very attached to and don’t want to lose. I like that they’re kids, and that they’re full of potential but don’t always know what they’re doing, and they screw up and make mistakes and get in over their heads, and are dealing with all of their messy jumbled teenage emotions. I like that they’re living with each other in the fanfic dorms and seeing each other every day in their classes. I like that romance isn’t a big part of the series (though there’s still plenty of shipping fuel to go around). I like that we get to see them interacting with their parents and siblings and get to see those relationships. and most of all, I like that -- unlike almost every other young adult series I can think of -- BnHA acknowledges that they are just kids, and the adults by and large actually treat them as such. and yes, I’m even including the child soldiers arc here, because the decision to basically draft them into a war was handed down by the HPSC (an organization that likely has a history with child abuse from what we’ve seen). U.A. was against it, and tried their best to keep them away from the front lines, chilling out in the woods and helping with evacuations instead of fighting villains. contrast this with, say, a:tla, which I love, but which is very much one of those series filled with full-grown adults who are all “it’s up to this 12-year-old and his assorted 12-to-15-year-old friends to lead the battle to save the world lulz.” and this includes possibly the most beloved full-grown adult of all time, who nonetheless peaces out with an ironclad argument of “while it is true that the final villain is my actual brother, I’m still going to let the 12-year-old handle it because something something politics slash destiny.”

but anyways lol got sidetracked there. so steering this back on course now, I genuinely, truly love that in BnHA there are all these adults in the characters’ lives who are trying to keep them safe and nurture them and shield them from that extra burden of responsibility for as long as possible while they’re still learning. and so the kids have that extra safety net of support, which to me as a reader is just... comforting, I guess. like, I understand that it’s not going to last forever, but it’s reassuring to know that it exists for them for now. and I’m not in any hurry to say goodbye to that in favor of just tossing them out into tHE REAL WORLD!! lol. like omg no my babies.

anyway but so the point is that, with respect to everyone else’s theories, I personally don’t want a timeskip lol. and tbh I don’t really see the need for one either? if anything, we’re about to enter the most chaotic period in the entire manga once this arc ends. I’m assuming Tomura will survive this and escape somehow, the better to live and fight another day. and so if that’s the case, I feel like this would be the absolute weirdest time to do a timeskip, because how far ahead can we even jump lol. too far and we’d basically be coming back to an already-destroyed world lol whoops. basically I just don’t see how we can jump ahead more than a few months at the most, assuming that the threat of Tomura is going to be looming over everyone’s heads the entire time. plus we’d miss out on what I’m betting is going to be some of the most intense worldbuilding drama in the entire series, with our beloved characters potentially being swept up in like half a dozen political controversies. I sure don’t want to miss out on any of that. we didn’t wait so long to see this war play out only to skip out on the highly entertaining aftermath of it all.

anyway so that’s my as-usual-longer-than-necessary rant about timeskips. so now let’s talk about the series length. and here, I’m basically just basing my guess off of what Horikoshi has said in interviews. off the top of my head, there are three times he’s mentioned the ending of the series in interviews. first, there’s this interview, published in July 2018:

Interviewer: Previously in SUGOI JAPAN*, you mentioned that you would like Boku No Hero Academia to be a short and concise story and not drawn out, but what percentage of the story is complete at this point?

Horikoshi: When the decision to extend the series happened, I personally thought “I guess I want to end it here” and it was around Volume 30.

Interviewer: So then are you 2/3 done with the story?

Horikoshi: That’s what I had originally planned, but when I think of all the things that must be set up before getting into the last arc, I realized, “Ending the series at Volume 30 will be impossible” (laughs). However, the current arc that is going on all has purpose that will be relevant in the last arc.

*this is referencing a remark he made back at an awards ceremony back in March 2017.

second, we have this interview from August 2018, where he again mentions wanting to keep the story concise:

Do you know what the ending of My Hero Academia is? Do you think it'll be 80+ volumes like One Piece?

No, it won't be infinite – I don't have the stamina for it to be as long as One Piece. I'd like to keep it concise.

and lastly,  this one which was published in December 2019:

What can you say about the future events of the manga?

I’m conscious of the end of the series, and writing towards that. I think the story will always be moving in big ways going forwards. My Hero Academia has a lot of characters, a lot of characters doing different things with different motivations, and the story is heading towards a conclusion where all of that comes together and heads towards the end.

my takeaways from these interviews are that (1) he originally planned for the story to be about 300 chapters long, (2) he’s had a clear idea of his overall endgame for a while now and has been steadily working towards that (as he put it in another interview, he knows all of the dots, but is still figuring out the lines to connect them all), and (3) he specifically said a couple years back that he did not want to write a long One Piece-length series, and his goal was to write a more concise story than that. Horikoshi’s pacing has always been much faster than Oda’s (or Kishimoto’s, or Kubo’s, etc.), and so I think it’s a realistic goal for him to wind up with a significantly shorter story in comparison.

my best guess is that BnHA won’t be much longer than 400 chapters, or a little over 40 volumes. he said back around chapter 180-something that he was nowhere close to being two-thirds of the way done. but it’s been two years since then, and if we haven’t reached at least the two-thirds mark by this point, I would honestly be very surprised. it would mean we’ve barely made any progress at all, and I don’t know about you, but the past few arcs have felt very purpose-driven to me. I think he has a pretty good idea of where he’s heading at this point, and that to me supports the idea of a shorter story than a lot of people have speculated. mind you, he might end up doing a sequel or something afterwards (although I kind of cringe thinking about all the ways we’ve seen that kind of thing go wrong in the past, ngl).

but as far as the series proper, yeah, I’d say 400 chapters is my best guess. ultimately I just hope he’s able to tell the story he wants to tell and gets as much time as he needs to do so, without feeling any pressure to then drag it on past that. knowing when to end your series is so underrated honestly. I have my fingers crossed that it’s a skill Horikoshi hopefully possesses.

[allie1804-fan]

A Doorway is Opened (Chapter 1)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Some time in the Autumn of 2019

 “Hey Hannah, great to see you”

 “You too”

 “Are you OK? You look like you’ve seen a ghost!”

 “Just nervous I guess” Hannah laughed “Silly really after the book tour and interview, you’d think I’d have gotten used to it!”

 “Well this is Keanu Reeves we’re talking about – he’s enough to make even an old pro like me catch my breath! Come on” said Ella, “let’s get this meeting started”

 Ella was Hannah Johnson’s publisher and Hannah had written a book for which Keanu Reeves’ production company, Company Films, was interested in buying the rights. The book chronicled a couple’s journey to having a family through infertility to having their first son followed by three miscarriages before a second son finally arrived. They were due to meet with the actor himself and his partner Stephen Hamel that morning to talk more about a possible deal.

As it turned out, there was no need for nerves. The minute Keanu arrived and introduced himself, he put everyone at their ease. His focus on the work and his enthusiasm for it took the attention off him plus he seemed a little shy himself.

 The first thing he’d said on shaking Hannah’s hand was “Hi I’m Keanu,  I really loved your book, I can’t wait to talk to you about it!”

 “Thanks, it’s an honour to meet you. I’ve been a fan of yours for a long time”

 At this, a flush rose up, starting from Keanu’s neck and pretty soon turning his face quite a bright pink as he softly muttered his thanks.

 “First thing you learn about Keanu” Stephen joked, “The man cannot take a complement”

 They all laughed including Keanu who covered his mouth with his hand before looking down at his feet.

 “All right, shall we get this meeting started” he said.

 “Can we start with the origins of the story, how much if it is autobiographical? It’s so beautifully raw …..”

 Now it was Hannah’s turn to blush.

 “Thanks, well yes it is largely auto-biographical. I did research too and changed some of the details but it’s essentially my family’s story”

“Wow, I’m sorry you went through all that” Keanu said sincerely. “You did a great job with the pain but also the anger and err, the err”

 “The nasty side?”

 “Yeah I guess” he replied looking a tad embarrassed

 “infertility, baby-loss – it tends to bring out the less balanced side of one’s persoality” Hannah sighed. My husband often referred to it as the dark years!”

 “I can imagine” Keanu said softly and the room went quiet. Everyone knew what was on Keanu’s mind. Even 20 years on, everyone remembered the loss of his daughter to stillbirth.

 “Look don’t worry, I’m not offended” Hannah rushed to reassure him. “I wanted to show the full experience, the light and the dark.”

 The conversation thankfully turned to some of the lighter moments  - even infertility treatment can have some comedy in it after all.

 “I’d have loved to have played the husband but I think I’m too old now unless some of the details about the couple’s ages were altered. Do you have a view on that?”

 “Err well I’ve not really thought too much about it, it came as a surprise that anyone was interested in turning it into a film if I’m honest”

 Hannah could see out of the corner of her eye that Ella was rolling her eyes skyward at this since it didn’t exactly make it seem like the book rights were in demand! Keanu picked up on it and smiled catching Hannah’s eye who blushed and looked down at her hands before adding:

 “I guess the only impact could be on the sense of exclusion that comes from not being part of the club, you know. not having a child at all when everyone else does, not completing your family when everyone else has. That kind of relies on the friendship circle also being at that stage and driving that sense of exclusion. But there are many people who start later or where the husband is slightly older so I don’t see necessarily why it couldn’t work as people tend to be drawn to make friends with others who are at the same stage of life regardless of age.

 “Ok, well if we could make it work, do you think your husband would be willing to talk to me about his perspective?”

 As Ella drew in a sharp breath, Keanu knew he’d said something wrong and looked to Hannah who was momentarily speechless.

 “Erm, sadly no, you’ll have to rely on me for that ….. errr, Mark died, 18 months ago.

 “Oh god!, I’m so sorry, I didn’t know, shit”

 “Don’t worry, please don’t worry, it’s not like that fact is all over the back cover. The book was published before his death and we didn’t update the bio with the 2nd edition, you’ve got nothing to be sorry for” she reassured him.

 “Thanks” Keanu said “well even if we can’t make that casting work, I’d still like our company to bring the story to a cinema audience. Would you be interested in writing the screenplay?”

 “Gosh, again that’s something I hadn’t anticipated … but it could be a possibility. Can I have time to  think about it?”

“Sure, I mean we have a roster of writers we can call upon  - I think even if you decide it’s not for you, we’d still want you to consult, would that be OK?”

 “Absolutely”

 The talk finally turned to finances and both Keanu and Hannah held back from the conversation until the meeting drew to a close. As they packed away their papers, Keanu asked Hannah if she’d be free to join him for coffee at the shop across the street from the offices.

 “It’s the least I can do after being so crass earlier”

 “You weren’t crass and you don’t have to do that! Not at all. Anyway wouldn’t you get mobbed out there in public at a coffee shop?”

 “Not at all, I can go about my business day to day as a private citizen - people tend to give me space if they can see I’m busy and especially when I have company – in fact you’d be acting as my personal bodyguard”

 Over at the coffee shop they settled into the booth with their coffees. Keanu encouraged Hannah to have a stab at writing the screenplay.

 “I mean, I bet you didn’t think you could write a novel before and then you did!”

 “OK, OK, I take your point” she laughed. “If I do, would you be willing to look at a first draft?”

“Of course, it would be my pleasure”

They chatted some more. Keanu wanted to see the boys who’d brought such joy to her life. Hannah shared some pictures – the ‘boys’ were now 21 and 16 years old.

“They’re handsome fellows, I can see your eyes in the older one. Do they favour you more or their dad?”

“Their Dad more, especially Josh. He’s the younger one”

“Right - that must be, a mixed blessing I guess”

“Yeah, yeah, yes is it can be. Actually Toby sounds just like him so when he comes home and says “hello” it can throw me for a loop!”

“Wow, I can’t imagine. I’ve never lost anyone that close, I mean where I lived with the person and had that kind of constant reminder of their absence…. unless you count my Dad”

“Your dad died?”

“Well, yeah actually but that was more recent, I meant when I was young, he left. We had been estranged for a long time by the time he died”

“I’m sorry – I’m glad my kids didn’t have that loss – it almost seems more cruel than death, that  he chose to leave I mean” Hannah checked herself  “sorry, sorry – we seem to be making a habit of putting our feet in it don’t we?”

Keanu laughed “no, no, I can see exactly what you mean – and don’t worry, no hard feelings”

Soon after this exchange, they each needed to leave so phone numbers were shared and Hannah agreed to contact him when she had some scenes to share.

Over the next 3 months, Hannah met Keanu in that same coffee shop every couple of weeks or so as she worked on her ideas for the screenplay.  The theme she liked best was that of closed and open worlds.  As she’d navigated infertility and baby-loss, at each stage there had been a sense of being welcomed into a world and then excluded from the next natural place. She hoped a director could capture that sense of being trapped and unable to move forwards somehow.

In their conversations she also tried to explain as best she could the different perspectives of the many people directly and indirectly involved. There was her husband who had wanted to keep the troubles they had in perspective and, especially when they had their miscarriages, to look to the future. Whilst Hannah had needed to wallow in the grief of their first loss in particular, he’d not felt that loss so much. She understood that for her, the future would have looked much different day to day with a new baby. She would have been taking her eldest to kindergarten with a new-born in tow. Yes, he would have been a dad of two but would still be going to work day to day as usual. Her work colleagues had sent her flowers after that miscarriage and he’d been angry. “why are they sending you flowers, nobody died” he’d yelled.    They’d argued after that, the difference in their perspective magnified. But in the long term she’d understood his desire to ‘fix’ things.  She’d been through grief before when her dad had died when she was just 16. She understood the need to wallow and let the grief breathe. His desire to move on felt like an attempt to stifle that but she understood the emotions behind it.

Then there were in-laws also willing things to be normal, not wanting to face the pain, telling her that she should be grateful to have her eldest and focus on him. Hearing that from people who already had 2 or 3 kids and no infertility was a bitter pill to swallow – you only really ‘get it’ if you’ve been there too after all.

He was a good listener and obviously enjoyed the process of empathising  and learning about how other people processed these traumas.

By the end of the year the screenplay was really taking shape but in January their FTF meetings had to stop as Keanu had to go to San Francisco for the Matrix 4 Shoot. They had one more coffee shop meeting in early March before he went to Berlin but otherwise, all connection was via e mail and FaceTime as they were either separated by miles or by the Corona Virus lockdown.  Through the months, their conversations and correspondence helped a close friendship to grow. Hannah felt the clouds of grief lifting and recognised Keanu’s part in that for her due to having the screenplay to focus on and his friendship.

Chapter 2

[honestandsincere]

reputation part five

"Of all places for a clandestine meeting, you've outdone yourself, y/l/n."

He speaks in hushed tones, the rasp of his voice barely hovering above a whisper. They're alone, save for the man sat behind a seemingly oversized wooden desk, typing softly on his computer. The air feels cold; the high ceiling looming overhead and the rounded curves of the timber framing leave no room for warmth. Books are packed tightly into glass cases, saved from the damaging effects of exposure and time, and yet the room smells like dog-eared pages and temperate paper.

"I figured we wouldn't be seen," she shrugs, gazing intently at the brass bust of Shakespeare, her fingers itching to run themselves over the intricate carving of his ruffled collar. "Sadly, the gossip forums don't think I'm a reader," Ethan hums, turning to acknowledge the bard. "Yes, that is sad."

He hasn't seen her in almost three weeks, not that he's been counting. It was as if she'd vanished off the surface of the earth the night she had left his apartment in Tribeca. After they had kissed. He knew better than to try and contact her afterwards, he tried to ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach as he came to realise that maybe they would never cross paths again. Y/n had said that she would not let Howard Benson publish her first draft, the article that should have been printed if Ethan Dolan had not read it before it hit newsstands across the city. Y/n y/l/n is a determined woman. Consequently, the ties between them had been cut as quickly as they had been knotted. As their lips left one another's she'd uttered something along the lines of an apology and hurried to the elevator, avoiding his eyes as the metal doors slid closed.

Ethan had received a text message from her this morning, as her name flashed across the screen of his phone his pulse had picked up its pace and his palms became damp. Y/n wanted to meet him in the library, in room 302 of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building which he later found out was housing the Berg Collection of English and American Literature. He wants to laugh at how fitting their meeting place is, how well she'd thought this all out, but he's occupied with the sheer wonder of being in her presence again.

"Do you know the collection holds the works and manuscripts of 400 authors?" she asks him, not taking her eyes from William's receded hairline. "That's a lot of paper," Ethan says. "Or parchment." "Yes, or vellum." Y/n turns to the corner of the room and points towards a small mahogany table and chair set, papers sprawling over the desk's surface, "That was Dickens'." "Doesn't look too comfortable, does it?" Ethan's eyes scan the thin lining of cushion across the seat. "No, not particularly," she folds her arms and for the first time since he's entered the room, turns to look at him.

Y/n does not know what she was expecting him to look like. Three weeks is not long enough for somebody to change dramatically - unless perhaps they decide to shave off all their hair or tattoo their face in honour of their mother. Ethan Dolan is drastic, but not that drastic. He looks young, in the yellow-toned light of room 302, clean-shaven and as chiselled as ever. His cheekbones are still broad, his jaw still prominent and his brow is pulled into its usual half-furrow. She notes that he's wearing a sweatshirt, Havard University's crest printed on its front. He looks like a student himself. As frustratingly impossible it is to admit, Ethan Dolan is still inexplicably gorgeous.

"I haven't seen you in a while, y/l/n," he says softly. Ethan takes his time to appreciate y/n's familiar lack of change. She's as captivating as ever and it's painful. "I know." "Do you want to maybe sit down? So we can talk?" he gestures to the table set up presumably for researchers to delve into the precious novels and albums of notes, with gloved hands of course. She nods. They lower themselves into chairs opposite one another, she looks at him and smiles ruefully.

"I'm sorry for not contacting you sooner," Y/n says. "Honestly, it's no problem. If anything I should apologise for making things awkward," his hands rest on the soft velvet covering the table, y/n glances quickly at the Cartier signet ring adorning his right index finger. "It takes two to tango," she chuckles lightly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, "I shouldn't have stormed off like that." Ethan shifts in his seat and leans closer towards her, "Listen, y/n, if you didn't want to kiss me that's totally fine. I shouldn't have just come onto you that way, it was really rude and considering the circumstances I-"

Y/n shakes her head, setting loose the wayward wave she'd tried hard to keep from her face. Her eyes are set on his whisky-coloured irises, she sees nothing but integrity which three weeks ago had become familiar. "It's not that I didn't want you to kiss me," she interjects. "Oh." "In fact, I think you went about it rather well. It was just crap timing." "Yeah, I guess."

They sit in silence for a while, trying not to look at each other. Ethan busies himself with twisting his ring slowly around his finger, his mouth opening every now and then to speak before being stopped by his inability to think of the right thing to say. Y/n turns around to look at the librarian, typing away blissfully ignorant to the tension surrounding the other occupants of the room. She clears her throat quietly, "I left because I don't want Benson to publish draft one." He looks up at her, his eyes wide and reminiscent of a disgustingly adorable puppy or a child that's been denied an extra slice of cake at a birthday party. "Ethan, if you and I were to continue our friendship; whether it be staged or genuine, Howard will try and step in. He claims it's for my benefit, for my career, but I know that it's only for the sake of LIFE's reputation." "It sucks," he says. "I know, but it's not as though we were ever going to be more than friends or acquaintances-" "No, y/n," he interrupts her, looking down at his folded hands and shaking his head, "it sucks that you let Howard Benson dictate who you can and cannot be seen with."

Y/n's brows knit together into a disconcerted frown, "I'm not letting Howard Benson do anything." "You are. He's your boss, I get it. He is not in the position to manage your personal life, friendships included." She huffs and pushes forward in her seat, "Do you not understand why I'm doing this? It's for the sake of your image, Ethan! For your sacred reputation, I'm saving your skin here." "And I appreciate that, really I do. It's just that Benson can't print the article without my permission."

Suddenly they're both aware of how their voices have raised slightly above hushed murmurs, y/n looks over her shoulder to find the man at the desk completely unfazed. She breathes a sigh of relief and exasperation. "He will do," she whispers, "if it means keeping the magazine's sponsors." "I can't believe you - of all people - are just acquiescing to these trivial little mind games!" he hisses. Y/n laughs, but it holds no humour, "Screw you, Ethan Dolan. You just don't like being told what to do." "Don't turn on me, y/n," he warns her, a look of businessman severity crossing his beautifully angeled face. "Watch me," she slides her chair from under the table, its wooden legs inducing a hideous screech as they drag along the floor of room 302. The man at the desk looks up and sends her a frown to which she apologises sheepishly and leaves the room.

Ethan can't help but feel a horrible sense of deja vu.

-----------

Grayson Dolan's feet are rested on the desk in front of him, his leather brogues crossed casually over one another. In his right fist is a stress ball his mother had bought him a few Christmases ago and in his left hand is a mug of coffee Carol had handed to him. He gives her a quick nod of thanks before turning to his brother. Sat on the opposite side of their private office, Ethan Dolan wears a scowl as prominent as the Rockefeller Center on New York's skyline. His shirt sleeves are rolled up to the elbow, his blazer having been discarded hours ago, his hair is dishevelled and he runs his hand through it for the fifth time in a solid minute.

"You're being ridiculous, Ethan." "No, I'm not." "You are," Grayson sips his drink before excusing Carol from the room. "I am not! If anything she's the one being ridiculous." "Who? The cat's mother?" "Shut up."

Grayson Dolan had made the awful mistake of asking his brother why he hadn't been spending time with his fake girlfriend recently. As much as he refuses to admit it, Grayson has missed seeing his brother in the papers or on gossip sites, smiling wildly with y/n y/l/n by his side. Ethan has been nothing but fractious over the past month, refusing to attend meetings and barely showing his face at Dolan & Dolan HQ in Manhattan. There's a permanent frown etched on his pale face, his brows constantly drawn inward and his lips chapped from the constant worrying of his teeth.

"Y/n is literally saving your ass." "I am aware." "So why are you being such a whiny bitch?" Grayson sets his mug down in front of him and begins squeezing the foam ball in his hand, he finds it amusing that perhaps his brother is in more need of it than he is. "Because she's letting Howard Benson walk all over her!" Ethan slams a fist on the table, only to jump slightly at the way his computer shakes violently in the aftershock. "What do you want, E? You want that article out there for the world to see?" "No, of course not-" "Well, shut up then."

Ethan knows his brother is right, he has no reason to sulk. If anything he should be jumping for joy, finally after months of constant apprehension the first draft will be destroyed. He just can't ever see y/n y/l/n again. Now, in theory, this should be straightforward. Y/n and Ethan have never really seen eye to eye; they live in different worlds, in different social spheres and both have completely different ambitions. Their conflict was inevitable, their friendship was unforeseeable and their current circumstances are beyond aggravating. Ethan Dolan does not want to be friends with y/n y/l/n, part of him thinks maybe it's through Howard Benson telling them they cannot associate with one another that makes him want to see her again.

He doesn't want to be her friend, but he cannot help it.

"So I've spoken to McTavish and Abernathy about selling the plots in Brooklyn," Grayson breaks the silence he'd created, his tone lighthearted. He picks up his feet from the desk and begins to type furiously on his keyboard, eyes flicking from side to side as he reads spreadsheets on the screen before him. "Really?" "Of course, I've really thought about what you said, E. We should try different tactics if we want to make a difference in business," the younger Dolan brother chooses his words tentatively. Tactics. "I couldn't agree more."

Ethan Dolan finds thinking about business rather sickening at this point in time. It had always been the focal point of his life; he started kindergarten determined to end up in the city, took extra classes in high school that would set his college resume apart from the rest, worked his ass off to get into Harvard and then played every trick in the book in order to end up where he is now. And suddenly he doesn't want to be here. All those economics lectures, every internship he could get his hands on and every late-night spent researching every loophole in the system mean nothing. It would be naive to say it's because of y/n, romantic even, but this isn't a rom-com. This is real and shitty and a situation so sticky it reminds him of the time he spilt a jar of molasses over his childhood self in his grandmother's kitchen.

Is he changing for the girl? Is the girl really changing him?

"You've gone soft," it's as though Grayson can read his mind, or maybe he's just been observing Ethan's face. "Have I?" Ethan stands from his swivel chair and walks towards the large window that overlooks Manhattan. He's done this countless times before, to think. To look over the relentless pace of the city and realise that every tiny ant-sized figure hurrying through the street below him will never cross paths with him. Lives don't intersect easily, no matter how small the world.

"You have. Ethan, when have you ever let someone or something stand in the way of what you want?" he doesn't turn to acknowledge his brother, but Ethan hangs on each of his words. He tries to think of when he has ever let something stop him, which is hard because it rarely ever happens. Ethan Dolan is a force of nature, inside and outside the boardroom. "Never. The answer is never. Howard Benson is threatening to publish y/n's draft, but when has he ever followed through on one of his intimidations? Again, the answer is never," Grayson pauses and Ethan takes his time to count how many taxi cabs make their way through the hoards of traffic. Fifteen. "Just do what you've always done, stop playing by stupid rules. Go do what you like, he can't stop you." "It's different this time," Ethan rasps, his voice weak from disuse.

It is different, very different. Ethan is not accustomed to being vulnerable, in his personal and in his work life. He's always had the upper hand. It is different this time because he's taking a risk. A big risk. Y/n y/l/n is his friend, despite the odds and their circumstances. She set out to ruin his life, whether it was intentional or not - she claims now that it was in journalistic pursuits and he calms himself by believing her. Ethan Dolan kissed y/n y/l/n and she kissed him back, taking their relationship from enemies to something verging on friendship to something that teeters precariously on the tightrope of awkward friendship that is more than a friendship. Does he want to pursue this? Does he want to drop everything and get to know her? Does he believe that Howard Benson really will print the slandering first draft? Ethan isn't sure and this is a foreign feeling.

"Jesus, you really have changed."

-------------------

There's nothing more terrifying than the unknown.

The concept of not knowing leaves leeway for imaginations and anxieties to run riot, conjuring hypothetical situations in which nothing is ever in one's favour. Of course, you're also setting yourself up for disappointment in the realm of the unknown; if one devises a theoretical scenario that is bitterly different to reality - that hurts.

Ethan Dolan is terrified of the unknown.

His fist clenches around the bouquet in his hand. He's starting to regret buying them, but Grayson had insisted that they were a nice touch. Ethan could do with some nice touches. Being uneasy outside her front door is not a new sensation, he's been nervous before. But Ethan has never felt scared and this is scary. He does not know what y/n might be feeling, he's not certain that she even wants to see him ever since their mild altercation in the NYPL.

Before he has time to process his apprehensions, the door swings open.

Y/n stands before him in some jeans and a white t-shirt, her hair thrown up loosely into a knot. She doesn't look surprised, but not calm either. Ethan wishes he'd been blessed by the gods of telepathy.

"Hi," he says, wanting some kind of response from her. "Hey." Ethan thrusts the flowers awkwardly towards her, desperate for a topic of conversation, "These are for you," he says unnecessarily. "Thank you, Ethan. They're lovely."

Y/n's fingers brush his as she reaches for the bouquet, taking it in her hand and tucking them gently under her arm. Ethan is sure there's some unidentifiable crackle of electricity that passes between them, his hand is left tingling in the wake of her touch. It sounds bizarre but now he knows what the romantics mean by 'sparks flying'. "I uh," he stumbles over his words, his eyebrows rising in confusion at his own lack of eloquence, "I just wanted to apologise for what I said in the Library last week. It was unfair." She purses her lips, cocking her head to one side in a way that makes her look as though she's studying him, "Apology accepted."

Y/n makes no room for him to walk into her apartment, despite their meagre resolution. The orange lilies feel heavy all of a sudden, their scent dizzying as she inhales. There's a large part of her that wants to let him in, make him a cup of tea because she knows he avoids coffee after five in the evening and ask him about his day. Things are different now, circumstances have changes and tension hangs in the air like a thick black cloud of smog. Ethan stands before her, his arms held tightly behind his back, perhaps to refrain from touching her. He's in his white button-down shirt and navy dress pants meaning he's probably not long left the office or maybe is intending on going in to work late. The scene is well-known, she's used to seeing him like this, and yet it all feels so unnerving.

"It's not your job to please Benson and me simultaneously. I know that and I shouldn't have accused you of trying to appease him when you're doing it for my sake." "Thank you," she nods. "But y/n, whether or not Benson prints the article is not in your hands. I don't think we should let him get in the way of this," he gestures to the space between them, "whatever it may be, surely we should give it a chance?" Y/n quirks an eyebrow, readjusting the flowers in her grip, "Our friendship?" "Well, uh, yeah. Yeah, I guess."

His mind flashes to their kiss. Feeling her lips pressed against his, the way she had sighed in contentment, the way he felt alive. The surge of electricity that pulsed through his veins when the childhood sense of excitement and nervousness overwhelmed his sense of judgement. Their friendship. Y/n presses her eyes closed, exhaling through her nose defeatedly, "It is a shame, Ethan. I'd be lying if I said I don't want to carry on seeing you-" "Don't do this to yourself, don't let work get in the way of your feelings." "Feelings?" "You know what I mean, y/n."

She does. She knows exactly what he means and she deeply resents him for it. These burgeoning feelings she has, tempests of undiscovered passions, are having to be pushed aside for the sake of his reputation. Perhaps in a separate universe, y/n would have the opportunity to pace herself, to get to know Ethan and explore the bizarre and unprecedented attraction she feels towards him. If she had a normal job; maybe if she worked in marketing or banking or as a barista in the charming little coffee shop opposite LIFE Magazine HQ everything would not be as complex as it is. Y/n hates Ethan Dolan for being successful, she hates that his face is on every billboard and every newsstand in the city. It's revolting that each time she turns on her television after a long day at work, somehow his name is dropped or his picture is shown. If he wasn't Ethan Dolan and she wasn't y/n y/l/n, life would be simple.

"I like you, Ethan," she admits and he feels his stomach lurch, "I think that maybe if the odds were in our favour, there's a strong chance that I'd want to spend a lot more time with you." Y/n sounds as though she has more to say but she does not continue speaking. Ethan drops his head, his gaze now firmly on his black brogues, unable to look at her without feeling a little hurt. He should have seen this coming, should have prepared himself whilst he wallowed in the ferocity of the unknown. "Your reputation matters," she says, "to you, Grayson and now to me. It shouldn't matter. But it does. I won't risk LIFE ruining your good name. It's not worth it."

There's something about good, selfless people that's agonizingly annoying. Ethan Dolan is struck by this epiphany. As commendable and admirable as y/n's lack of ignorance is, he really wishes she wasn't so nice. Y/n, in an ideal world, would decide to throw up a crude hand gesture towards Benson's empty threat and spend more time with Ethan, whether it is in the public eye or not. Y/n, again in an ideal world, would realise that she shouldn't care about Ethan's name in the business sphere and decide to traverse their flourishing friendship because she actually does like him. Alas, y/n is not arrogant or egotistical or parsimonious. She sees sense, it just sucks that she cares.

"I wish it didn't come down to this," he croaks, then clears his throat, looking up at her with those big whisky-coloured eyes, "Y/n, my reputation doesn't bother me anymore. Dolan & Dolan is changing, Grayson and I have been finalising our new arrangements. If your article gets out and people decide to look into it, they'll find nothing but our newer records - filled with good things." "It's not that easy." "I don't care! We can just say it's a fake, or that someone in the magazine's editorial team threw you under the bus-" "And risk me losing my job?" her eyes are wide with incredulity. "Jesus, y/n! Please, just give me a chance. We can meet in secret if it makes things easier for you? At least until this whole thing blows over. Howard Benson doesn't have to know anything."

She opens her mouth, full lips looking as though they're going to spill the words he's aching to hear. Y/n smiles ruefully at Ethan, he notes the way her eyes dance around his face and feels a pang of hopelessness. This is her taking in every little detail before it all ends, there's a heavy mist of finality hanging around them and it makes him want to cry. It's not even the rejection that's going to hurt him the most, it's losing her. Or at least what they could have had. In Ethan Dolan's world, integrity and honesty are incredibly arduous to unearth, he knows this from first-hand experience. Y/n y/l/n has always been upright and honest with him, he's wanted to tear his own hair out at some of her acts, but he appreciates this beyond anything his wealth could buy him. Ethan no longer cares about his ego or his money or his persona, he cares about y/n.

"Ethan, you know I wish I could say yes."

"Yeah, I know."

-------------------------

Hello! I'm so so so sorry for my absence over the past few months! Ironically, all my motivation and inspiration evaporates into absolute nothingness as soon as summer (and lots and lots of spare time) rolls around. I know this chapter is really short, but I hope you enjoyed it anyway!

[s-n-arly]

A Peek into the Indie Writer World – Part IV: A Walk Through the Process

If you’re thinking of going indie, or have already decided to, you may find yourself wondering what steps you need to take. This is a look at the process, focusing on hard copy books and e-books.

The short version, in bullet format for those with very little time:

Write your story

Identify your output product(s)

Copy edit your story

Purchase and/or assign ISBNs

Request PCN (hard copy print only)

Format the story

Create front matter for printed work

Cover art and design

Publish

Market

The longer version with more details below the cut.

Write Your Story

There are many different ways to write. Use whatever process works for you (drawn out, under tight deadline, or anything in between). Revise and edit your draft to ensure you have the best possible version you can. Many people like to use critique groups or beta readers, other people don’t. The key is that your content (poetry, short stories, novella, or novel) is the highest quality you can make it.

Identify Your Products and Process

You can start looking at the various products and printers out there while you’re still in the writing stage. As your story gets closer to being ready to print, you’ll want to have some decisions on your starting point, at least. Will it be an e-book with print to follow? Or do you just want to start with the e-book and see how it goes? Your plans will influence some of your next steps.

Copy Edit Your Story

Most people think of this as proofreading, finding and fixing typos, spelling mistakes, and grammatical errors. In this case, it also includes ensuring your soon to be published book has a consistent style.

Style is a set of rules that provide a uniform look to a document. This includes things like use of font, font attributes (bold, italic, underline), implementation of flexible or optional grammar (such as the Oxford/serial comma), and the presentation of specialized terms. Most fiction publishers have a house style built off Chicago or AP style, both of which have handy manuals. It ultimately doesn’t matter what style you go with, as long as you are consistent.

In the editing world, style often includes formatting elements, but for the indie writer, some of that formatting will vary depending on the product or products you’re producing.

Things to Watch For

Consistent spelling for names of people and places

Consistent terminology for magic or world-specific details (eg: does the world use shape-shifter, shape shifter, or shapeshifter?)

Use of numbers (phone, age, height, distance) are generally spelled out in fiction

Consistent units of measure (unless there’s a good reason for it, you don’t want to randomly switch between metric and imperial)

If attention to detail and copy editing aren’t your strong suits, copy editing is something you should plan to hire out. You can also just hire someone for the pieces you need done. If you have a handle on your house style, but want someone else to proofread, that’s totally a thing that people do.

Purchase or Assign ISBN

If you’re printing with a company that offers a free International Standard Book Number (ISBN), and you’ve chosen to go that route, you can skip the purchasing step. I personally prefer to have full control of all my ISBNs, allowing me to take them with me if I switch printers or distributors.

Buy your ISBN in advance via Bowker. You will need one ISBN for each product you are producing. A trade paperback needs a different ISBN than a hardcover or audio book. There’s often a discount to purchase multiple ISBNs at one time.

Once you have any needed ISBNs for this project, you’ll need to link the number to a book title, and provide some information on the book and edition (publisher, summary, cover etc). This is a good time to perfect your back-cover blurb or teaser. You can come back and update much of the ISBN information later if you don’t have all the elements at the time you’re doing this.

Request a Preassigned Control Number (print copies only)

If you’re based in the US, you’ll want your book registered with the Library of Congress as this increases the likelihood that it will get into libraries. It also provides some added copyright protection.

You will use the Preassigned Control Number (PCN) process, which takes 10-15 business days. Start this far enough before you plan to complete the publication process, to ensure you have your Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN) before you go to print. If you have trouble navigating the Library of Congress’ website for questions (and you probably will, it’s not as clear as it could be), you may want to explore the PCN Manual.

To complete the process of registering, you will need to send a hard copy of the printed book to the Library of Congress.

Format the Story

Formatting your work can fit in with style, especially after you’ve gone through the indie process and have a handle on what you want and need. Many writers will create their draft in the most complicated format they are planning on producing, just so this piece is well underway (and less frustrating later). Once the book is ready for publication, they’ll make copies to reformat for other products.

At this point you need to know how you plan to publish and what company you’ll be using, as different publishers have different formatting requirements. Be sure you read the requirements before you put in a bunch of work changing your novel into a font you won’t be able to use.

Features you need to make formatting decisions on include:

Page size (determined by the product you are creating)

Margins (leave room for the gutter – the inside margin where the binding is)

Chapter heading font, size, and position

Indent (fiction usually indents first line of a paragraph)

Line spacing (look at similarly sized books to choose number of lines per page)

Section breaks (asterism or section sign are both good choices)

A Note on Paragraph Styles

If you’re not already using paragraph styles in your word processor, you need to start now. Styles designate font, size, and text attributes, as well as features like line spacing and indents. When used properly, styles ensure consistency and a professional looking end product. They also make it much easier to reformat the entire document if you need different features for a different product, or if you suddenly need a different font for your text body.

If you are creating an e-book, you must designate title and heading 1 styles at the very least, as these are used for navigation. Failure to designate these will often result in your book not meeting requirements for distribution.

Accessibility

Do not use extra returns and the space-bar to place text where you want it on the page. This makes your digital end product inaccessible to people with adaptive reading equipment. Screen readers will read every one of those spare characters, and no one wants to hear “asterisk, asterisk, asterisk, asterisk…” as they wait for the next section. Instead, use your styles to put chapter headings where you want them, and use hard returns (ctrl+enter) to separate chapters.

Front Matter

This is the content that comes between the front cover and the first page of the story regardless of whether it is a print or e-book. The professional standard includes:

Copyright page (including the year of publication, ISBN, and LCCN)

Table of contents (this will be automatically generated for e-books)

Title page (should be on the right page for print editions)

Optional content includes:

Acknowledgements

Dedication

Book Cover

This is your primary advertiser for your book, whether it’s print, e-book, audio book, or a serial. You will use this image everywhere to pitch your work. We’ve all been told to not judge a book by its cover, and we all do it anyway, so expect that this is something that must be done right.

Consider your cover a visual extension of the story. It needs to be appealing while giving your reader clues on what to expect. If your zombie apocalypse story has a cover that feels like a Christian devotional, it won’t appeal to some of your readers and you’ll have gone against the expectations of others. You absolutely do not want your book to look like you spewed clip art at the page, a common new indie writer mistake. A generic cover does you no good either.

It’s okay if you don’t have the skills to create a stunning cover for your book; hiring someone to do this for you may be your best bet. It’s worth paying to get a cover that helps readers decide to pick your story. There are a lot of great artists out there, so look around and find someone whose style is a good fit and who you can afford. That said, don’t whine about prices. Artists deserve to be paid what they’re worth.

Publish

The steps at this stage will vary depending on the company or program you decide to go through.

For most print on demand printers, expect to have to buy a proof before the book becomes available to the public.

Market

This stage will vary depending on your comfort level and opportunities. In general, you should be marketing yourself as a writer at any opportunity. This means participating at conventions, doing readings, and posting announcements on your social media and website. Be careful to avoid giving your friends a constant hard sell on Facebook, though. No one enjoys that. Your social media needs to be somewhat active and should include content not specifically related to a recent book release. Posting teaser chapters can be a great try-before-you-buy option.

While this looks like a lot of steps to take, they are spread out over the course of your process of bringing your story to publication, and many are not that onerous. Most print on demand companies have paid services to help with some of these steps, if they seem too great for you to overcome on your own.

⁂

For the first article in this series, check out Part I. Or if you just missed the previous article, check out Part III. To see the next one, check out Part V.

For more articles on writing, check out my Reflections From the Sol section.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Everything you need to know about Europe's new meme-ending war

Katie Collins, CNet:

First they came for the privacy violations, then they came for the memes.

The European Union is trying to pass a hotly debated law on copyright. The European Copyright Directive has been years in the making, and on Tuesday, March 26, the European Parliament is due to vote on the final version of it.

Companies including Google, along with free speech advocates and prominent figures within the EU have opposed parts of the draft legislation. The contentious nature of the legislation saw it morph through multiple iterations before the different EU institutions agreed on a version this week after three days of talks in France.

On June 20, 2018, the European Parliament's legal affairs committee voted to approve the draft legislation, but then a couple of weeks later, on July 5, the Parliament as a whole rejected the measure. That was hardly the end of the matter, and the individual EU institutions followed up with their own input.

Those votes happened just weeks after Europe's last big piece of internet-related legislation -- the General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) -- kicked in.

Both the Copyright Directive and GDPR could dramatically affect and change things about the internet as we know it. But they also differ significantly, not just in scope, but also in how they're viewed and received by the world beyond Brussels.

GDPR has forced internet companies to scramble to fall in line with the new policy, but the privacy protections it promises internet users mean it's generally thought of as a consumer-friendly effort. Some hail it as evidence that the EU is leading the way when it comes to regulating the internet.

The pending Copyright Directive, however, is meeting with the opposite reaction.

What is the European Copyright Directive and why are people against it?

The EU Copyright Directive -- or to give its full name, the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market -- is Europe's attempt to harmonize copyright laws across all member states.  

The last EU-wide copyright law was put in place in 2001, when the internet was a dramatically different place to how it is today. It's designed to update the law and make it more relevant to the internet we know and love now, as well as to anticipate change down the line. The legislation, however, is vague -- one of the criticisms of it -- in terms of what actually needs to change and how it'll be upheld.

But there are two sections in particular that have drawn criticism for being overly harsh: Article 13, and to a lesser extent, Article 11. The impact, its critics say, could mean a substantially more closed internet of the future.

Who's in favor of the directive?

Alex Voss, rapporteur of the European Parliament for the copyright directive, for one. He suggested the law and believes its criticisms are highly exaggerated.

Many members of the European Parliament also support the overhaul of EU copyright law. How many exactly will be determined when it's put to a vote.

Pirate Party MEP Julia Reda is suggesting alternatives to both Article 11 and Article 13. She suggests her amendments "fairly balance the interests of different groups without compromising on fundamental rights."

What's Article 13?

Article 13 is the part of the directive that dictates how copyrighted content -- including TV shows, films, videos and pictures -- is shared on the internet. It dictates that anyone sharing copyrighted content must get permission from rights owners -- or at least have made the best possible effort to get permission -- before doing so.

It'd force all online platforms to police and prevent the uploading of copyrighted content, or make people seek the correct licenses to post that content. For the most part this would mean filters that check content as it's uploaded would be mandatory for platforms including Facebook, Instagram, GitHub, Reddit and Tumblr, but also many much smaller platforms.

YouTube already uses such a system -- called Content ID -- to protect copyright infringement, but the technology to do this is extremely expensive and has taken over 11 years to build and refine.

Who has a problem with it and why?

The concerns about Article 13 are wide-ranging, including unease about the cost of compliance for smaller companies, and out-and-out censorship of the internet.

In a letter addressed to the president of the EP, Antonio Tajani, around 70 internet luminaries, including Vint Cerf and Tim Berners-Lee, expressed their concern that the provision could cause "substantial harm" to the internet.

"Article 13 takes an unprecedented step towards the transformation of the internet from an open platform for sharing and innovation, into a tool for the automated surveillance and control of its users," they said.

An organized campaign against Article 13 warns that it'd affect everything from memes to code, remixes to livestreaming. Almost 400,000 people have so far signed a Change.org petition against the provision.

The Max Planck Institute, a nonprofit group, notes that Article 13 could threaten freedom of expression and information as enshrined in the European Charter of Human Rights.

What's Article 11?

A second part of the draft legislation, Article 11, is also raising eyebrows. This section stipulates that companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft may have to pay publishers for showing snippets of news articles.

Who has a problem with it and why?

The objections to Article 11 are less vocal, but they're out there nonetheless. It's unclear what exactly would have to be licensed (snippets? headlines? links themselves?) so the jury is out on how much of an impact it might have.

"Platforms unable or unwilling to pay licensing fees would need to shut down or disallow users from sharing links with snippets," said Pirate Party MEP Julia Reda.

There are fears it could outlaw news aggregators as we know them or even prevent any sites other than giants like Google, which could afford a license, from linking to articles at all.

How will this affect Facebook and other social media companies?

The law would force social media platforms to take more direct responsibility for policing uploaded content. Big tech companies will likely put their own, costly solutions in place for doing this. Smaller companies would likely use a more centralized platform.

It'd also prevent social platforms from showing any kind of "snippet" of news stories, making it ultimately harder to share and link to content.

How will this affect me, an EU resident?

Everything you upload onto the internet will be checked for copyright beforehand, so this could mean no more making memes or edits for your favorite fan Tumblr, among many other things.

It could also mean the end of some of your favorite news aggregation tools and apps. When you click on a link, you may have little clue ahead of time what lies beyond.

CNET Daily News    

Get today's top news and reviews collected for you.

These are just some of the possibilities, but because of how vague the law is, it's hard to see how it might be upheld when the time comes.

How will this affect me, a non-EU resident?

Each territory is governed by its own copyright laws, so unless the directive causes the big internet companies to make some huge, fundamental changes, you might not be directly affected.

The internet may not have as much content generated from within Europe, however, so if you're a fan of British humor or Europe's take on popular memes, your experience of being online may be the poorer for it.

Will the directive definitely pass into law?

It's too early to say whether the Copyright Directive will pass. The July 5 vote by the EU Parliament was a narrow one: 318 against, 278 in favor, with 31 abstentions.

Now that the EU has agreed on a final text for the directive, the European Parliament will vote on the legislation in the next couple of weeks. If it passes, it'll come into force in each EU country over the next two years.

https://www.cnet.com/news/article-13-europes-hotly-debated-eu-copyright-law-explained/#ftag=CAD590a51e

[alunclewe]

NaNoWriMo 2019 Postmortem, and Future Plans

So, one of the things I said I was going to do in my last post was try to write a novel for NaNoWriMo, but without knowing beforehand what I was going to write about.  Not that I intended to just jump in and make everything up as I went along with no preplanning of any sort—that way lies madness.  I just intended to avoid doing any planning or outlining before NaNoWriMo had officially begun, rather than starting November with a list of characters and general plot outline as I had on a few previous years.  I’d finished writing novels those years; I wanted to try a tougher challenge.

So did it succeed?  In a word, no.

I mean, November’s not quite over yet.  I can write pretty fast when I have to.  If I spent the rest of the day focusing on nothing but finishing the novel, I could maybe do it.  And I did seriously consider doing just that.  But even if I succeeded, that would be... kind of missing the point of NaNoWriMo.  It would mean not doing anything else I probably ought to be doing today.  And it would mean seriously rushing the writing, which couldn’t fail but have an effect on the quality.  I don’t expect anything I write for NaNoWriMo to be publishable as is, but I did hope to come up with a serviceable first draft that might turn into something publishable after a few rewrites.  (Something I still really need to get around to doing for the last NaNoWriMo novel I did finish.)  A novel hastily pounded out in a single day would... probably not be that.

So, loath as I am to accept the loss, I’ve decided that yeah, spending the entire day hastily churning out thousands of poorly considered words just so I could say I completed NaNoWriMo this year would probably not the best use of my time.  I do think the novel I started has potential, and I do intend to finish it, just... not today.  But I do want to try this again next year—the same type of challenge, I mean, doing NaNoWriMo starting fresh with no preconceived idea by the beginning of November of what I was going to write, and including all the ideation, planning, and outlining within the NaNoWriMo period.  It’s stomething that it seems like I should be able to do.  But if I’m going to attempt it again, it behooves me to figure out why it didn’t work this time.

So I gave it a little thought, and the first possibility that occurred to me is that maybe my earlier comparisons to my 24-hour comics weren’t the right approach.  As I... thought I’d remarked in my previous post, but after glancing over it now I guess I actually didn’t... my pen-and-paper 24-Hour comics I’ve drawn on 24-Hour Comics Day have invariably turned out to have higher art quality than my digital 24-hour comics I produced for my (currently on hiatus) d24 project, which is the opposite of what should be expected given the faster digital techniques.  The reason for this, I think, is that when I did my digital comics I spent far too much time on planning and research.  Maybe that was because of overconfidence because I knew I could draw digitally more quickly; maybe it was because the digital comics I did alone at home, whereas the pen-and-paper comics I did at a comic book store where there were other people around and I had more incentive to start the drawing earlier so it wouldn’t look like I wasn’t doing anything.  Either way, the result was that I left myself far too little time to draw my digital 24-hour comics, leaving the art to be rushed and rough.

If I was going to include the planning and research for my NaNoWriMo novel within the allotted time, I didn’t want to repeat the same mistake as I had with my digital 24-hour comics.  I didn’t want to spend too much time on planning and research and leave myself too little time for the actual writing—and so I didn’t spend much time on planning; I started writing as soon as I had enough of a general concept to do so.  But maybe that was a mistake.  A novel isn’t a comic.  Maybe having it planned in more detail would make it easier to actually write, and maybe I should have spent more time planning.

But on reflection, I don’t think that was the real reason I didn’t finish.  No, I think I was overthinking the matter, and that maybe the real reasons I didn’t finish were the obvious:

Due mostly to issues involving having to get a new laptop, I wasn’t actually able to start until halfway through the month.  (I guess I could have started the planning earlier, if not the writing, but... I didn’t. )

This month, and the latter half of the month in particular, was very busy with work, with many long days when I was barely home except to sleep.  From a financial standpoint, this was good, especially since the latter half of December work is going to be slow to nonexistent so I need to save up some money.  From a standpoint of... actually having time to write, it was less good.  I do have a lot of downtime on set, time when I’m not really doing anything but sitting there and watching while the child I’m working with is doing homework, blocking, or acting in a scene, or for that matter while the child isn’t doing anything but doesn’t really need me to help them with anything either.  But while I can get away with using my cell phone during those times, pulling out my laptop on set and writing would be... awkward at best.  (Even aside from the fact that there’s not always a place to plug it in, and its battery life is limited.)  I do bring my laptop to set in case I get a chance to use it, and sometimes I do.  Most times i don’t.  The last few weeks I didn’t.

So... yeah, I think ultimately my failure to finish a novel for NaNoWriMo this year wasn’t so much due to the way I planned to go about it as just due to circumstances that prevented me from putting in any significant time on it.  Unless similar circumstances intervene next year, I have a good chance of succeeding then on the same challenge.  And, as I said, I’m not going to let what I did do this year go to waste; I’ll still finish the novel I started... it just won’t be finished in November.

In any case, though, this brings up the broader issue of what I can do with my downtime on set, when I can’t use my laptop.  As I said, I can use my phone (as long as I have the sound off—or use headphones, but that, again, may not be a great idea on set).  I can browse the web, or play games, or use other apps.  But that’s not really being as productive as I’d like.  I can read, which is maybe a little better, but I’ve found reading for long periods on my phone screen gets really annoying... and anyway, I’d rather be doing something creative if I could; I have enough different creative projects I want to work on that I’d like to put as much time toward them as I can.

To this end, I think I may return to a practice I did before, and stopped for... no actual good reason that I could recall.  For a while, I had an index card for each project I wanted to work on (or part of a project, for more extensive projects), color coded by the type of project.  (Yellow for screenplays, blue for computer games, pink for comics, etc.)  I would each day draw a few index cards at random, and during the day when I had some time to fill I’d pull one of those cards, come up with ideas for the project, and write them down on the card.  There was a little more to it than that—some cards representing higher-priority projects were kept track of separately so they were drawn more often—but that was the gist of it.  I’m going to buy some colored index cards (or find the packs I probably still have somewhere?) and start doing that again, to be able to do something productive and creative during my downtime on set or elsewhere.  It won’t be a substitute for actually having time to sit down at my computer and write/draw/program/compose music, but it should at least let me get enough planning done that when I do have a chance sit down at my computer and actually do the things I need the computer for it’ll go faster.  I’ll report how it goes.

Also, I should probably at some point transcribe all my notes from my old index cards from the previous time I did this before they fade to unreadability.

This turned out to be a much longer post than I expected it to be.

[arbitrarilymine]

Tuesday, 04.06.2019, 22:24

Liking something can be such a huge motivation. And such a big motivating factor to just learn and do things. Like -

Because I like dolls, I:

Figured out, at the age of 15, how to buy things online without a bank account or credit or debit card. (The answer is, buy through group orders, or someone else doing the order, and request to pay in cash.) But also, when I did get a bank account (and still no card), I figured out how to get paypal (properly, not the fake your age method), and how to buy things and get them shipped to me without my parents knowing (send it to a friend)

Figured out how to do faceups with online forum tutorials. Back then, photo and text explanations were the norm, video tutorials weren’t really a thing. But anyway, a totally new skill picked up. It’s helpful to have drawn alot before this, but still, pastel and painting were new grounds for me.

Figured out what a respirator is, why it matters, and how to use it properly

Figured out a way to manage my expenses (done on excel) even though back then it was just doll related

Figured out how to sew because I didn’t have the money to buy them clothes. Figured out how to make patterns even though I’m still not really sure how to do it. Also learnt how to use the sewing machine from my mum though I’m not that good at it.

Figured out how to sand and mod a doll. Sanding from rough to smooth grit, what to use, how to sand with water so I don’t get so much dust

Figured out how to remove faceups using isopropyl alcohol and acetone, and where to find such stuff in Singapore

Learnt how to take photos, decided to learn more using a DSLR

Figured out how to use photoshop to edit photos and the effects in it way before I did started doing Architecture

Started making videos on youtube because I wanted more doll videos

Figured out how to cut wigs, furwigs and fibre wigs alike, to make the hairstyles I wanted my OCs to have

Figured out how to make costume jewelry for dolls, with simple tools bought off the shelf

Because I like Kpop (Infinite, Monsta X, Block B, Exo...), I:

Figured out how to make gifs in one day using online tutorials (already had photoshop skills then, which helped)

Started writing fanfic and now I have 4 years of fanfic written (a total 82 works, 453491 words published online, and there’s more in my drafts)

Through fanfic, learnt how to make stories that are appealing, did alot of research on tropes, different genres of story, different ways of story telling (kishotenketsu aka plot without conflict, which is different from the usual western way of plot with a distinct conflict etc). I figured out that I like slice of life alot for it’s mundane-ness, but also vampire fics alot. And that any sort of relationship with imbalances in power dynamics is not my jam. What I like and what I like to read have similarities but don’t overlap exactly. I also learn what polyamorous relationships are and generally a lot of lgbtq+ relationship dynamics and things that I don’t really get in traditional media

Made a ficfest with two online (Singaporean) fans for Infinite to encourage people to write more fics. Sure, we weren’t very successful but we tried really hard and we did this for almost a year, got a few authors to write a few stories, and we ourselves made over 50 moodboards for inspiration

Started looking at exercise as something positive, like, if the people I like enjoy exercising so much, and talk about its benefits, maybe there’s something in it for me. The biggest inspiration was Wonho who went from scrawny kid to buff dude but like, still remained really kind-hearted and soft and just, this whole combination wasn’t something I really learned to value from the way I was brought up, but it was an attitude I really admire regardless. And I learnt that I have the capacity to be moved by things like this, and to also adjust the biases or inherent assumptions I have

Did alot of research on BDSM and kinks and a lot of non-traditional things that I think I was always interested to know about and felt okay about actually reading up and knowing and writing and reading and discussing such things in a community of writers who did similar stuff. And realised there’s so much more in the dynamics behind these kinks, why people have them, how people can engage in them safely, what are safe practices and good practices, and just, having that knowledge also brings with it a better awareness of how similar power dynamics affect normal (unkinky) relationships

In a similar train of thought, to reserve judgement when I see people write or know or whatever certain things, because you can know something, write it, but not necessarily be agreeble to it (that’s why warning tags agree. It conveys self-awareness without telling the writer, no, you can’t write about this touchy taboo topic)

Learnt how to think horizontally when writing fics

Learnt how to get a beta to read my fics, or even why test readers (and cheerleaders) are important in a project like writing a fic. It’s my name on that fic but it’s with the help of alot of people sometimes, and that’s also why community matters

Thought about fandom, private spaces in online spheres and also constructive critique and non-constructive criticism and feedback on creative work

Read up on copyright laws, both for image use for moodboards, fanart and fanfic rights and ownership and whether one can make money off of it

Because I liked piercings, I:

Did research on how to get them safely, so so much research. From videos, from articles. Trying to figure out what’s credible, what’s not

Got piercings, also realised how biased I can be when someone has piercings. It’s a positive bias and completely groundless, like I see someone with piercings, it’s like +2 impression points or something, like I don’t know why. But it’s definitely something I should be aware of because of how seemingly groundless it is

Because I like unnaturally coloured hair, I:

Learnt how to bleach my hair with youtube tutorials and articles and learnt the dangers of doing so before I did it

Learnt how to dye my hair myself, how to transition between shades of cool and warm colours

Experimented and figured out the rest by actually dyeing my hair, enlisting the help of dorm mates

Learnt that purple is a colour that never shows up on my hair, maybe unless I bleach my hair to almost white

Learnt that I am/behave like a slightly different person with a different hair colour, and that such things affect not just my mood but how I perceive myself. And unnatural hair colours make me feel fun, but more importantly, that I can have them means I have time for myself (to dye my hair and to maintain it), and that kind of mindset is something I miss right now with my natural hair colour

Learnt that I am more open to change and okay with people talking about my hair than I thought, and that it’s fun to keep changing, but also maybe necessary for my psyche, to avoid feeling stagnant and boring

Because I like Peppertones, I:

Set up a tumblr and a blog for them in a day (helped that I’ve had a blogspot and tumblr account for ages before for other things)

Figured out a way to translate Korean songs to English even though my Korean is really really really basic. Like I can read Hangul, I can understand some words, but I can’t really write properly sentences by myself. But despite this, I wanted to know what their song lyrics are so much that I figured that I can use my ability to check a dictionary, my ability to read Chinese (so many things have Chinese translations compared to English), my cross referencing skills, and my Sec 2 literature inference skills to translate their songs despite my language incompetency. And so far I’ve modified 2.5 songs (i.e. added onto existing English translations to make it more accurate) and properly translated 1.5 songs with Chinese lyrics for reference. And there’s more songs in my drafts.

Figured out how to navigate Naver with mostly ctrl-c and ctrl-v of keywords

Compiled playlists of their live performances by individual songs, and created masterlists of their appearances and performances

Looked into Search Engine Optimisation to see how my peppertones blog can be more searchable for people like me who wanted translations of their songs, realising that blogspot is way more indexable than tumblr and finally understanding after so many years why my blogspot doll blog would show up on google image searches while my tumblr never really did

What I’m saying is, like things. Love things. Let your heart do what it wants. And then let these serve as your spark, your driver, and your direction (if for a little while). Let them inspire you, let them bring you to action, and let them remind you a little of why life is worth living. So much of this is not necessarily apparent at first glance because a lot of times, what we like may seem so trivial and trite and pointless, but the energy it offers can be so much more. I’ve learnt and picked up so many things along the way because I liked something so much that I HAD to learn something to do what I wanted to, and I cobbled my way to learning it with whatever available skills I have, and to research the heck out of whatever I didn’t know. And that is such a valuable lesson. 

I got a bit caught up in the details while listing some of the things above, but I just wanted to write down what I could before I forget. Obviously if we want to assess, some of these skills are probably more valuable than others. But the point is, all these are things and skills and abilities and learning experiences that can be picked up, and built upon, and they don’t exist in isolation. And maybe the tiny pieces don’t make particularly good sense at this moment, nor do they seem particularly useful, but like leaves falling, over time they’ll make a pile, and if you like something enough, that’s going to be a big pile of leaves, and it’s up to you what you want to do with that.

Me? I’m going to make a bed to lie on with that pile of leaves with my mediocre sewing skills and listen to all the songs I like.

[albatris]

WIP Tag!

thanks @cautiousgoose (@goose-scratch) for the tag! 

I’m sorry this took so long, and that this got so long, this is the first tag I’ve done in like a century, I've been like..... moving house n stuff, I've been busy, kind of

anyway

I'm doing this for all the doors becaaaause. I'm lazy. yup

What is the working title of your book?

"all the doors are open"!

Where did the idea for the book come from?

honestly I don’t remember specifically, I’m pretty sure I didn’t actually plan to Go Anywhere with this plot, I just started messing round with it for fun then decided to keep rolling with it

but ok, yeah, serious answer, I liked the idea of an apocalypse story that’s not so much ABOUT the apocalypse, y’know, like.... there’s this premise of the story, which is basically..... “reality is coming apart at the seams and the universe is literally unravelling under our feet, we have no idea how long we’ve got and we’re all fucking terrified” but then just.......... well, what are you meant to DO about that, really

so then you’ve got just a plain old story about people being people, going about their lives as best they can, against this weirdass apocalyptic backdrop, which was just an idea I was super drawn to

and I wanted to explore the ways I could have this objectively horrifying world, and present a story that’s upbeat and hopeful and fun. or, like, a story that’s by definition about The Destruction And The End, but have almost every theme around ideas about creation and hope and new perspectives

that was a concept I was really keen to mess around with and explore c’:

What genre is your current work in progress?

hell if I know, I'm bad at genres lmao

most of my stuff falls into the realm of fantasy/sci-fi, and I think ATDAO is a little more sci-fi leaning than fantasy...... but yeah my science is absolute nonsense bullshit with no real world basis whatsoever

it's internally consistent in its nonsense bullshit though and that's what matters

guess you could call it some kinda YA coming of age sorta thing. idfk. in my brain I liken it to the same genre as "the rest of us just live here" by patrick ness. y'know. a people story that just so happens to be set against a fantastical background

Choose actors for your movie rendition.

oh good lord no, I can't do faceclaims, I'm so unbelievably picky, we would be here for a month

the only acceptable ATDAO movie renditions are either with an entirely new cast of characters or with every single character being played by brooms in various wigs

Give a one sentence synopsis of your book.

"maybe the real door was the friends we made along the way!!"

no that's definitely not it, fucking ignore me

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agent?

ehhh that's Future Logan Problems

I'd give traditional publishing a crack but in all honesty I'll probably just decide I'm too lazy to do either and I'll just fuckin post it online and be like "there have it it's free it's yours go!" because lmao

How long did it take you to write your first draft?

ohohohoho let's not open that can of worms

What other books could you compare your story to?

uhhhhh

well I already said vaguely "the rest of us just live here" by patrick ness in terms of genre, that’s probably the best I can come up with, in that it’s definitely a Story About People that just so happens to have this weird fantastical backdrop

and I've had people tell me in the past that my writing voice reminds them of douglas adams (generally only when I go full Phoenix Building Chronicles lmao. but that is, coincidentally, exactly when I have the most fun)

there's also a matter-of-factness with which people just sort of sigh and Deal with the objectively horrifying nonsense that's constantly happening around them as reality ever-so-slightly entirely unhinges itself, which is something that can I guess be likened to bits of WTNV??

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Who or what inspired you to write the book?

uhhhhhhhhh lots of people lots of places lots of things, but mostly like...... writing for me has always been one of the ways I process and explore the world, and..... I mean.... I sorta just write the sorts of stories I wish I’d had when I was younger, so in writing them I hope one day they’ll reach other people who need them. or want them. or whatever. aw that’s cheesy I’m gonna be quiet

What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?

bold of you to assume anything I've said so far has piqued the reader's interest

mkay there’s a lot I could mention here but I’ll take this opportunity to scream about something that is very important to me personally

so one of the main things for me is like....... I struggle so much to find stories with mentally ill characters that aren’t Capital A About mental illness. like. u know what I mean right. I know you know

mentally ill characters, they don’t really get to exist in fiction unless they serve a purpose or unless their mental illness is the entire point of the story, they don’t get to just go on a cool fuckin adventure because Fuck Yeah

like Tris deals with psychosis, he hears voices and has delusions, and Noa has what will eventually be diagnosed as borderline personality disorder, Shara and Kai and Alice have their own fuckery to deal with........... and like YEAH, the book’s discussions and depictions of mental illness aren’t ever something that’s watered down or played off as a joke, it’s one of the very few things I don’t poke fun at

but at its heart it’s still just a fuckin dumbass frolicking cross-dimensional sci-fi adventure. no nasty plot twists. no cheap gotchas. just a fuckin good time with a happy ending

anyway, it’s been a while since I’ve properly done a tag, honestly I have no idea who in writeblr likes to Be Tagged anymore and I definitely lost that list that was goin’ round........ also I feel like most of you have probably already done this one........ and ALSO it’s the middle of camp nano........ but I’m gonna tag some of my usual suspects and then some new faces, hello, feel free 2 ignore

@justaprettylittlesoulwriter @elliot-orion @christinewrites @itstheenglishkid @awolfthatwrites @breakeven2007 @spacebrick3 @chibi-shuuya aaaaand I lied I’m not tagging new faces that’s scary and I’m shy

[bookishbloggerreviews]

The Moonburner Series --An Honest Review

[Warning: I give an honest review that focuses not only on plot but on writing and character as well. As this is an opinion, you can take it as seriously as you want, but understand that my goal is to review, not shame or praise the author.]

Hey guys! Welcome back to spooktober! I hope you’ve been getting your spooks on because honestly I haven’t and I need someone to spook things up for me. 

Moving on... today I will be reviewing an indie book series, called the Moonburner series by Claire Luana!

(A side note, I will only be reviewing the first three books in the series, as I am contemplating on getting the last one--I’ll explain more in depth about this in the future.)

Anyway, let’s get into it! Overall, I really loved this series. I feel like the first book was a little rough and needed probably another draft or two, but the rest of the series was pretty good. Overall, I gave this series a 6/10. Personally, I loved these books and they rated more towards 8/10 reads, but I’m not here to smother you with my opinions, I’m here to give an honest, in-depth review of the book. (Also, if you’re new here, I start reading with an expectation of AT LEAST a 5/10 read. So it wasn’t horrible but a lot of the mistakes in here really dragged the score down.)

So now you’re probably wondering, how can you love a book so much but rate it lower? Well, I’m about to give you a dozen reasons why. 

Starting with the first book published in the series...

We have our main characters Kai, Quitsu, and Hiro. Kai and Quitsu are best friends and Quitsu is literally her spirit animal, whereas Kai and Hiro were first rivals but then became lovers. As for the plot, the plot revolves around two groups of people with the extraordinary power to draw upon moonlight or sunlight and burn it, as well as their wars. So already, you're pretty drawn in, right? I mean it’s a fabulous concept and I absolutely loved how they portrayed the powers that these characters have but there’s just one problem...

The writing lacked quite a bit. And by quite, I mean I ended up giving this book a 5/10. 

There were so many little errors that kept popping up about this book like... inconsistencies in world-building,  rushed relationships, (practically?) insta-love, lack of emotions/emotional connection, too many things going in such a short span, etc. Like this book, despite its loveable characters, amazing concepts, powers, animals, creatures, world, etc, needed a lot more work. 

And I don’t say this to tear the author down, I say this because I know, if these issues were fixed, this book would be as memorable as the newly released and practically favorited book by every reader across the globe, The Poppy War. 

So I’m going to take a very brief detour into the specifics of the books. If you want to read the book (which I encourage you to do so, it was still a fun and fast read.) then you might want to scroll down to the next book I’ll be reviewing in the series, if not, then read at your own peril. 

[WARNING: SPOILERS]

I’m going to go through this as quickly and as thoroughly as I can. 

Starting off with the inconsistencies in world-building, one thing that I noticed is the book would say, “Oh, these bats along with other creatures of the night serve us in our cause!” And then we would never see another creature of the night in the entire series. Or... “We are going to this mountain range to give you your final test to become a master moonburner!” But the mountains were never mentioned and didn’t even seem to exist until the characters decided to go there. These things are relatively easy fixes so I’m not quite sure why these were even a problem to begin with but *shrugs* oh well. 

Moving onto rushed relationships... this book was too fast-paced for its own good. I mean, seriously, this book attempted to fit a 500-page (minimum) plot into 300 pages and because of that, this book was severely underwritten. Now there are two types of writers out there. There are under-writers and over-writers. I, myself, am an underwriter and have to go back in four, five, six, times to add back in the detail that I was missing in the first place. Then there are over-writers like Stephanie Meyer and Laini Taylor (on occasion), where they over-write their stories and their books probably need to get trimmed some pages. But this book needed those extra pages of relationship building because in some places, for example, the main character would meet another character and then five pages later the main character would practically die for this person. 

The relationship or “instant-attraction” of Kai and Hiro is another good point. Hiro saves Kai’s life, Kai saves Hiro’s live, and then suddenly they’re like buddy-buddy. Like, you would figure that being mortal enemies and on the opposite side of the war, and having your own father murdered by your boyfriend’s men would cause you to be a little more cautious about who you want to get involved with but ok. 

And even with some of the emotional connections, I just didn’t get it. I felt like the author could see it in their head, but I couldn’t see it in mine. The only people that I don’t feel like this rule applies to are Kai’s closest friends because we are given a decent amount of time to know them and to interact with them so I can at least understand that. But with things like... Kai’s spirit animal, or Kai’s crush, or Kai’s boyfriend, or Kai’s powers for moon burning and her affinity for it... I just didn’t get it. A lot of the emotion seemed to be cut out or forgotten and I don’t know why. 

And finally, the last problem that I have with this book is the rape. I completely get this and understand that it’s a big part of what’s happening and why these people are so evil, but I do not feel like it was handled the way it should’ve been. With such a sensitive topic, I feel like more sensitivity is needed, and I only received about half the dose I needed on that. 

And if you’ve read the book you might be saying, “but they promised to save them! They never forgot about them! Etc!” but that’s not what I’m talking about. What I’m talking about is the subtle “if we get caught we’ll be just like them”, half-heartedness going on. It rubbed me the wrong way and I felt like there wasn’t enough seriousness given to the subject for it to be adequately covered. 

But again, these are all writing errors. The concepts are fabulous and I love them to bits but this book needed a lot more polishing than it got. 

Continuing onto the Second book, this series took a direction I would’ve never seen. A majority of the plot in this book is all brand new. Unless you read the description I’m not sure you would know where this was going but needless to say that it still fell into some of the same writing flaws as the last book. The only difference between this and the last book was these errors were fewer or had less effect. 

I’ll go into depth more in a moment but for an overall score, I gave this a 6.5/10. While my original decision was to leave it at a 6, I didn’t think it deserved that low of a score, but it did not earn a solid 7, hence the .5. 

So as I mentioned, it fell into some of the same writing mistakes but it wasn’t as nearly as bad as the first book. 

For one, the book actually slowed down a lot allowing for some real character development and relationships to form. (Although Kai and Hiro still needed some work, another pair showed up that saved the day.) 

There was still a little of that troubled world-building where they would mention they were going to the docks and my brain was like: “lol this was a coastal city what?” Or, “these demons have been haunting us for centuries and they have been tearing us apart!” And there were no mentions of any sort of creatures BEFORE this book so I’m sitting there thinking... 

Also, there was a lot of sexism that was kind of brought up and I was like wtf is this, where is this coming from? Because you only saw a hint of it in the previous book but now it’s full blown like...:

In the previous book, sunburners could only be male and moonburners could only be female and there was a mentioned distrust between the two sexes but in this book is like: 

BAM IN YOUR FACE

And I’m not exactly sure where the need came from as to why the book had to have so many stereotypes blended into the story when the previous book didn’t really have that at all but... 

As for the emotional connection, there were several good spots that allowed me to really see what the character was feeling which was nice. It wasn’t through the whole book and it seemed rather empty for the majority of the time, but there were good spots! 

And again, another thing this book series keeps struggling with is too much plot, not enough pages. Seriously, in the first chapter, a main character nearly dies and I’m like WTF it’s the first chapter we’ve only been reading this for five minutes and they’re already on a death bed?! Or, in this case, they also had to go find artifacts and people to help save their world and I remember reading and going: “I’m 65% through the book and this quest is just BARELY starting???” (not that events weren’t happening it just seemed like the MAIN event didn’t happen until over halfway through the book.)

As for the rape stuff, that wasn’t really involved in this book. There were instances where I wished the world-building and the connections would be stronger cause I was sitting there thinking... “This girl isn’t the only victim... there are like 6 others... what happened to all the other victims? And what happened to the men?” Etc. 

Overall, I don’t think that this part of the series had a plot line fully planned out beforehand, plus it needed another draft or two, but regardless of what I say and how I’m getting after every little thing, I STILL ENJOYED THIS BOOK. Don’t get me wrong, these were mistakes but they were bearable mistakes because I enjoyed the storyline and the world enough to ignore them. 

The Moonburner series has 4 books, which would probably be divided up better into a prequel novella, a duology, and a stand-alone novel. I’ve read the duology and Burning Fates is the novella. (Personally, I’m not sure if I want to read the stand-alone novel right now. I might, but I also have a huge AF TBR that I’ve been putting off for weeks now...)

And honestly, out of the whole series that I’ve read, this is actually my favorite of them. (Oh, and I forgot. You can actually get this novella for free if you sign up for a newsletter from the author. So go check that out! Link is here: https://claireluana.com/) But the romance was the most real out of all of them, the characters had amazing character development despite it being a novella, and I wish this would’ve been a full-sized book because I can see there is much more to this story. 

The story itself follows Kai’s parents and how they fell in love and it sets up really nicely for the first book in the series but needless to say... I WAS EMOTIONALLY DISTRAUGHT DURING THIS WHOLE TIME. 

Because, if you were to read Moonburner first, you already know how a character dies and sitting there, growing slowly attached to this morally and a romantically upstanding person, knowing how they die, was literal torture. 

This book was the right length, it had a very good balance of emotions and plot, it was a little Romeo and Juliet like but that’s 100% okay because it was well done, and overall, I gave this book a 8/10. 

There was nothing that made me leaving screaming with joy, but it was just balanced enough and well written that I left having thoroughly enjoyed the book and I am very tempted to buy this as a physical copy because it left such a good impression on me. 

Again, the series overall was a 6/10 for me, but it’s clear that the author has been improving in terms of writing, character development and plot. I don’t typically advertise on my blog because I find it obnoxious to find on other people’s, but I sincerely believe that this indie author is worth keeping an eye on. Currently, she is releasing a brand new series (and literally, she has amazing covers every single time, it’s kind of ridiculous.) called the Confectioners Guild. (Also, Claire please don’t sue me if I use your image I’m trying to support you because I want to see you do well T.T)

And I’m not going to lie, this sounds like the most interesting delectable thing yet. For a brief overview, a confectioner in a magical world is framed for murder when her cupcakes end up poisoning someone. I won’t say any more than that, but I said, it already sounds wonderfully delicious and you can find the link to her whole series right here: https://claireluana.com/confectioner-chronicles/

(Also, btw, I’m not sponsored, I just love her books. Shoot me for wanting to see a  good indie author explode into mainstream media.)

Anyway, as usual, thank you for reading this review. If you liked it and want to see more of my honest reviews, feel free to give my little blog a follow and a like or a reblog. (Seriously tho, if you can do that my little 6 follower blog will adore you for the unconditional support.) 

And as always... 

I will see you next time!

A Bookish Blogger out!

[xaoh-f-goon]

Now that the hopes for a better look at this page onscreen have gone up in smoke, I suppose I should attempt to analyse this thing properly. Conditions are not ideal, but when are they ever. Let’s go.

(end of the Spyglass article) ...the Spyglass fully you will now have to work with the three extensions to begin decoding. The wonderful thing about these Spyglasses is they are tailored to the individual using them. So if a non secret organization member were to find said Spyglass it would almost instantaneously render useless for them. They would simply pick up an interesting looking cylinder. However if they were clever enough they may be able to figure out some of the featured of the Spyglass. However they wouldn’t possibly know that it is used to decipher hidden codes and messages. Unless they began pointing it at certain object and images or people or clothing or anything really that may or may not contain a hidden message or code all the while adjusting the and has graciously accepted the children into his home. (copy-paste remnant)

IKE ANWHISTLE: V.F.D’S MOST NOMINATED VOLUNTEER OF THE MONTH RECORD HOLDER

Ike has done it again for being the most nominated member yet! This day marks his 99th nomination which is a huge accomplishment within the V.F.D. secret society. He has officially surpassed Jaques Snicket who held the record at 98 nominations. Both are extremely dedicated volunteers and V.F.D. owes a great deal of gratitude too these two members and to all the V.F.D. members who set out with the intent to put out fires! So what does this all mean for Ike Anwhistle? Ike will receive a commemorative plaque as the new record holder, a decorative badge, a very fun duffel filled with fire extinguishers, lids, baking soda, salt, and anything that can be used to put out a fire. Ike will also receive a verified functional draft stating he has in fact broken the record for most nominations. There will also be a grand ball scheduled in Ike’s honour to celebrate this incredible achievement. The ball will located in a location that only V.F.D. 

Volunteers will know. It is somewhere in The City and... place that holds a great deal of people, a place separated by the dewey decimal system, a place with a large clock, a very famous (bell?) (ding?) [NB: if both of these word estimates from their blurry shapes are true, it could be potentially misread as meaning to say ‘building’, while also literally saying the true thing (that it’s a famous bell) with a randomly added sound effect, which could be the start of an OG Sebald Code. See also: Dear Dairy.] Of course only V.F.D. members will be able to understand (these directions?). The grand ball will have a great deal of ... for all members to enjoy! Ike will be awarded a veritable .... because of his achievement. ...

...With his first nomination under his belt Bark released Ike from under his wing and the two became partners battling raging fires all around the world.

There was one fire in Lake Lachrymose that almost engulfed the whole town and almost killed Ike. While he was healing from his wounds he found himself reading a great deal at the V.F.D. library where he met Josephine. The two became infatuated with each other and married two years later. The schism. Two words that are hard to hear, rarely spoken, and have cause a great deal of pain within the V.F.D. organization. A event that has rocked V.F.D. to its core and has corrupted the organization which has sought out to extinguish all fires near and far and to save the lives of those who could not extinguish the flames themselves.

Now the lines are blurred within the organization evil is using the good they’ve learned to start fires. Lines have been drawn there are fire starters and the fire fighters. A reason why Ike has so many nominations to his name is his effort to stop the fire starting side. Ike has shown abundant initiation in taking down the culprits that have left many without homes, many without families, and many without anything. Ike started a organization within the organization to prevent the fire starting side of knowing what the fire fighting side was doing. He increased security and with the help of his wife and other members with the amount of codes and hidden safe places. It is still hard to know who knows what. V.F.D. used to be a big family, all against evil, fighting for good. Then this damn schism tore that family apart.

Loved ones fighting against loved ones. However those who have remained true to V.F.D. know they are doing good even when you sometimes have to cross a line, sometimes it must be crossed. Ike has known the risks of valiantly going up against the fire starting side, he knows what may end up happening, he knows his life may be lost, and that things may blow up in flames. These are some of the many reasons why V.F.D. is honoured to award Ike Anwhistle with his 99th Volunteer of the Month Nomination he is in the ranks of the great Meryl Streep!

With all the negative news surrounding V.F.D. and whether it has become an organization of good or an organization of evil there will always be news whether it be good or bad. And there is some good news and that is the news of Ike Anwhistle and all that he has done for the organization! We shall commemorate this with the Grand Ball in his honour, where he will be awarded for the most Volunteer of the Month nominations. Surprising many great individuals who have previously held this record. There is not enough gratitude on this earth that could possibly be given to Ike for all that he has done for this organization. We know what a great (asset?) Ike continues to be and what...

Handwritten comments:

ALL IT’S HAVE A MEANING

POSSIBLE ANAGRAM -> VERY  FLAVORABLE DEW

VERIFIED FUNCTIONAL DRAFT

V.F.D. EYE ON LEFT ANKLE

WHY WOULD AN ENTIRE ARTICLE BE WRITTEN ON ONE MAN

READ BE-TWEEN THE LINES

So in summary. There definitely is - or is definitely meant to be - a code or two in here. The grammatical error code is referenced directly (but half the text is missing or too blurred to check for spelling errors). Every mention of a number is underlined (except one instance that has been missed). Meryl Streep was nominated Volunteer Of The Month (presumably for her work on the movie propaganda). It is implied that the word ‘Very’ is in fact, somehow, an anagram (which would excuse its overuse beautifully).

There’s a lot to unpack and I fear that unless this article is in the published book or seen later in flashback it will never be unpackable. 

[automagick]

The purpose of lorem ipsum is to create a natural looking block of text (sentence, paragraph, page, etc.) that doesn't distract from the layout. A practice not without controversy, laying out pages with meaningless filler text can be very useful when the focus is meant to be on design, not content.

The passage experienced a surge in popularity during the 1960s when Letraset used it on their dry-transfer sheets, and again during the 90s as desktop publishers bundled the text with their software. Today it's seen all around the web; on templates, websites, and stock designs. Use our generator to get your own, or read on for the authoritative history of lorem ipsum.

       Origins and Discovery      

Lorem ipsum began as scrambled, nonsensical Latin derived from Cicero's 1st-century BC text De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum.

         Hedonist Roots      

Until recently, the prevailing view assumed lorem ipsum was born as a nonsense text. “It's not Latin, though it looks like it, and it actually says nothing,” Before & After magazine answered a curious reader, “Its ‘words’ loosely approximate the frequency with which letters occur in English, which is why at a glance it looks pretty real.”

As Cicero would put it, “Um, not so fast.”

The placeholder text, beginning with the line “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit”, looks like Latin because in its youth, centuries ago, it was Latin.

Richard McClintock, a Latin scholar from Hampden-Sydney College, is credited with discovering the source behind the ubiquitous filler text. In seeing a sample of lorem ipsum, his interest was piqued by consectetur—a genuine, albeit rare, Latin word. Consulting a Latin dictionary led McClintock to a passage from De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum (“On the Extremes of Good and Evil”), a first-century B.C. text from the Roman philosopher Cicero.

In particular, the garbled words of lorem ipsum bear an unmistakable resemblance to sections 1.10.32–33 of Cicero's work, with the most notable passage excerpted below:

“Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem.”

A 1914 English translation by Harris Rackham reads:

“Nor is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure.”

McClintock's eye for detail certainly helped narrow the whereabouts of lorem ipsum's origin, however, the “how and when” still remain something of a mystery, with competing theories and timelines.

   McClintock wrote to Before & After to explain his discovery;

“What I find remarkable is that this text has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since some printer in the 1500s took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book; it has survived not only four centuries of letter-by-letter resetting but even the leap into electronic typesetting, essentially unchanged except for an occasional 'ing' or 'y' thrown in. It's ironic that when the then-understood Latin was scrambled, it became as incomprehensible as Greek; the phrase 'it's Greek to me' and 'greeking' have common semantic roots!” (The editors published his letter in a correction headlined “Lorem Oopsum”).

As an alternative theory, (and because Latin scholars do this sort of thing) someone tracked down a 1914 Latin edition of De Finibus which challenges McClintock's 15th century claims and suggests that the dawn of lorem ipsum was as recent as the 20th century. The 1914 Loeb Classical Library Edition ran out of room on page 34 for the Latin phrase “dolorem ipsum” (sorrow in itself). Thus, the truncated phrase leaves one page dangling with “do-”, while another begins with the now ubiquitous “lorem ipsum”.

Whether a medieval typesetter chose to garble a well-known (but non-Biblical—that would have been sacrilegious) text, or whether a quirk in the 1914 Loeb Edition inspired a graphic designer, it's admittedly an odd way for Cicero to sail into the 21st century.

       Meaning of Lorem Ipsum      

Lorem ipsum was purposefully designed to have no meaning, but appear like real text, making it the perfect placeholder.

         Interpreting Nonsense      

Don't bother typing “lorem ipsum” into Google translate. If you already tried, you may have gotten anything from "NATO" to "China", depending on how you capitalized the letters. The bizarre translation was fodder for conspiracy theories, but Google has since updated its “lorem ipsum” translation to, boringly enough, “lorem ipsum”.

One brave soul did take a stab at translating the almost-not-quite-Latin. According to The Guardian, Jaspreet Singh Boparai undertook the challenge with the goal of making the text “precisely as incoherent in English as it is in Latin - and to make it incoherent in the same way”. As a result, “the Greek 'eu' in Latin became the French 'bien' [...] and the '-ing' ending in 'lorem ipsum' seemed best rendered by an '-iendum' in English.”

Here is the classic lorem ipsum passage followed by Boparai's odd, yet mesmerizing version:

“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nam hendrerit nisi sed sollicitudin pellentesque. Nunc posuere purus rhoncus pulvinar aliquam. Ut aliquet tristique nisl vitae volutpat. Nulla aliquet porttitor venenatis. Donec a dui et dui fringilla consectetur id nec massa. Aliquam erat volutpat. Sed ut dui ut lacus dictum fermentum vel tincidunt neque. Sed sed lacinia lectus. Duis sit amet sodales felis. Duis nunc eros, mattis at dui ac, convallis semper risus. In adipiscing ultrices tellus, in suscipit massa vehicula eu.”

Boparai's version:

“Rrow itself, let it be sorrow; let him love it; let him pursue it, ishing for its acquisitiendum. Because he will ab hold, uniess but through concer, and also of those who resist. Now a pure snore disturbeded sum dust. He ejjnoyes, in order that somewon, also with a severe one, unless of life. May a cusstums offficer somewon nothing of a poison-filled. Until, from a twho, twho chaffinch may also pursue it, not even a lump. But as twho, as a tank; a proverb, yeast; or else they tinscribe nor. Yet yet dewlap bed. Twho may be, let him love fellows of a polecat. Now amour, the, twhose being, drunk, yet twhitch and, an enclosed valley’s always a laugh. In acquisitiendum the Furies are Earth; in (he takes up) a lump vehicles bien.”

Nick Richardson described the translation “like extreme Mallarmé, or a Burroughsian cut-up, or a paragraph of Finnegans Wake. Bits of it have surprising power: the desperate insistence on loving and pursuing sorrow, for instance, that is cheated out of its justification – an incomplete object that has been either fished for, or wished for.”

       Usage and Examples      

Lorem ipsum was popularized in the 1960s with Letraset's dry-transfer sheets, and later entered the digital world via Aldus PageMaker.

         Digital Ipsum      

The decade that brought us Star Trek and Doctor Who also resurrected Cicero—or at least what used to be Cicero—in an attempt to make the days before computerized design a little less painstaking.

The French lettering company Letraset manufactured a set of dry-transfer sheets which included the lorem ipsum filler text in a variety of fonts, sizes, and layouts. These sheets of lettering could be rubbed on anywhere and were quickly adopted by graphic artists, printers, architects, and advertisers for their professional look and ease of use.

Aldus Corporation, which later merged with Adobe Systems, ushered lorem ipsum into the information age with its desktop publishing software Aldus PageMaker. The program came bundled with lorem ipsum dummy text for laying out page content, and other word processors like Microsoft Word followed suit. More recently the growth of web design has helped proliferate lorem ipsum across the internet as a placeholder for future text—and in some cases the final content (this is why we proofread, kids).

       Controversy in the Design World      

Some claim lorem ipsum threatens to promote design over content, while others defend its value in the process of planning.

         Design or (Dis)content      

Among design professionals, there's a bit of controversy surrounding the filler text. Controversy, as in Death to Lorem Ipsum.

The strength of lorem ipsum is its weakness: it doesn't communicate. To some, designing a website around placeholder text is unacceptable, akin to sewing a custom suit without taking measurements. Kristina Halvorson notes:

“I’ve heard the argument that “lorem ipsum” is effective in wireframing or design because it helps people focus on the actual layout, or color scheme, or whatever. What kills me here is that we’re talking about creating a user experience that will (whether we like it or not) be DRIVEN by words. The entire structure of the page or app flow is FOR THE WORDS.”

Lorem ipsum is so ubiquitous because it is so versatile. Select how many paragraphs you want, copy, paste, and break the lines wherever it is convenient. Real copy doesn't work that way.

As front-end developer Kyle Fiedler put it:

“When you are designing with Lorem Ipsum, you diminish the importance of the copy by lowering it to the same level as any other visual element. The text simply becomes another supporting role, serving to make other aspects more aesthetic. Instead of your design enhancing the meaning of the content, your content is enhancing your design.”

But despite zealous cries for the demise of lorem ipsum, others, such as Karen McGrane, offer appeals for moderation:

“Lorem Ipsum doesn’t exist because people think the content is meaningless window dressing, only there to be decorated by designers who can’t be bothered to read. Lorem Ipsum exists because words are powerful. If you fill up your page with draft copy about your client’s business, they will read it. They will comment on it. They will be inexorably drawn to it. Presented the wrong way, draft copy can send your design review off the rails.”

And that’s why a 15th century typesetter might have scrambled a passage of Cicero; he wanted people to focus on his fonts, to imagine their own content on the pages. He wanted people to see, and to get them to see he had to keep them from reading.

       When to Use Lorem Ipsum      

Generally, lorem ipsum is best suited to keeping templates from looking bare or minimizing the distractions of draft copy.

         Form Over Function      

So when is it okay to use lorem ipsum? First, lorem ipsum works well for staging. It's like the props in a furniture store—filler text makes it look like someone is home. The same Wordpress template might eventually be home to a fitness blog, a photography website, or the online journal of a cupcake fanatic. Lorem ipsum helps them imagine what the lived-in website might look like.

Second, use lorem ipsum if you think the placeholder text will be too distracting. For specific projects, collaboration between copywriters and designers may be best, however, like Karen McGrane said, draft copy has a way of turning any meeting about layout decisions into a discussion about word choice. So don't be afraid to use lorem ipsum to keep everyone focused.

One word of caution: make sure your client knows that lorem ipsum is filler text. You don't want them wondering why you filled their website with a foreign language, and you certainly don't want anyone prematurely publishing it.

       Lorem Ipsum All the Things      

Coming full circle, the internet's remixing of the now infamous lorem ipsum passage has officially elevated it to pop culture status.

         Because it's the Internet      

There was that time artists at Sequence opted to hand-Sharpie the lorem ipsum passage on a line of paper bags they designed for Chipotle—the result being a mixture of avant-garde, inside joke, and Sharpie-stained tables. Those with an eye for detail may have caught a tribute to the classic text in an episode of Mad Men (S6E1 around 1:18:55 for anyone that didn't). And here is a lorem ipsum tattoo.

Of course, we'd be remiss not to include the veritable cadre of lorem ipsum knock offs featuring:

Bacon Ipsum – Served all day. “Bacon ipsum dolor amet chicken turducken spare ribs.”

Hipster Ipsum – In case you're in need of a “shoreditch direct trade four dollar toast copper mug.”

Corporate Ipsum – “Leveraging agile frameworks to provide a robust synopsis” from eight to five.

Legal Ipsum – Fully unlicensed legalese for those times you don't want to pay $400/hr.

Not to mention, Cupcake Ipsum, Bob Ross Ipsum (“happy little clouds”), and the furry Cat Ipsum. And in case that's not enough, check out our very own Ultimate List of Lorem Ipsum Generators.

So there you have it. Lorem ipsum: the nonsense words unable to fully escape meaning.

       Original Source Text      

Below are the original Latin passages from which Lorem Ipsum was derived, paired with their 1914 translations by H. Rackham.

         Section 1.10.32 of Cicero's “De finibus bonorum et malorum”      

Original Latin text:

“Sed ut perspiciatis, unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam eaque ipsa, quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt, explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem, quia voluptas sit, aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos, qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt, neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum, quia dolor sit amet consectetur adipisci[ng] velit, sed quia non numquam [do] eius modi tempora inci[di]dunt, ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit, qui in ea voluptate velit esse, quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum, qui dolorem eum fugiat, quo voluptas nulla pariatur?”