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Yet another fake agency

Via Gabino Iglesias over at the “Once Upon A Time It Was A Bird” place: “Saw this at the other place and went digging. These people don’t exist. These books are fake, just like the bios. They tried it before under a different name. Writers looking for an agent: don’t send them anything. Again, this is a fake agency: pensandpitchliterary.com”

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parting writing advice before this blog becomes inactive from someone who takes pictures of broken bones for a living and who has worked in an ER

a fracture of the bone is the exact same thing as a break, it’s just a more medical term the same way that sutures are the exact same thing as stitches and edema is the same thing as swelling, so an open fracture that breaks through the skin is the same thing as a closed hairline fracture you can barely see on an X-ray is the same thing as a stress fracture that is only really detectable with a physical exam, they’re only classified in more specific ways and they are treated based on severity

most superficial wounds aren’t going to be stitched up after 12-24 hours because they’ve been open long enough that closing them at that point would be asking for infection

an X-ray is a little bit of radiation, a CT is quite a bit more radiation, and an MRI is a magnet with no radiation whatsoever

no matter what grey’s anatomy or any other medical show might make you believe, doctors rarely do any actual imaging (taking X-rays, CTs, etc) and most of them would have no idea how

Concussions are not diagnosed with imaging. There is not a single X-ray or CT or anything else that can tell a doctor that their patient has a concussion. A concussion is diagnosed with an exam. Patients will usually have a headache and they will be dizzy, nauseous, light/sound sensitive, and sometimes they will have memory or vision problems. They will occasionally have something called nystagmus in their eyes. CTs are taken to rule out more serious conditions such as a fractured skull or bleeding/clotting in the brain.

O2 saturation is a vital that tells you how much oxygen is in your blood. Anything above 95% is okay. Anything from 90-94% is going to make a medical professional take a second look. Anything from 80-90% is low grade hypoxia and you’re getting a chest X-ray and possibly put on oxygen. You might be going to the hospital. Anything below 80% is most likely a hospital admission whether you like it or not because you’re about to get a whole shit ton of labs and a CT of your lungs at the very least if the X-ray hasn’t show a punctured lung or pneumonia to explain what’s up. I hope you find nasal cannulas comfortable. Doctors would be concerned about a blood clot, lung cancer, and other super concerning pathologies.

Kidney stones hurt like a bitch and can cripple most people to the point where they cannot walk. Imagine a foot long straw trying to pass a rock that is 2-3x it’s diameter.

Children regrow bones like lizards grow their tails. Kids can be healed from a fracture in 2-4 weeks that would take an adult 6-8 weeks to heal.

The femur is an incredible difficult bone to break. It’s usually a very high impact injury (car wreck, long distance fall, skiing accident, etc).

This is just advice but do not do not DO NOT ride in the passenger seat of a car with your legs propped up on the dash if you value keeping your leg bones intact where they are supposed to be. Just don’t do it, please. But if you want to write a particularly gruesome car wreck, that’s a good way to do it!

Animal bites are almost always preemptively treated with antibiotics.

I might add more if I can think of it but I’ll answer any questions if people have them

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From Alexis Renata's chapbook, I've Heard This One Before, available from Bottlecap Press!

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Honestly? My main piece of advice for writing well-rounded characters is to make them a little bit lame. No real living person is 100% cool and suave 100% of the time. Everyone's a little awkward sometimes, or gets too excited about something goofy, or has a silly fear, or laughs about stupid things. Being a bit of a loser is an incurable part of the human condition. Utilize that in your writing.

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Hey! Hey, friends! Are you looking for fantasy with COMPETENT MIDDLE-AGED PROTAGONISTS who are PROBABLY BROKEN but also still TRYING REAL HARD?

(Of course you are.)

Would you also like some COOL WORLDBUILDING? What about CREEPY VILLAINS?

Romance between broken people learning how their pieces fit together? Snark and banter? Berserker paladins of a dead god? Giant bears? Badger people with a whole cool society living alongside humans? Lawyer priests? Seamless diversity and inclusion? Body and sex positivity? One of the best opening lines to a book series I’ve ever come across?

(Stephen’s god died a little after noon on the longest day of the year.)

You’re looking for @tkingfisher!

Specifically, you’re looking for her Saint of Steel series.

I’ve read the first three books in three days.

(Oh, and if you want plot-relevant demon chickens, a dog made of bones, and snarky old ladies, you want Kingfisher’s Nettle and Bone. And if you want a great spin on the Beauty and the Beast story inspired by Robin McKinley’s Rose Daughter, you want Bryony and Roses.)

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A wild update of Of Vampires & Turnabouts appears!

Thank you all for sticking around, I hope you guys like this info-heavy chapter of the fic. I'm very excited to see you guys react to where this goes.

Link to the fic here!

#my writing #long fic #fanfiction #ace attorney fanfiction #vampire au #vampire phoenix au #vampire phoenix wright #phoenix wright #miles edgeworth #narumitsu #wrightworth #slow-burn #case fic #it's a long game rn but i promise it'll be worth it #writing friends if you've been wondering why i haven't been participating in tag games or anything #it's because this is the only thing i've been writing

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“Before the writers started working on the first season, I wrote a list of six things on the wall that every episode had to do.” - Mike Schur (x)

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I've had a couple of messages over the last few days from folks saying things like, "Sorry, I can only afford to get your book through the library," and I need you to know I am gripping you by the shoulders, I am shaking you gently, and I am begging you stop apologizing for using library services.

After Amazon and Payhip, the quarterly checks I get from Overdrive/Libby are my biggest and most reliable source of income.

My readers have been nothing but feral in their quest to get Hunger Pangs into as many libraries as possible, and while library lending pays an exceptionally modest amount, if enough people do it (which many of you evidently are), those pennies add up.

I am guaranteed at least $20 a month in library lending royalties. That might not sound like much to some folks, but to me, that's my b12 supplements covered for the month. That's the thing I need to keep me alive paid for.

I will never resent anyone who uses libraries instead of buying books.

I'm a disabled author who lives month to month at the mercy of my medical expenses. Even though I have incredibly generous patrons and supporters, I know what it's like to not be able to afford things.

Use the library. Please.

Use it guilt-free. You're helping the library and the authors, probably more than you realize.

And if you're in the US and haven't signed up for a @queerliblib free library card yet, you should! it doesn't matter what state you're in, the Queer Liberation Library offers free access to their catalogue of queer media across the US.

And if you've got the means, maybe help them out with a little donation. They're only able to expand their collection via the support of their patrons, and the work they're doing is hugely important.

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thank you BarBar for publishing my story Within the Wall! this is such an odd story i truly didn’t think i would ever find a home for it. if you like rats, religious themes, and anthropomorphized animal stories like Watership Down and Warriors, i would appreciate your reads :)

this story contains depictions of violence, animal death, and religious imagery. please read at your own discretion!

#to read #op your description also includes redwall #of which i am a huge fan of #cant wait to read your short story

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Last Line Tag

Thanks for @blind-the-winds for tagging me!

I will tag @veradragonjedi @winterandwords @illarian-rambling @toribookworm22 and anyone else who wants to!

Their families, hard at work with kama in hand, stole glances at the trio’s late return. Kyu knew full well the weight of disapproving gazes which hung in the air, and on her narrow shoulders like a boulder. Which was why she stepped up to the tall young man, over two heads taller, yet the smaller teen showed no fear. Stood as broad as oxen, maybe even stronger than one. Smarter than one would expect, perhaps too smart for his own good—Kyu had that notion many times over the years about her twin. “You didn’t finish your chores for the day. Why are you out there?” Kyu asked, arms crossed over her torso. “I will not suffer for your foolishness.”

#oooh #other people's writing

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story where a young girl is sent off to boarding school and when she comes back to her little tourist town that summer she has changed, changed in the way that all young girls do when they are sent away from home for the first time, changed in the way that all girls do when they aren’t really as young as they once were. But also changed in the way that she is voraciously hungry, and changed in a way that the family cat hates her, and changed in a way that when her best friend is attacked by a dog she attacks it back like a wild thing and wins. Changed. Maybe not for the better.

#katie please write an actual book from these snippets i'm begging you #other people's writing

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op on the version of this I saw has turned off reblogs while posting lots of frustrated messages about how they don't care about people's actual responses. I'm adding some things they didn't think of.

I care about y'all's actual responses.

I wanna hear all about your writing in the tags. do tell.

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thx for ur participation 😊

#i need to read bloodless heir more lol

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oooh I really like this! The tired plea in her voice really tugged on my heartstrings. Can't wait to read the rest!

Just an update on the ghost story. I'm working on it. Baby slows me down. Here's an excerpt.

The lights turned on and off at the worst possible time, no matter how many times she changed the bulbs. On cold nights, the vents blew ice, but on warm days they spit gusts straight from the pit of hell. Drawers opened and closed even when she kept Damian away from them. The opening tripled after she installed baby locks.

Still, she baby-proofed the house as well as she could. She put a baby gate across the rickety stair down to the unfinished basement. She put padding on the sharp edges of the doorframes and locks on the sullen black stove and plastic knob covers on the antique door knobs. Damian was crawling now, really running on all fours, and soon he'd walk. He was already pulling himself up on everything, standing against every vertical surface he could find.

She wanted this house to be safe. She needed it to be. She was desperate. Maybe that was why, when the drawer holding the knives slammed open one more time, she grabbed it and said, “Please. Please don’t.”

Please don’t what? She didn’t even know. Damian was wailing from his playpen, not hurt at all but bored, and all she said was “Please don’t.”

Slowly, the drawer slid shut.

Tag list for everything

@harleyacoincidence

@anonymousfoz

@moremysteriesthantragedies

@elizababie

@sm-writes-chaos

@bellascarousel

@the-dragon-chronicler

@teacupsandstarlight

@vorskra

@wrenofthewords

@amostdelectablescribbler

@mysticstarlightduck

@phantommill

@gracewritesbooks

@aziz-reads

@owlsandwich

@symbioticsimplicity

@squarebracket-trick

@koala2all

@rmgrey-author

@atomatowriter

@cheerfulmelancholies

@delusionisaplace

@janec23

@writing-is-a-martial-art

@authortango

Just chapters and snippets

@da-na-hae

#other peoples writing #ghost stories #writer chat

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Oh man, I'm glad everything's okay now!

Cast Out: Chapter Nine

Thesil was sitting on her bedroll when I darted into the tent, my heart pounding from more than the run. I could nearly taste the sweetness of the ore still hanging in my mouth. I shuddered and closed my eyes. Taste. All I'd ever done was smell the ore. How much more powerful would the visions be if I tasted it? If I did as Holy Efra had done and let it melt on my tongue into my blood and body. I'd always known people ate it, once the thrill of scent had grown too weak to move them. Not my parents, who could never afford to indulge outside the religious rites every year. But some people. Those rich enough to have it often. I wondered what my life would have been like if I'd been born to such parents. Probably no different. No one would expose children to such a thing.

No. Without my parents, I would have no signs, no culture. No hope. It would have been very different.

I banished my longing – for my family, and the ore – and opened my eyes. From Thesil's annoyed expression, I thought she must have been trying to get my attention for some time. Then I noticed her eyes were swollen and red, like she'd been crying. I moved to her side quickly, sliding down to sit next to her. "What's wrong?" I asked her. "Why are you sad?"

Perhaps that was a stupid question. She'd been exiled from home, like me. Perhaps a better question was why wasn't I sadder?

Read the rest here.

I scheduled this before my life went to hell. Please read and say something so I'm not thinking about how shit my family life is.

Tag list for everything

@harleyacoincidence

@anonymousfoz

@moremysteriesthantragedies

@elizababie

@sm-writes-chaos

@bellascarousel

@the-dragon-chronicler

@teacupsandstarlight

@vorskra

@wrenofthewords

@amostdelectablescribbler

@mysticstarlightduck

@phantommill

@gracewritesbooks

@aziz-reads

@owlsandwich

@symbioticsimplicity

@squarebracket-trick

@koala2all

@rmgrey-author

@atomatowriter

@cheerfulmelancholies

@delusionisaplace

@janec23

@writing-is-a-martial-art

@authortango

Just chapters and snippets

@da-na-hae