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cafeacademia · 2 years

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𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧

𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫 𝐑𝐞𝐢𝐝 𝐱 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: When the Quantico office expands their library and introduces a new librarian, Spencer is immediately taken with her. But when she gets perhaps a little too curious about Spencer and is reading tastes, she turns to Penelope for help finding his goodreads...

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭: A bit of confident!Spencer, Penelope sneaks around to find Spencer's socials, literally the rest is fluff, flirting and books.

𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: Approx 1.7k (this was supposed to be a tiny drabble oops)

𝐌𝐲 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬

𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞: Hello!! This was supposed to just be a little small drabble for my celebration, but I got a little bit carried away 😳 anyway, I hope you enjoy it and it lives up to the request sent in by @reidsbookclub!! 💕 Feel free to join in and send me some asks or requests for my celebration!

Spencer was all too happy the second it was announced that the library in the Quantico office was receiving an upgrade. Instead of just housing books beneficial to cases and archiving, it was going to have an entirely new section, created for recreational reading to help relieve workplace stress.

For Spencer it was not just a matter of relieving stress that the library did for him, but rather more of a sense of belonging. It was not only the books that made him feel like he belonged, nor was it the heaps of archived articles, readings, lectures and every scrap of information contained within the library. It was you.

Along with the upgrade, the office had added a new librarian and that just so happened to be you. The old librarian had retired and perhaps it had been a blessing in disguise because she had been a rather unfriendly person to nearly everyone that entered the library. You however, were a breath of fresh air.

Oh how Spencer adored coming through the library doors to be greeted with a sweet and smiley “Hello, Doctor Reid.”, Spencer loved the way his name sounded on your lips.

Spencer even began to wonder if some of his impromptu visits to the library were actually not for the books at all and were purely so that he could get a moment just to talk to you - this tended to occur after the end of a case and Spencer maintained, only to himself, that you were certainly a sight for sore eyes.

But as much as he knew his own attraction to you, he had absolutely no idea that those sweet smiles and little chats between the bookshelves were reserved only for him. Naturally, it seemed like everyone else knew.

Spencer recommended all of the books that he thought other people would be interested in, but there were times that you wondered what his real reading interests were. It was hard to tell with him, he read so much and so fast that he expanded his pool of interests as wide as it could possibly go. So, one morning while the team was heading out to another state to work on a case, you cornered Penelope when she inevitably made her way into the library for some light hearted romance to try and keep her mind away from the gruesome side of her job.

“Pen,” You approached her as she stopped in front of the romance shelf. Perhaps it had been a bit silly, but you did enjoy decorating the different fiction shelves according to their genre. Apparently some of the agents had made fun of your decorations, but Hotch and Spencer both reassured you that it was appreciated and made the room a lot more comforting and welcoming. Spencer even maintained that the people that didn’t like your decor probably didn’t read either.

“There you are!” Penelope lit up with a huge smile once she saw you. “I was hoping you’d be able to recommend a good romance for this week.” “Of course, but only if you help me out a little too.” You wagered and Penelope glanced at you, her smile turning into a rather sly smirk, catching onto your mischievous tone. “Alright I’ll bite, name your price sweetpea.”

Looking around you both just to make sure that there wasn’t anyone else around, you suddenly became very shy. Oh this was going to be much more difficult than you had anticipated. “Um-.” “This is about our boy wonder, isn’t it?” If you had been drinking anything, you would have choked on it. “Well, yes?” You cringed at your own awkwardness. “I just wondered if you knew if he had anything like a bookstagram or a goodreads or something.” You trailed off, words becoming more disjointed the more you spoke and Penelope’s expression softened. “You’ve come to the right person, I’m the queen of many things and digging up social medias is one of them.” She said with a proud smile. “I’ll be right back, find me a book and I’ll give you whatever I find.” You grinned to yourself as she rushed off, saying something about “oh to be cupid’s loyal assistant” on the way out.

You busied yourself with finding a nice romance for Penelope, which you eventually decided on The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary. Barely any time had passed before your friend came bustling back into the library with a small note between her fingers, poised in the air like she was carrying some kind of top secret note meant for Hotch.

“Keep this safe, do not tell Spencer who you got this from because I guarantee he will know it’s you snooping on his social media.” She winked at you. “Unless you want to get caught.” She giggled to herself, passing you the note.

You thanked her profusely the whole way through scanning her library card and stamping her book for her until she left the library. And as soon as the doors were closed and the library was empty again, you grabbed your phone and the folded note that Penelope had left for you.

Spencer surprised you. Not only did he have a goodreads, on which his username was goodreids, which raised a snort of amusement from you, but he also had a bookstagram and a pinterest. To say that you spent the better part of the week scrolling through his socials was an understatement. But being the librarian had its perks, one of them being that you could take out any book you wanted at any time and keep it for however long you wanted.

Upon your first investigation into Spencer’s goodreads, you found that he enjoyed more than just science fiction and mystery in his casual favourites. He also seemed to enjoy some classic romance, classic literature, gothic fiction and the list went on. It also looked like he had read Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes a number of times and you wondered if they were his comfort reads. According to his reviews, he highly recommended The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. So, taking a browse through your own books, you dug the book out of the back of the library, checked it out on your card and read it during the quiet hours, the journey to and from work and the evenings until you finished it only a few days later. So you continued reading the series and by the time the team was due back, you had read the first three books in the series.

“Dr Reid, you’re back.” You said it rather more enthusiastically than perhaps you had intended, but Spencer greeted you with a grin and a soft, “Hey, how come you’re still here?” “Oh, you’re not pleased to see me?” You teased bashfully from behind your counter and Spencer just smiled and shook his head. “No, rather the contrary, actually. I missed this.” His words made your heart flutter and you realised that you’d have to make yourself talk otherwise he would think you were weird for staring right at him for more than a couple of seconds while looking stunned.

In your panic to say something, you managed to muster up the courage to string together a sentence, but it was not quite what you had intended to say. “I read that book you recommended.” You blurted it out and then immediately wished you could sink beneath the desk and out of sight. Spencer’s brow creased and he looked at you with slight confusion. “What do you mean?” He asked. What were you supposed to say? I asked Penelope to stalk you and find me your goodreads? No, better not mention Penelope at all. “I found your goodreads.” You admitted rather bashfully and Spencer smirked at you. “I know, you followed me.” He said and you looked at him like he’d just spoken absolute nonsense. “How did you know it was me?” You muttered. “Well I guessed from the- you know what I’ll tell you later, which book did you read?” He asked, changing the subject and you quite proudly held up a copy of The Big Sleep for him to see.

“Tell me what you thought of it.” Spencer said, propping his chin up on his hand, elbow leaning on your desk. There was a look in his eyes that just looked so genuine. This was probably the most attentive you had ever seen him around someone and it made you falter as you struggled to get out the words properly. “I have a better idea.” Spencer suddenly lit up. “It’s late, I’m pretty sure you stayed here so late just to catch me before I went home because you knew I’d come here.” The brutality of the truth almost felt like he’d ripped the bandage off. “So why don’t we go for a coffee date tomorrow and you can tell me all about what you thought of those books.” He said. “Date?” You asked, almost dumbly. “If that’s what you want it to be.” Spencer nodded. “I’d love that, Dr Reid-.” “I’m Spencer to you, sweetheart.” He smirked. He looked like even he was surprised by his own line, but he maintained a cool expression.

“I’d love that, Spencer.” “Then I’ll see you in the morning, I’ll text you.” And with that he looked down on your desk, picked up the paper that Penelope had given you and without any questions, he wrote his number down next to his socials. He definitely knew it had been Penelope. But that didn’t matter now, you felt like you were about to combust on the spot. “Text me when you get home safely.” “I will, Spencer.” You agreed. “Good girl.” And with that, Spencer pushed away from your desk and made his way out of the library, leaving you to squirm and swoon in the privacy of your library.

You had never felt so stunned by a single man in your entire life.

@magicchai @russian-potatoes @hallecarey1 @alexxavicry

#spencer reid x reader #spencer x reader #spencer reid x fem!reader #spencer reid x you #spencer reid x y/n #dr spencer reid x reader #dr spencer reid x you #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid reader insert

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gay-disabled-characters-showdown · 15 days

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LGBTQ+ Disabled Characters Showdown Round 1, Wave 3, Poll 16

A character being totally canon LGBTQ+ and disabled was not required to be in this competition. Please check qualifications and propaganda before asking why a character is included.

Check out the other polls in this wave and prior here.

Eduoar Corabelli II-The Reader Trilogy / Sea of Ink and Gold

Qualifications:

He's canonically mlm and has depression, and both his relationship with the man he loves and his mental illness are very important to his character and story. Since it's high fantasy the term 'depression' isn't actually available to him, but it's explicitly canon anyway and he just calls it 'melancholia.'

Propaganda:

Ed is like a Disney princess with depression--gentle, kind, loves animals dearly, all that jazz. He's also, when we meet him, being crushed under the weight of responsibility and a familial curse that kills every family member and each person they love before their time, and he's in the most fascinating, sweet, twisted little unspoken relationship. He loves this guy, his childhood friend, but is too scared because of the curse to give voice to those feelings; this guy loves him, but is too reluctant to talk about it, because of the guilt of actively poisoning Ed in a drawn-out assassination attempt and having just killed Ed's last relative. Also, Ed knows he's being poisoned and is gladly going along with it, because he's suicidal. It's complicated; he does get better though. Just know that their love is profound, but not as good as Ed deserves, and when he breaks free of the mental prison of being cursed and leaves the shadow of a man who almost killed him despite that love, he finds he's not just a good person but a capable one

Mod note: apparently according to Mod A “I HAD TO SCROLL THROUGH GOODREADS FOR LIKE TEN MINUTES TO FIND OUT IF THIS GUY EVEN EXISTS”

Eda Clawthorne-The Owl House

Qualifications:

She has a magical chronic disorder which has flare-ups, is mitigated by taking medication (potions), and has similar side effects to many real disorders such as fatigue, greying hair, and physical impairment (drains magic, a natural ability of *most witches). Unlike in other stories however, her condition is NOT ever completely cured. It does evolve and become more manageable over the course of the story, but she still experiences symptoms from it. Eda also loses one of her arms later in the story. She does get a replacement hook, but it is never shown whether she has a functional prosthetic or not. Most likely, she only has one fully functioning arm after this. As for being queer, she is in a relationship with a nonbinary person and is all but confirmed bisexual (has a secret box with the bi flag on it seriously why else would she have this). Also the owl house has a Lot of queer characters in it and I mean. just look at her. I would be surprised if she wasn't queer somehow.

Bisexual, and has a curse that affects her day to day life

Bi & lost arm and has a chronic illness metaphorically

Propaganda:

Has canonically dated both men and a non-binary person. Her curse affects her ability to use magic (and at one point outright stops it), which is very important in witch life. Said curse also causes her body parts to fall off sometimes. Many have said her curse is like a metaphor for depression but really it's more like a magic version of a physical disability (although I wouldn't be surprised if she actually also had depression).

Uuuuh she’s great and stuff idk I can’t propaganda well sorry

#polls #poll #disabled characters #lgbtq characters #disability #lgbtq #lgbtq dcs round 1 #lgbtq dcs wave 3 #eduoar corabelli II #the reader trilogy #sea of ink and gold #eda clawthorne #eda the owl lady #the owl house

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mermaidsirennikita · 5 months

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The Cait Corrain situation is entirely Cait's fault, but I can't help but think about how it indicates how uneducated some writers are about the realities of publishing and what is "good" versus what is "bad".

Cait, based on screenshots compiled of what she said and screenshots she gave of what "Lilly" (the person Cait made up and was pretending to be to take blame off herself) was insecure about her advance and the marketing of her book. She clearly thought she was at some kind of disadvantage, which--along with plain old jealousy and cruelty--led her to review bomb other books (like, to a delusional extent imo--giving Thea Guanzon's The Hurricane Wars wasn't going to stop that well-marketed book with a big built-in fandom thanks to the extremely popular fic it was adapted from, from being successful; she also review-bombed Ali Hazelwood, one of the most popular contemporary romance authors right now, who again writes contemporaries that didn't have much crossover appeal with Cait's books anyway).

Things in Cait's advantage that many, many other authors don't have:

A) Cait is a white woman, which according to publishing trends and also, I don't know, reality, is automatically an advantage.

B) Cait had a $75K advance. I don't know much about Cait's series plans, I don't know her deal, this could've been anticipated to stretch over multiple books. But advances, especially right now, are not FABULOUS for most authors. This, based on what I've seen, was pretty solid coming from the imprint publishing Cait's book, for an adult fantasy with some romance (perhaps enough to market as "romantasy", whatever that is). Which, by the way, is having a bit of a moment, so that was in her favor too. $75K, meant to stretch over a year or more, most likely, is not exactly "quit your day job" money. But the typical author doesn't quit their day job, especially not early. I can think of some authors a lot of people would consider pretty successful who still maintain part or full time jobs, often coming from dual income households.

C) Cait was known (positively) by the reylos, who've had a good bit of success in making books sell.

D) Cait was friends with successful authors like, again, Thea Guanzon, who blurbed her book and met her in person. Having a successful author invested in your work matters, especially when they share your genre space. See: Ali Hazelwood blurbing reylo books. It can help a lot and made it even clearer that this book could potentially appeal to reylos at least.

The reality is that marketing issues with trad books stem to the publisher, almost always. I don't know why some trad books are pushed more than others; I can speculate, but I don't think a lot of authors know the exact formula either. Marketing books is hard. But Goodreads rankings aren't going to make or break your book. Tbh, as much as GR and Amazon are connected these days, Amazon probably has a larger effect on your book making it or breaking it than GR (and it's harder to review bomb on Amazon, especially when the book hasn't come out yet).

It's just... so ugly and so stupid.

#romance novel blogging #and #books #in general

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gemsofgreece · 1 year

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https://twitter.com/MetalClassicist/status/1651617079534182402?t=fBKwyAjyYlS0A3Zfe_iPhg&s=19

Came across this tweet that mentioned a book named Black Athena and that they talked about it on a classics thesis and i am like....why are discussing things about colour again?? What about ethnicity and basic things like historical records??

I am sorry, I gave up after reading almost half of the post. I went to goodreads to check the ratings of Black Athena. It has a rating of 4,12 / 5 and while almost a majority or at least half of the commentators attribute “irrational conclusions” and “wild leaps of logic” and “factual mistakes in the evidence” to the author, most rate the book highly because it is “thought-provoking” and challenges “white-centrism”. So they are rating high a scientific book with confirmed false information that they themselves point out!

According to a comment, the author claims Aristotle had stolen his philosophical work from the Library of Alexandria, but he apparently means Aristotle’s ghost, because Aristotle had died before the library was founded.

Another comment, coming from a pink guy from the north, for he was certainly more pink than white, like many of the self-claimed northern whites actually are, said that it was a good read that must be right because (modern) Greeks don’t look white to him anyway.

I just…

The Greek civilisation has long been stripped from its people. It has been denied its layers and its right to external influences, like all civilisations have, and which are more than normal for a civilisation existing for that long. Its closer descendants (if saying “rightful” makes you get the hives) have been marginalised, mocked and explicitly fought against, to the point that their input is rarely considered.

The irony is that most of these people unabashedly acknowledge the political motivations behind the classics studies that have overshadowed the research that is founded on pure investigation for an objective historical truth.

You have to understand that most of these people do not care about the Greeks, old or new. They have transformed the Greek civilisation into a status of superiority in their minds and thus try to claim it for the political interests they are involved with.

If they are white supremacists, then the first Greeks arrived to Greece from the northern steppes. If they are POC activists or woke whites fighting for the establishments of equal rights (most of whom are breastfed in the west too btw as actual eastern and indigenous POC people rarely have such insecurity in their cultural background), then the Greeks were POC or blacks coming from Africa first thing, whose fake whiteness had been inscribed by the white west for centuries.

The Greeks are anything the speaker wants them to be at any given time or according to the thesis they envision to write, except for ancestors of the current Greeks, not only for various reasons (modern Greeks are too white for POC and wokes’ tastes and too POC for the pink people’s tastes, much like the Ancient Greeks, I suspect) but most importantly because the existence of modern Greeks requires the acknowledgment of a realistic historicity that is not at all convenient to all these people and their aspirations to cement their political ideology or the ethnic / racial / cultural group they belong to as the superior one on the imaginary basis of an idealised and uncontested archetype.

#greece #Greek people #Greeks #Greek representation #someone take Greek historical records from the hands of western academia please #opinion #anon #mail #link

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literary-illuminati · 1 year

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So wanted to check something and huh, Iron Widow is shelved/marketed at YA? (at least according to Goodreads)

I mean, this makes complete sense in terms of plot structure and characters and everything - the book's clearly written in conversation with a bunch of tropes I'm only really aware of second hand* - but, well, I wholeheartedly approve but the subject matter's a little heavy for the stereotype of the genre I have acquired via osmosis.

Anyway all to say - okay, since it's officially YA than holy fuck lmao Zhao actually did the 'what if the smart considerate soft childhood friend and the edgy hypermasculine bad boy just made out and the obligatory love triangle resolved as a polycule' shitpost entirely in earnest. Amazing.

*I'd make a joke of how it ended up on my tbr despite this, but honestly I literally don't remember.

#Iron Widow #xiran jay zhao #sff #tht

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hotcinnamonsunset · 3 months

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okay jumping off of the tags in the ballerina/PT novel (💀) — do you have a your ballet media reclist? signed, former dancer and struggling 🩰

from one former dancer to another, let me tell you. the prospects are grim. (at least if you’re picky. which I definitely am.) (also after I reblogged that post I was already combing over my goodreads to see what ballet books I rated recently to see if they were as bad as I remember lol)

wordy meander below where I try to gather some thoughts coherently🩰:

my preferred type of fiction/writing style is more literary fiction as opposed to quippable “chick lit” (god I hate that term but I feel it gets the point across unfortunately) fiction - so I feel like that’s already a big ask of ballet fiction.

I also (as a former dancer) like there to be some depth to the ballet knowledge presented because I feel that most authors that take on ballet in fiction do it for the “expose the gritty underside of ballet” perspective and they just want to have a female lead that can be cute/little/girly/submissive/etc without even trying to understand that that simply isn’t what all dancers are like. that being said, I do find works where ballerinas just go off being fully unhinged is fun from time to time. ballet and perfectionism can make you do crazy things and the glass in pointe shoes myth didn’t stem from nothing.

furthermore, while I understand that people want to read romance, for some reason if a book is about ballet I want romance to be very inconsequential? maybe it’s because for me ballet is a kind of love that personally never mixed with romance or that there is so much to relationships between dancers that can be so much more engaging than some romance plot about choosing between love and dance or something but most authors don’t feel this way.

all that being said, it’s no small wonder that my rec list of good things is a bit hodge podge. (and sometimes I’ll read things regardless of how bad just because sometimes it’s soooo bad all I can do is laugh)

memoirs are always accurate and enjoyable, albeit obviously not fiction. although! Dancer by Columbia McCann is a fictionalized take on Rudolf Nureyev that reads quite nicely.

fiction really is a mixed bag and often there are ports of stories that’ll be okay even if on the whole it’s not quite up to snuff. like, the last ballet book I read a few weeks ago was The Turnout by Megan Abbott and while I wanted to strangle each of the main characters repeatedly and shake them and ask them why are you like this??? the author had an atmospheric quality to their writing about ballet studios that transported me back to the smells and groans and quirks of old buildings repurposed as dance studios so acutely that I felt more empathy towards the ballet studio in the book as a character more than anything else.

so anyways. according to goodreads some ballet fiction that I did enjoy includes Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild, Swing Time by Zadie Smith, Up to This Pointe by Jennifer Longo as well as Filthy Animals and The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor, both of which aren’t ballet centric but have genuinely realistic dancer characters.

as for other media…I feel like most things I watch, unless it’s really captivating, go in one eyeball and out the other. that and I’m really bad at watching movies. as for ones I have seen and appreciated though - And Then We Danced is a top one that I can recall, Suspiria is insane but a romp nonetheless, Bird of Paradise is also a bit of a romp.

all this to say if you’ve made it this far I am always always open to recs and suggestions silly and serious because it really is a struggle out there for content like this and we’ve got to stick together.

#asks #dreamofpeppermints #ballet #please tumblr at large come at us with ballet recommendations!!!#thinking about dance movies and in my head it's a scale of cheesy Center Stage to psych horror Black Swan - i need more to fill it out a bi

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sharpmouth · 7 months

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What are some horror book recommendations you have?

thanks for asking!!!

interview with the vampire is technically a gothic horror soooooo……

anyway.

carrie by stephen king is probably my fave SK book if u haven’t read his work or havent liked his other books i think it stands out and wish the films had adapted so much more of the original book

through the woods by emily carroll is an excellent comic collection of short horror stories

nightbitch by rachel yoder is weird and fun

a certain hunger by chelsea g summers is about cannibalism which is always fun

i think it really depends on what genres of horror you like? i’ve dabbled in splatterpunk which can definitely be a hit or miss with me, but gothic horror is always fun for me. some books may not be categorized as “horror” per se but still have horror elements, ex. gillian flynn’s books which i believe are more categorized as thrillers but definitely are chilling. i tend to watch more horror than read it, but i did just start reading house of leaves for the first time and it’s considered a horror (at least according to goodreads tags?) so we’ll see if i like it or not. if u have any more specific recs ur looking for let me know! i read a lot and try to branch out so its possible i might have read something good :)

#asks #springwolves

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vaveyard · 2 years

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sarah j maas debuted only 3 years before you did, and since then has written over 15 books. she's still topping the charts and considered the queen of fantasy, her latest book has almost 150k ratings on goodreads and had a first print run of 750k (in a relatively new genre for her, since its prequel/her adult debut only came out 2 years ago).

we know you were friends and had a fallout. how does it feel to see her be so successful while your career is declining? in general how does it feel to see fellow authors have more success? maybe even authors you don't like?

glass sword seems to have been the decisive factor, the numbers seem to have dropped dramatically after it was published. do you think your publisher put too much pressure on you to write the rq sequels as quickly as possible to ride the wave? i don't have the numbers for the rq series anymore, but various sources say that the first printing for bb was the same as rb, while for maas it's the opposite: her sequels get printed in higher numbers due to the success of the first book. iirc her debut adult novel published 2 years ago had a first printing of 350k (which is huge for a debut in a completely new genre/for a new audience) and the sequel that came out this year had a first printing of 750k. the last book in the tog series had a first print run of over 500k iirc.

lately there's been a lot of talk about "manufactured success" when it comes to authors like alex aster ie the publishing industry finds someone to hype up, then the books come out and are a huge disappointment/can't live up to the hype, and the author's career starts declining. aster is an extreme example, people really went up in arms and her career never really took off (so far) since it was her YA debut (her already published duology is middle-grade and according to her didn't sell well). i'm also hesitant to consider it the publisher's fault, i think tiktok had a much bigger role, the publisher simply jumped on the bandwagon.

anyways, i think that "manufactured success" can be applied to red queen. it was pushed like crazy, but then with each sequel the marketing and public interest started dwindling. with authors like maas we see the opposite, it takes them a bit longer to reach the top, but they do it on their own and their career is much more successful in the long run.

it might be the difference between the industry hyping up a product for easy💲, and the reading community hyping up a book simply because they liked it and want to share their experience with other readers? or is it simply bad marketing?

... but doesn't bad marketing mean that the publisher has lost some interest in the author due to disappointing sales?

sjm's books/new releases/bundles still get publicized like crazy, while recently on tiktok (iirc) you made a video saying that you don't know why but lots of people have never heard of a 5th rq book that came out years ago.

... you really have no idea why they've never heard of it?

Personally, I would feel so embarrassed to speak to another person this way, especially about their job. But you and I clearly have different tolerances for shame.

I do love when fantasy succeeds bc a rising tide raises all our boats. I’m also not obsessed with comparing myself to others, tracking their print runs, or quantity of work? That is so unhealthy. And seems like a waste of my time. But it’s your time to waste, I guess.

What’s the goal here? Pitting women against each other? Trying to put me down? Venting to help yourself? You’re a bit all over the place, and comically so.

#ask #that anon

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wordlywriter · 9 months

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WRITER GEM:

Two weeks ago, at the Half Priced Bookstore in my area (one of my greatest loves :)), I wandered into the clearance section and found a book called DIY MFA. When I pulled it off the shelf—randomly, I might add—my immediate reaction was visceral. I gasped and clutched it close to my chest. Because as writers, we’re often told that graduate school is a must-do for publishing, right? We see it written on the backs of novels in author blurbs all the time. We hear it from our undergrad schools and professors. To “make it” is to burn through academia according to a certain timeframe and by a specific age. Such are the expectations, anyway.

But what if this isn’t practical? Whether its finances, time constraints, or another completely valid and reasonable explanation, that envied master’s degree can pose a problem. As a rising junior in college, these problems have been on my mind for many months already. And as someone who is constantly searching for writing advice to share with others, I thought this would be a great feature for the page.

DIY MFA is a book, and general model of learning, with three core principles, all of which can be found on the website: http://www.diymfa.com. These principles are: writing with focus, reading with purpose, and building community. The “about” section states that “the beauty of DIY MFA is that while it covers most of what you’d get in a traditional MFA, you get to decide how to structure your writing, reading and community so you can reach your goals.” Pretty cool, right? I thought so! And while I haven’t immersed myself just yet, on account of wanting to structure my newest WIP before jumping in, both the book and website have given me a lot to reconsider.

Other notable exploratory sections on diymfa.com include the “writer igniter,” which is a prompt generator, in addition to free starter kits, podcast episodes, articles, and speaker videos.

As far as I can tell from Amazon and Goodreads reviews, this might not be the greatest option for those seeking advice for less traditional writing forms such as comics, graphic novels, and children’s books, to name a few, but the concepts and tools will work well for any genre and aspiring writer, provided you are dedicated to see your project through. I actually think that this could be an avenue of exploration for the project in the future. It was published in 2016 though, so I’m excited for whatever might be in store in the next few years!

Have you tried this book or learning model out? What did you think?

Follow @diymfa for more information ✏️

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bookishfeylin · 2 years

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Hello, I just wanted to share my thoughts on something if that's okay <3 Regarding Bryce Quinlan, I've seen lots of fan art of her with brown skin which makes me really happy. I know not everyone sees her the same way, there are so many different interpretations of her, but I've always imagined her as a WOC. I've seen a couple of fan art of her with pale skin which irks me because i feel like those artists who do that ignore how she's described in the books. It's like they're saying "All main female characters should be white" Even Yrene Towers gets whitewashed. Anyway, how do you see Bryce?

Of course it's ok, nonny! <3

Welcome!

Alright so big disclaimer here that I have not read CC and I refuse to on principle because I won't support any more of Sarah's racist books. But I know of it because I've done my research, so with that being said, I know the phenomenon that you're referring to. And it's very annoying when people whitewash and lightwash canon characters of color. White supremacy has deeply entrenched in all of us that white people are the default, and even when books describe characters otherwise... some people completely miss that and assume every character is white.

Here's my issue (and not with you anon, with Sarah stans in general). AS FAR AS I KNOW, according to what I've researched, the only reason people think Bryce is a WOC is because she's described as having golden skin. Tamlin himself is described as having golden skin, so unless we're about to split hairs and claim Tamlin is a man of color... I can't really view Bryce as anything but a tan white woman.

This next question I ask this genuinely, so feel free to respond in my inbox because again, I have not read the book: is there anything aside from her being described as golden skinned that makes you view Bryce as a WOC? Are there any cultural indicators that show she's not white? If she's Black, does she wear natural hair? Or have cornrows, box braids, or dreadlocks? Perhaps she's south asian--does she wear henna? Or latina--Does she speak spanish (or a fantasy version of it)? Maybe she's none of those--does Bryce cook certain cultural foods? Wear cultural dresses? Celebrate culturally significant holidays?

I'm asking because if she does, I might be interested in reading the book, because I've been scouring goodreads and booktok for fantasy books starring woc (specifically Black women) and have been adding them to my way too large tbr. But if not... it sounds like Bryce is simply a tanned white woman, and that people who insist otherwise are trying to give Sarah credit for being more diverse than she is.

I really hope this didn't come off as mean because I'm not trying to be at all, and I am genuinely curious. Is there anything aside from her dubiously described skin tone that implies she's a woc?

#sjm critical #anti sjm #bryce quinlan #ask #anon #i really hope i dont sound mean because anon was so sweet #but i simply dont trust sarah #crescent city

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