#uh it’s one of my favorite poems to have ever written + it was published in october but i feel weird actually sharing it it feels so

[grocerystoretrip]

Hey You, Sir, Should Be Coming Out in INKSOUNDS

#uh it’s one of my favorite poems to have ever written + it was published in october but i feel weird actually sharing it it feels so #personal idk. i’ll be back in like three hours & i’ll add tws & an id & such! #id in alt text for now #poets on tumblr #writers on tumblr #poetry #spilled ink #words #contemporary poetry #spilled prose #twc poetry #poeticstories #writeblr #poetblr #poem #poetryportal #writeblrcafe #nosebleedclub

[myenterpriseisparked]

22 answers for a fanfic 2022

Thanks to @curator-on-ao3 for providing this template and @emilie786 for encouraging me to fill it out!

1. fandoms you wrote for this year 

Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Prodigy, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and Star Trek: Voyager

2. favorite fic you wrote this year 

And Still, The Sea is Salt - I’m really proud of this one. I spent a lot of time refining it and I’m really pleased with how it turned out. Also I’m obsessed with the poem I took the titles from and how well the poem aligned with the story I wanted to tell!

3. favorite fic you read this year 

I honestly can’t pick a favorite! I read so many and the vast majority were absolutely incredible!!!

4. favorite opening line/scene you wrote this year 

My most recent fic, Parent-Teacher Association, has probably one of my favorite opening scenes I’ve ever written: 

Trip Tucker considered himself a blessed man; he had a wonderful wife that he shared a deep love with, a comfortable house in a nice neighborhood, and two incredible children he would do just about anything for.

He’d suffered a lot of hardship to get here. He’d seen loss, he’d seen death, he’d seen evil.

All of this was to say that, right then and there, Trip Tucker was pretty sure he was looking evil right in its big, ugly eyes once more.

“Dear, you’re staring.” T’Pol’s even, soothing voice broke him out of his trance, though he didn’t take his eyes off of Evil Incarnate herself: Mrs. Olivia Shelley.

She was head of the PTA, head of the fundraising committee for the soccer team, and the mother of Jameson Shelley, who had pushed and teased his eldest child, Elizabeth, a little too much for Trip’s liking.

Is it an earth shattering opening? Nah. Did I giggle a lot while writing it because PTA Dad Trip Tucker amuses me? Absolutely.

5. favorite ending line/scene you wrote this year 

And Still, The Sea is Salt ended with a scene/line that I fermented in my head for a really long time and really liked:

Before grief can really take over La’An’s mind, however, Andy’s dark ponytail bobs enthusiastically through the kitchen as she starts explaining the ins and outs of her new assignment and the animals she hopes to encounter. La’An smiles and takes a seat as she watches Andy pull a dish of strawberries, big enough to share, from the fridge, as well as the ingredients needed to grill habanero burgers.

Something in La’An’s soul warms, watching Andy’s deft movements and twinkling, blue eyes.

And she thinks to herself that, maybe, people are never really gone.

6. a trope you wrote this year 

Uh, babies. I write a lot of babyfic. I also really like Established Relationship, Family Fluff, and Found Family.

7. pairings you wrote this year 

Janeway/Chakotay, Pike/Una, and Trip/T’Pol

8. a fic regret from this year 

I have some fics I started with concepts I’m obsessed with that I ultimately abandoned because it wasn’t turning out the way I wanted. I hope to revisit some of them one day, but for now they haunt me from my wips folder.

9. a song that helped you write 

I had a few songs that gave me bits of inspiration throughout the year, but, honestly, the poem “Stars, I have seen them fall” by A.E. Houseman was my biggest inspiration this year. Which is really unusual because I’m not typically super into poetry.

10. total number of fics you posted 

11!

11. total number of words you posted 

36,620

12. most popular fic written this year 

By hits, it was Loopholes. By kudos, it was I’ll Always Be Around, Wherever Life Takes You.

13. least popular fic written this year 

By hits and kudos: Parent-Teacher Association. Which makes sense because I published it less than a week ago lol.

14. longest completed fic you posted this year 

And Still, The Sea is Salt has 9,455 words. It’s my third longest fic of all time!

15. shortest completed fic you posted this year 

The Plan has 323 words. My shortest fic of all time!

16. favorite character to write about this year 

It’s a tie between Una Chin-Riley, Chris Pike, and Trip Tucker. I had so much fun writing these characters and exploring their voices and movements in fiction.

17. a fic you didn’t expect to write 

Honestly, my Prodigy fic, Echoes off of Cave Walls, wasn’t something I thought I was going to write! I wasn’t planning to write any fic for that show but inspiration struck!

18. most memorable comment/review 

I honestly can’t pick one that is the most memorable because I hoard comments on my fics away to read for later when I need a seretonin boost like Gollum with the ring of power. That said, reactions to Chapter 3 of And Still, The Sea is Salt were hilarious and I reread those a lot because they make me laugh.

19. trends you noticed in your writing this year 

I think I tried a lot of new things this year with my writing. I tried co-writing for the first time (shout out to @emilie786 for writing 3 fics with me in 4 days this July. That was so fun!). I got back into writing longer fics a bit. I broke out of my serial fluff writing to do some angst. I tried writing in a different tense and really enjoyed it. I feel like I let myself write more humor and kind of established a comedic beat I really enjoy. It was a fun year for trying new things. 

That said, I also wrote a lot of baby fic because that’s what I do and I like it 😉.

20. fics you wanted to write but didn’t 

Oh boy, the list is long, and there are some I don’t wanna talk about quite yet because I’m not quittin’ on em yet but here are some that I attempted and never finished:

- Star Trek Voyager fic taking place after Endgame where Voyager gets a refit and utilizes the holographic emitters placed around the ship to reveal that Voyager is, and has always been, sentient. The plan was for Voyager to spend a lot of time talking with Kathryn to help ease a lot of the guilt Kathryn feels about her actions in the DQ. 

- Chris and Una go on a horseback riding date complete with swing dancing, bonfires, and kissing. (It was intended as a sequel to Ex Equis, Scientia, but I tried really hard to write it and it never felt quite right to me. Might try it again later idk.)

- I had some vague ideas about more stories in the Aftermath AU, but I never got around to writing them because I got Pikeuna brainrot over the summer and Brain didn’t wanna write J/C lol.

21. something you want to write next year 

I don’t have a lot of solid plans because I am at the whim of my current hyperfixations BUT I think I’ll probably write more Pikeuna after SNW season 2 begins and I hope to add on to the Trip/T’Pol AU I started in the PTA fic. @emilie786 and I have also been throwing around some ideas I’m excited about so we might cook something up as well 😉. 

22. an idea from one of your fics that you want people to think about!

In my story, And Still, The Sea is Salt, I really thought a lot about what legacy really can look like; sometimes our legacy isn’t an empire, or a scholarship program, or a scientific discovery - sometimes simply being ourselves is enough to impact people around us in little ways that allows us to live on after we are gone. Every day we interact with so many people, and each of those interactions has the potential to leave an impact, whether we’ve known that person for 2 seconds or 2 decades. I think there’s something beautiful about being able to have a legacy built on strawberries and hot sauce and kindness. 

#personal #long post #fanfic year in review 2022 #ALL MY WRITING BUDDIES PLEASE DO THIS I WANNA READ YOUR STUFF !!!!!

[piceuscelus]

17, 20, 22, 25, 33, 40

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

uh so. none of my WIPs on this blog,,,, have any of that. it's just shallow depth porn all the way down, here. where i'm still keeping this and my main separate - if you know who i am, no you don't - well,,,, 🤐

(hera, if you want this info but about my main, which has shit like this, you specifically are allowed to ask in DMs lmfao)

20. If a witch offered you the choice between eternal happiness with your one true love and the ability to finally finish, perfect, and publish your dearest, darlingest, most precious WIP in exactly the way you’ve always imagined it — which would you choose? You can’t have both sorry, life’s a bitch

... option #2, pls. like, first of all, i don't even believe in "one true love" or "eternal happiness" as concepts, they're...well i won't write my whole thesis on nonmonogamy and toxic positivity here no one wants it lmao, but. i also like my husband and am pretty content in my relationship so like. let me finish my novel and make it perfect like i want and publish 😭

22. How organized are you with your writing? Describe to me your organization method, if it exists. What tools do you use? Notebooks? Binders? Apps? The Cloud?

uhhhhhhh the writing Process? batshit. no organization to be found. it's fevered, sleep-deprived word vomiting or neurotic dot-point outlines all the way down here. as far as like, keeping track of WIPs - semi organized. i have folders for prompts vs. non-prompted stuff, if a series is big enough it gets its own folder, i have "finished" folders within each section so if something is already finished/posted i can yeet it in there and focus on unfinished stuff, etc. but like, it's not..........it's MY organization, and it's Messy by default. other people would probably cry looking at it.

25. What is a weird, hyper-specific detail you know about one of your characters that is completely irrelevant to the story?

oops once again i do not have that here, just on my main. (hera, same applies 😂)

33. Do you practice any other art besides writing? Does that art ever tie into your writing, or is it entirely separate?

ye!!! i draw too, amongst a bunch of artsy-crafty hobbies. i don't have any like, magnificent talent like our dear hera here does - but i'm not terrible. once i'm no longer doing the "if you know me no you don't" stuff, i may cross post some of my stuff :D

as far as tying into my writing - it's usually pretty separate. usually if it ties in at all, i make related art long after a fic has been written, if i do it at all.

40. Please share a poem with me, I need it.

hm. once again with extreme feeling, if you know who i am no you do not. but, under a cut because this is already long, have one of my favorite poems i've ever written about fandom (cw for pandemic mentions):

there is love here  hidden at the crosstalk center of pandemic statistics and the rise of casual fascism of a world on fire and drowning all at once

there are tiny blooming flower buds of peace of resistance of safety of humor of anger and hurt of the strength to not be okay, just for a little while to be okay, even if it feels entirely futile

the concept of transformative work has always been made small by the people who don’t understand that the operative word is transformative not work

transformative work transformative art transformative concept transformative community

community, community, community a concept not dead and not buried but transformed.

migrating from place to place to survive from settlements to villages to towns to cities to neighborhoods to churches to coffee shops to prisons to bars to libraries to comic book stores to the binary code stringing together continents invisible waves of power that connect coffee shops to churches to prisons to libraries and me to the kind of family I have always ached for

because here at the eye of a storm so much bigger than any single person could comprehend much less withstand

there is love and resistance and peace and anger and humor and hurt and safety and strength and positivity and support and tears and rage and discomfort here at the intersection of a world on fire with the one we’ve created for ourselves

a community and a family created through happenstance and rabid desperation to live to live, to live, to live to love when it feels like there may be none left.

#celus speaks #celus writes #dead dove #dead dove: do not eat #ask game answer #hera i love you so much

[tinykings]

tagged for this fanfic meme by the lovely @terribleoldwhitemen, who I have personally learned and gained so much from writing-wise, tbh. thanks, friend!

1)     how many works do you have on AO3?

50!!! As of today, tomorrow (hopefully) it will be 51. 😉

2)     what’s your total AO3 word count?

92,479…I write lots of small fics, tbf.

3)     how many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

in ao3? which is the only place I’ve published, currently: 26 fandoms, apparently…and it’s kind of all over the place. lots of one-shots in various fandoms. the most extensive ones I’ve written for are The Expanse, The West Wing, Turn, and Frontier.   

4)     what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

“Open Your Eyes” (Fem!Q/Bond, which is like one of the first things I ever posted, nearly eight years ago at this point)

“tenderest touch leaves the darkest of marks and the kindest of kisses breaks the hardest of hearts” (Casablanca, one of my personal faves)

“you don’t have to be a ghost here among the living, you are flesh and blood, and you deserve to be loved and you deserve what you are given, and oh how much” (The Terror, look, I was on a lyrics kick)

“i’m no hero, i just like punching people in the face” (Ted Lasso, bless Trent/Ted, kings of my heart)

“Look for the Helpers” (another Terror fic, which I personally don’t love, but hey. glad people like it! thanks for y’all’s support as I bumble along)

5)     do you respond to comments, why or why not?

unless someone is being an ass, of course! I love talking to people under any circumstances, but especially about my work!!

6)     what’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

uh. hm. I suppose “Fever 1793” for Frontier, where, on a depressed whim, I killed off Cobbs in the Philadelphia Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793. OOPS. I still kinda feel bad about that.

7)     what’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

well…I’m not much for purely happy, but I feel like the first Bellevue fic I wrote, “because i am done with my graceless heart, so tonight i’m gonna cut it out and then restart” gives a “happy” ending in so much as the two characters who should’ve ended up together end up together.

8)     do you write crossovers? if so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

for the most part, no. I did start writing an Expanse/Harry Potter fic, but there’s not a lot of crossover, mostly just set in the universe itself. like, Harry Potter himself isn’t gonna show up.

9)     have you ever received hate on a fic?

never directly. (I have received weird comments, though.) I’ve seen strong dislike on Tumblr itself (mostly related to Chrisjen/Sadavir), but eh. Let them fume, chemistry is chemistry is chemistry, Jesse.

10) do you write smut? if so what kind?

no, I am a master of fade to blacks, and by master, I mean I rely on them like a CRUTCH

11) have you ever had a fic stolen?

I hope not!

12) have you ever had a fic translated?

someone offered to translate a poem once, and I said sure, but I never heard anything else…but if they did translate it, bravo, good for them, translating is hard, and I personally can’t do it.

13) have you ever co-written a fic before?

not officially…I’ve definitely collab’d on broader AU ideas with friends (shout out to @terribleoldwhitemen in particular)

14) what’s your all time favorite ship?

I literally will not answer that because 1) impossible and 2) the first one that springs to mind is kind of. Embarrassing.

15) what’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

FOR WANT OF A FUCKING NAIL. Maybe I will…MAYBE.

16) what are your writing strengths?

dialogue, capturing character’s voices, internal narratives (I think? I hope?)

17) what are your writing weaknesses?

sustaining a plot, anything remotely smutty, and yeah, I’ll agree, FINISHING THE DAMN THING

18) what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I’ve done brief snippets of other languages, but only with quite a bit of research. I’ll probably never write full on conversations, because I’m not fluent in ANYTHING. (Except for English.)

19) what was the first fandom you wrote for?

…that goes back to my all-time favorite ship answer. I’ll just say…tsbc. if you can decipher that, yeah. YEAH.

20) what’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

oh gosh. all of them? because I’m vain, and also because I really write fics for myself and like, two other people, so I like going back and re-reading all of them! but if I was pushed? I’m really fond of a fic for The West Wing, “Foxholes and the Oval,” where Lord John Marbury gets to talk to Leo post-heart attack. I like fics that fill badly needed holes. (HA.)

tagging, and I hate to leave anyone out, but i literally cannot remember who else on my dash writes fic who hasn’t already been tagged in this: @illumizoldycksonlyfans, @aurel1us, @tormvnd ...if you haven’t been tagged and would like to be, please let me know! 

#ficventures #asked and answered

[grimm-the-tiger]

I got bored and decided to rank my favorite of my published fanfics for really no reason at all. The “published” clause is only thrown in there because without it, I’d inevitably spend this entire post rambling about my (still-unfinished) fan comic. 

Way Below  Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/31102709 A Minecraft fic about the player character getting murdered by a Warden. By far my greatest weakness when it comes to writing is dialogue, so the lack of dialogue here means my greatest strength - description - can really shine. I also got to put my favorite poem (which is from a goddamn SCP, because I have no taste) into the fic, since it fits the atmosphere perfectly.  Favorite Line: “Perhaps one day you might come back to reclaim what it took, but for now you shudder at the mere mention of it. Some things, you now begin to realize, are better left in the dark where they belong.” 

Tír fo Thuinn  Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30111645  A Song of the Sea/Secret of Kells crossover about Aisling, one of Secret of Kells’ two protagonists, leaving for Tir na nOg at the end of Song of the Sea. Once again, there’s no dialogue, so it’s solely introspection from the perspective of Aisling. I also got to show off a little of my obsession with Irish mythology, since the title comes from an alternate name of Tir na nOg, the land of the fairies/aos si.  Favorite Line: “But what was home? Was it the place you were born, the place you came from? Or was it the place you built for yourself, the place where you felt most comfortable?” 

Revolution of Night  Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27202652/chapters/66445382 A Realicide/Fallen London crossover about Communalist teaming up with the Liberation of Night to resurrect Moralist. I mostly just like this one because it gave me the excuse to write eldritch weirdness, but like most of my multi-chapter fics, it’s got a much more complicated lore than is probably necessary, albeit one that I personally find genuinely fascinating. I can’t reveal any of it because the story’s still in progress and also spoilers, but let’s just say that Communalist is in for a rough time in this one.  Favorite Line: “They fell to their knees, brushing away the last of the dirt with their hands. Sure enough, a large box lay beneath them. It was one of those old traveling trunks, not meant for the purpose it currently served. Scratched into the lid were the words "property of Momentist not anymore! - S".” 

Blood of the Covenant  Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/32077633/chapters/79465111  A Hetalia human AU about...uh...America being autistic, getting sent as a kid to a facility that promises to “cure” him, and then ending up both traumatized and with superpowers after Canada and co. bust him out. Most of the fic follows Canada, Denmark and Netherlands trying to track him down, and writing their interactions was one of my favorite things I’ve ever written. This is one of the rare few fics where I actually like the dialogue I wrote, because most of it is very genuine and warm in comparison to most of my extremely robotic dialogue.  Favorite Line: “You text emojis like my grandmother.” 

Contamination  Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/31797211/chapters/78713449 The odd one out for being one of those fics in the grey area between fiction and RPF, due entirely to being a Hermitcraft/Dream SMP crossover. Essentially, the Egg completely corrupts the Dream SMP and moves onto Hermitcraft; Tommy attempts to warn the Hermits, gets his ass kicked, and loses his memory from a mix of physical and mental trauma, leaving the Hermits to piece together what’s going on on their own. Once again, my favorite parts are the interactions, although the characters are fun to write as well, and I’m having way too much fun writing the scenes involving the Egg, mostly because eldritch abominations are my piece of cake.  Favorite Line: “I know, but I saw his wings and thought ‘hey, Grian has wings, he can probably help’. Looking back on it, that was not my brightest moment.” 

Argonautica or: the World’s Worst Road Trip  Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/32160028/chapters/79683277  I...honestly can’t really explain this one? It’s a sequel to Hadestown where Orpheus joins the Argonauts and ends up getting into shenanigans with them. It’s just fun to write, especially any scene involving Heracles and the (currently unpublished) parts where Orpheus starts falling hard for Calais.  Favorite Line: ““There’s also the Boreads, Asclepius and our resident asshole Jason, but they’re riding in the front,” Atalanta added. “I’m not an asshole!” The same voice from before cried. “Oh, sorry, did I say asshole? I meant leader,” Atalanta corrected, although she clearly didn’t mean it.” 

A Madman’s Journal  Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/32976859  This is literally just a school assignment based on “The Monkey’s Paw” that I thought was good enough to post. We had to write about the first person to own the titular paw, so I decided to write from the perspective of the shittiest colonialist to ever live and his slow descent into madness.  Favorite Line: “This will grant three men three wishes. It will prove to you that fate is like a serpent; it does not like being touched.” 

Uncertain Embrace  Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/32160619/chapters/79685068  This one is literally just pain. Set in the aftermath of Hutt River’s dissolution, it’s basically just Seborga grieving him...and by grieving him, I mean sinking into a depression and refusing to leave his room. The second chapter follows Molossia’s attempts to get him through it and eventually the two of them falling in love.  Favorite Line: "I told you this a week ago, and I'll say it again. I'm the only person you've talked to in like a month besides your brothers, and they don't count. I get that you're grieving and there isn't shit I can do, but at least don't go through this alone. Alright?" 

Will you remember us, when we are gone?  Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/34789750  A vent fic I wrote about global warming. That’s it, that’s the fic.  Favorite Line: “We were warned, and we did not listen. Worse, some of us spat in our oracle’s face and laughed her out of Delphi while the rest of us cheered them on, or did not care enough to intervene. Like Icarus, we thought ourselves invulnerable, but Icarus’s arrogance brought him down like an aerolite.” 

Monty Python and the Angry Fallen Londoner  Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24124162  To finish this list on a lighter note, this fic is essentially a shitpost in fanfic format and is also the very first fic I ever uploaded, both to FF.Net and AO3. It’s about what you’d expect: my Fallen London character quotes the Taunting Frenchman from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It’s stupid, but I like it.  Favorite Line: “Oh? So she dare call my morals into question? Ha! This won’t stand!!  I marched out into the street, my ragged opera cloak fluttering behind me.” 

#fanfic #fan fiction #basically a shitpost

[the-lincyclopedia]

Fic writer questions I never get asked

Thanks for the tag, @khashanakalashtar! This is an interesting list! 

What date did you make your AO3 profile? What date did you post your first fic?

I joined AO3 on February 5, 2018. Seriously. I was FFN-only for so long. I posted my first fics on AO3 the day I joined. My first fics ever to hit the internet, however, were published on July 13, 2011, which is when I got my FFN account.

Do you cross-post your work?

Yeah, still. When I first got my AO3 account, I posted a bunch of things that were already on my FFN account, and these days I put basically everything on both. I like that FFN gives a pretty accurate and nearly complete timeline of my fanworks, which is the main reason I’m still posting there. Nothing I’ve posted there in the past three years has gotten much engagement, and I know the site is dying. 

What’s your fic with the most comment threads? The most bookmarks? Are the top 5 of those categories basically the same, and basically the same as the top 5 kudos?

Top 5 by comment threads: 

Face the Future with You (Check Please)

Man Oh Man, You’re My Best Friend (Check Please)

It’s Always You (Check Please)

Love in the Time of Influenza (Carry On)

I Love You, All Right? (Check Please)

Top 5 by bookmarks: 

Love in the Time of Influenza (Carry On)

The Aftermath of Angelic Assumptions (Good Omens)

Man Oh Man, You’re My Best Friend (Check Please)

Nightmares (Carry On)

Christmas Planning (Carry On)

Top 5 by kudos: 

Love in the Time of Influenza (Carry On)

Face the Future with You (Check Please)

Nightmares (Carry On)

The Aftermath of Angelic Assumptions (Good Omens)

Christmas Planning (Carry On)

So basically the Check Please fandom comments more and the Carry On fandom is more into bookmarks and kudos, and there’s more of a correlation between kudos and bookmarks than between either of those and comments. 

What’s the word count of your longest fic or series?

“The Jumper Chronicles,” my longest fic on FFN, is 111,223 words. I abandoned it in 2015 and I really would not recommend it. On AO3, my longest fic is “who could ask to be unbroken (or be brave again)” at 14,772 words. It’s part of my longest series on AO3: “Samwell Men’s Harmonies” at 29,921 words. 

What’s your most underrated fic?

MOST underrated? I have 132 fics on AO3, so there are a lot of potential answers. I guess I’ll pick my work with literally the fewest kudos: it’s a charming little rhyming poem about Harry Potter called “The Willow May Whomp You.” It has two kudos, fewer than 70 hits, no bookmarks, and no comments. I was so proud of it when I finished it, and AO3 really did not care. 

Does your early work contain any writing sins?

I had heard that not breaking up your dialogue was bad (which it’s not? Who told me this? Why did I believe them? Ugh), and I thought that adding adverbs to dialogue tags constituted breaking up your dialogue. So I had lots of unnecessary beats and adverbs and internal monologue mixed up in what otherwise might have been passable dialogue scenes. (I don’t remember whether this came up a ton in my fics and I don’t feel like looking, but I remember it pretty clearly in the original stuff I was working on back then.)

Have you ever had a work podficced?

Yes! I requested it for Fandom Trumps Hate, though, so I don’t know if it counts, exactly. It’s not like someone read my work and approached me about podding it. Anyway, my Yuri on Ice fic “When and If” has a podfic version. 

Have you posted any podfics? Fanvids? Fanart?

I was going to say no, and then I remembered that back in, like, 2009, I tried to make a couple Romione fanvids, one to Taylor Swift’s “You Belong with Me” and one to “I’m Not That Girl” from Wicked. Unfortunately for everyone involved, I didn’t have a clue how to pull bits of video from a movie (still don’t, actually), so they were basically slideshows. I’ve long since taken them down from YouTube and the computer I made them on has long since died, so I can’t prove any of this to you, but . . . uh, yeah. That happened. 

Are there any trends in your favorite ships?

I feel like there have been, like, eras of my shipping. When I first started shipping (i.e. before I realized I’m queer), it was basically “girl I can project on” shipped with “literally whoever her canon love interest is, regardless of anything about him” (Romione, Percabeth). Then it was “asshole guy” shipped with “other guy who interfaces between the asshole guy and the rest of the world” (Johnlock, Otayuri to a lesser extent). I feel like it’s becoming “broken person whose coping mechanism is meanness” shipped with “broken person whose coping mechanism is sunshine” (Zimbits, maybe Snowbaz). This is pretty similar to the asshole x interface-with-world, but the relationship is a little more mutual and balanced, and the mean one has a better excuse for being mean. 

Do you have fandoms you’ve written a lot for? Fandoms you’ve only written a one-off for?

Fandoms I’ve written a lot for: Check Please, Carry On, Harry Potter, Sherlock, Lizzie Bennet Diaries, and Yuri on Ice. (I’m defining “a lot” as at least five fics, and please note that I’ve got a 30k Lizzie Bennet Diaries fic that’s only on FFN because I really don’t like the ending.)

Fandoms I’ve only written one-offs for: Discworld, Turtles All the Way Down, Maleficent, the Chronicles of Narnia, Paper Towns, Six of Crows, Hoot, the Odyssey, Song of the Lioness, and Downton Abbey. (There are multiple other fandoms with two fics each.)

What fandom got you into fandom?

Harry Potter. I’d been writing next gen fics for like two years when a school acquaintance shared an FFN link to a Marauders fic on Google Buzz and I was hooked. 

Do you have a strategy for summaries?

I try to describe the premise/first part of the plot, and I add notes that might be relevant (i.e., major trigger warnings or other things that might put people off). I don’t use quotes, either from the story or from anywhere else. 

Do you use beta readers? For what? Do you have a go-to beta?

Occasionally for plot/general “is this good?” type feedback, or if they’re mandatory for an event, I guess. (I’m doing my first bang, so that’s a new thing for me.) I don’t feel the need to use a beta for spelling, grammar, or punctuation since I’m a semi-professional copyeditor. These days I do read most things to my QPP over the phone before publishing them. That’s usually more of a cheer-reading situation than a beta situation, though. 

I tag @doggernaut @carryonsimoncarryonbaz @birlcholtz @cricketnationrise and anyone else who wants to play! 

#mine #tag game #fanfiction #about me

[mallowstep]

I’m thinking about writing a short OC piece about Windclan and I’d love to see your notes about its culture and the hymns you’ve written so far, everything you’ve done for Windclan appreciation month has really inspired me :)

hello anon!

alright, first things first: please send me ur piece when ur done if you're comfortable doing so! i will publish it from you, or if you don't want to be associated with it in Any Way, i will also just read it and add it to the queue with no indication why it's there. or if you don't want me to share it at all, i'd still like to read it.

as for your ask,

hymns?

i'm working on it. however, underneath the read more, i'll include a few snippets for u.

culture

alright, i'm just going to post links with some commentary as i go. feel free to ask any more questions you have.

windclan (search) | windclan (tag) | wcam tag | five clans (narrative essays)

i would link the elders den, but there's no windclan stories in there ATM.

moving on, i'm just going to go through posts in reverse chronological order.

tallstar taking a mate admittedly, this is more about cats and sexuality than windclan, but i provide the commentary that windclan...has a particular view on sexuality and fluidity. one thing i haven't explored but should is the role visiting cats have in windclan.

whoops that's a code word, my plug for solacefruit has been activated. okay, as you may be aware, based on the fact that i have a whole tag for it, i'm obsessed with solacefruit. now, i love everything they do, but i would like to point you particularly to "make a mighty sound" for a fantastic exploration of this idea.

i don't want to spoil anything, but i do think windclan, and maybe cats as a whole, but windclan has a certain view towards relationships that very much breaks them into pieces. i'm a "love is a verb" person, so the idea that you can grow to love someone romantically by going through the actions of love makes sense. not to say you will, but you can.

(to be clear i'm not out advocating for arranged marriages just saying that they can work, they're not destined to be bad, and there's a difference between forced marriage and arranged marriage.)

anyway.

this was a lot of words to say, cats do not have a human (and particularly, western/american) understanding of relationships, which makes analyzing them in those terms difficult.

early hymn talk i'll probably say more below, but it is here.

general ibtwicm notes might get you into the headspace for some of my choices in ibtwicm.

i don't have a ton to say because this pretty much all holds, but uh, yeah.

poetry and language this isn't strictly about windclan, but it does explain some of what i think about when writing hymns.

obviously, i'm writing english translations, but these general themes are what i have in mind. it's also part of why i say i don't think i'll ever release a "full hymnal" for windclan, because i don't know if my weak worldbuilding heart could take it if i only had translations.

names part two very much not about windclan, but just some thoughts on names. as i've said before, i support all names and worldbuilding equally, but if you want my thoughts on names, go buckwild.

clan culture fic rec list just stuff i think does a good job, if you want other sources of inspiration.

general clan culture notes this is really old, but it mostly holds.

i've obviously expanded a lot on windclan since i wrote it, so shrug? idk man.

alright, i'm going to move into hymn discussion below the cut, but best of luck! and i hope u have a good time. it makes my brain shut down to read that i inspired you, straight up got brain juice pouring out of my ears, but i'm really, really happy to hear that.

windclan holds a special place in my heart. (i know my oc avatar is from skyclan shhh it's because of the backstory he sees ghosts.) but i grew up in this super sporty household as a lil asthmatic klutz, and running was a sport i couldn't mess up, so of course windclan appealed to me.

they're actually third on my list of favorite clans, but they. it's a special place in my heart that they hold, especially after reading dawn of the clans and moth flight's vision, where i got an asthmatic cat and an adhd cat, both in windclan.

god i should reread dotc it's good.

alright, here's the deal on hymns: i am not going to fight to get duets to post correctly. there's a 0% chance i can in tumblr's wonky ass new editor with no markdown, not to mention how difficult it would have been in the old editor. so i'm going to talk a lil about what i've got, and post some stanzas that i think don't get explored a lot in ibtwicm.

we're discussing these in the order that they go in. a reminder that these are all sections of one epic poem. that said, i don't know where the gaps are. like, i don't know what's between these, if that makes sense.

the wind

the wind, the very first hymn. this is an ode to, well, windclan. it's a song about everything that makes them them. it's filled with poetry about the wind, about the seasons, and it's just...well, it's a bit of a genesis, in a way.

The wind — like the rain, like the river — calls the name of each star in its breath. The wind — like the earth, like the stone — anchors us to our home. The wind — like the sun, like the sky — is knowable only by name.

i wanted to share this stanza because the last line doesn't show up in ibtwicm (at least so far, i cut the reference), and it really, really, makes a difference imo.

anyway, windclan is basically tying the wind in with every other fundamental part of their life here.

they are the wind, and that's that.

the hare

okay, this one has a line that comes up a lot in ch1, but i already talked about that, so instead, i'm going to talk about this stanza

Speak of the earth and the dens, and you will be answered: By the call of the howling gales, the open earth singing in response. But speak of that which grows above, of the grass and field, And you will be answered by the softness of the buds and the roots.

okay, we get deadfoot thinking about this when he's talking to yellowfang.

i like this stanza because it really tells us what the hare is about. now, hares are not something windclan catches. hares are huge, y'all, there's no way they take one down. i take liberties with ecology, but not that many.

(i.e., a team of cats definitely could take one down, but i know too much, and would prefer letting team hunting stay a plot thing, and not fundamentally alter the environment in the way it would.)

now anyway, all of these hymns come from the time of the tunnelers. and the point of this is, even though the work of tunnelers and moor runners is disconnected, they fundamentally affect each other.

a moor runner must trust the hollows of the earth beneath them won't collapse, and a tunneler must trust that the prey they chase up will be caught.

it's all very symbiotic and is, well, in a way, a love poem. plus i really like the line "the open earth singing in response"

of the warrens

so this has one line, one you might not even know is a hymn, in ch1, but i'll share the whole stanza.

And as for the subject of fallow fields: Fallowed fields make for hungry prey, Yet hungry prey makes desperate rabbits, Who leap into our claws.

and ig my big point is, the hymns are a cultural artifact. just like many of the rules in the old testament have to do with hygiene things being codified into religion, this whole hymn is about hunting advice.

the moon on the river

okay, out of all the hymns, this is the most complete, and because ashfoot and deadfoot sing it together, and deadfoot discusses it, i only have one stanza to share.

Under the coldness, you shine back at me, And I do everything to keep the clouds from threatening you.

now, this poem is about love, grief, and being separated. it's a particular kind of grief, and windclan discourages grief, so this is one of only a few ways to really, fully express it.

and this section, in particular, is about love in times of hardship.

i don't have. a lot to say here. but the way hardship changes how you love someone can be particular and intense.

(temporarily, this happens sometime before "Spare for my chosen few / All I have is given towards the distant ground.")

the gorse in the wind

oh shit! i have so fucking much to say okay first.

the series title does not come from this hymn.

second, this is a challenging hymn okay. fuck. i have so much to say. where to start so! moors are actually relatively wet. think british countryside, not, like, a cool desert.

this is something i always knew? i read the secret garden a lot as a kid. but. i've seen stuff about moors being dry, and it's just one of those things that really...starts to eat under your skin. anyway.

okay, so. gorse is a dry plant. it does not like rain. it grows in sandy soil, etc etc, and yet. aside from everything we know about gorse and warriors, it also grows in this moor. because i say so.

okay, so. so so so. the lines quotes here are really deceptive, and i bet no one understood why, and that makes me just a little sad, but i couldn't find a good way to explain it in text, so uh, yeah, anyway. there's an exchange between ashfoot and deadfoot: "THE GORSE: You called me the heather and I grew stronger. / THE WIND: I called you the heather and brought rain for you to grow."

so...so do you see? do you see the point? it's about communication, needs, challenging each other. fadskj;l i love this. okay, so. the point is that heather is fragile, soft, pretty, and gorse is the opposite. the part of the wind is trying to be kind and complimentary, but the gorse is saying, fuck that, you are not being kind to me by undercutting my strength.

anyway, this passage is sung by the gorse:

In what good company have I set down roots, That even through snow fall I flower. You called me the heather and yet I've weathered, Far more than your sweet-named love.

so uh, yeah, this adds context. gorse! gorse is a hardy plant that continues to flower basically all season round. it's cool. it's cool. gorse is super cool. fuuuck y'all it's such a small thing and i've contained talking about it until now, but now it's too much. the floodgates are open, and i thought about this small detail too much.

okay. deep breath. gorse is a really easy plant to grow, but it's still adapted for dry environments. so the "even through snow fall I flower" part is a little tongue in cheek: gorse itself will flower in the cold, but snow is a type of precipitation, which as we've covered, is not gorse friendly.

then we have some rhyming and puns in the next line, and finally, "yet I've weathered, / Far more than your sweet-named love." like. yes. love as a form of softness is not necessarily helpful.

i mean, consider the damaging "soft trans boi" problem. same energy.

right. okay. so we've got all that? now if you remember, this is sung when deadfoot thinks ashpaw doesn't respect him, and ashpaw says she'll sing with him if she can sing the gorse, so in essence, she's telling him...not to back off, per se, but that...she is the "hard part" of the relationship. like, okay, i refuse to even bring up gender roles in human relationships, but uh, her point is very much, "i am the gorse, and you are the wind," and it's a very monumental moment.

it's anchored, i believe, in the other scenes, but this is a small thing that matters a lot to me.

like a lot.

okay, now that i've talked about like four lines for the length of this entire post, moving on.

the heather and earth

okay, this is the last hymn i have in concrete terms, and i cut a bit of it from the latest chapter, so yeah. it's also, uh, okay everything i have for it is only a line or two, but i wanted to share this closing line (sung together):

Sing a song of forgiveness, of growing together, and we will make madness, And madness from hence will everything beautiful grow.

and i just like these lines. they got cut, it was initially part of an exchange between ashfoot and deadfoot, but i can't share the part of it they talk about, because i'm reusing it for a later chapter and i'll 100% spoil shit if i try to talk about it.

but these lines? mmm they speak to me.

i don't have a ton to say about them, but i just. i like it.

if we apply the same ecology discussion from the gorse and the wind, we see heather is a plant that grows in acidic, infertile soil, and heath (which is not the same as a heather, but also kind of is) is a defining quality of heathland, which is...i'm not kidding, it's hot discourse about the difference between moorland and heathland.

i'm not getting involved, but my point is, if the gorse in the wind is a hymn about finding a working relationship, about mutual respect, etc., then the heather and earth is a hymn about working well together in a terrible situation.

god.

uh, wow! can you tell i like plants? because while parts of my ecology are dubious (see: everything regarding the rabbits in ch1), the plants part are well thought out. this shit is carefully detailed metaphor.

and that's why i won't be releasing a full hymnal. it's hard to as on top of this as i want to be. i'm not kidding, writing even four lines of a hymn usually takes me about twenty minutes, because i pull up a lot of research about how things work, how they interact with each other, etc., and then there's wordsmithing, cat worldview filter, etc.

but i hope this overview of what i've got is a good insight into my general thoughts. and i will eventually release more and more of the hymns i've got written.

#ask #anon #mine #txt #windclan #wcam #essay #long #warriors #warriors worldbuilding #windclan hymn project #mateo fanboying over solacefruit again

[im-the-punk-who]

Hey, I was wondering if you have a book rec

!!

Okay so in full disclosure, I have a really hard time reading books. My brain sometime around six years ago just decided that wasn't its style anymore, so I don't read a TON. A lot of these aren’t going to be recent releases. However, here are a bunch of books I would absolutely recommend checking out! I tried to include a variety of genres but I have uh.....five bookshelves in my apartment so if you're looking for more of a certain genre let me know!

Theatre:

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead - Tom Stoppard

Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett

These are my two favorite plays - they're both absurdist, humorous, and have some fun things to say. They’re both by old white guys but like....I love both Tom Stoppard and Samuel Beckett DEEPLY and they have all of my love and respect.

Non-Fiction/Educational:

Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria by Beverly Daniel Tatum - this is considered a 'classic' on the psychology of racism, and was particularly helpful for me as a white person in arming myself against 'reverse racism' thoughts and in dissembling my own prejudices. This is mostly a rec for other white folks, but Tatum also addresses 'having the courage to sit at the black table' as a way of claiming your own identity outside of the stereotypes the dominant society expects of you.

Daring Greatly by Brene Brown - Okay listen I just really REALLY love Brene Brown, she is a therapist most famous for her TED talk about Vulnerability and this is just...listen I really like to read this book when I am sad and feel like shit because it makes me feel strong. I reread this book at least once a year.

Imagined Communities by Benendict Anderson - This is an absolutely fascinating read on the rise of nationalism. It’s a bit dry and wordy, but the ideas and use of history as propaganda, spinning the story of a nation to pit it against or on the same side as other nations, and the ways in which these tactics shaped cultural history is just!!!! Amazing.

Gay New York by George Chauncey - This is just one of the most informative and interesting reads of queer history in New York that I’ve ever come across. It’s one of the ‘must reads’ of queer history and has so many interesting tidbits that I have to recommend it. It’s a bit old(published in 1994) but I still find it relevant and interesting to read.

Personal Fiction/Autobiographical Fiction

White Girls by Hilton Als - I went to a reading of this book when it first came out. It was so much fun and so eye-opening for me as a baby queer in NYC that I bought the book there. I wanna be really clear that Als does not pull punches and a lot of people don’t quite like it, but I love Als’ style of writing. The stories and essays in this book are amazing and funny and heartbreaking and informative of queer experience - particularly black queer experience - that I always feel like...honored? to experience through writing? This is one of those ‘you’re gonna suffer but you’re gonna be happy about it’ reads - it can be hard to face because of how very hard the pills are to swallow but like....gosh I just love this book and it’s interesting and hilarious and great.

Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins  - this is my tin hat favorite. It hits....ugh. This is one of those books that came out and like every government agency freaked the fuck out over it. It’s an interesting look into the quote-unquote dark underbelly of capitalism; how and why countries manipulate each other through economic policies. Super interesting read with a nice style of prose.

The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to become the Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs Okay so full disclosure I have not finished reading this, but I’m far enough through to rec it. This book chronicles the author’s attempt to read the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica from front to back, and it is just as kooky and hilarious as it sounds. I am very incredibly and deeply offended this author stole both my schtick and my initials, thereby preventing me from doing this exact thing. I read through the phone book in its entirety when I was three. I had it in me. Anyway, this is basically the author just listing weird interesting facts he’s read about and connecting them to his daily life, but it’s a fun read, and you learn a lot of totally useless facts, which is absolutely my jam.

When Skatboards Will Be Free by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh - HI I LOVE THIS BOOK. I’ve read it maybe three times over. It’s so fun and interesting. You may notice that a lot of the books I rec are very absurdist in their humor, and this is no exception. This book is full of the dry wit and just weird goddamn shit you could only expect from the child of a revolution that never came. You want to read a book about someone who Went Through Shit? Read this book. It’s funny and heartbreaking and just. AHHHH. Seriously I cannot recommend this enough.

Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosch - FIGHT ME ON THIS. I love this book.....so much. Yes it’s technically a comic book but the stories are so INTERESTING and hilarious and full of exactly the dry absurdist humor I eat the fuck up. Also! Allie Brosch recently released a sequel of sorts called Solutions and Other Problems that I recommend without even reading it.

Poetry

Pansy by Andrea Gibson - IF YOU ARE NOT READING THE POETRY OF ANDREA GIBSON WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING WITH YOUR LIFE. I cried seven times reading this book. There are only like 14 poems. Please please read this to break your own queer heart :)

Bloodsport by Yves Olade - This is a tiny book full of absolutely devastating poetry. Most of it has to do with the grief of relationships, but like....gosh I love all of Olade’s stuff. (Also!! This is available as a pay-what-you-wish pdf!!)

Bright Dead Things by Ada Limón - This book focuses a lot on the author’s experiences of loss, and knowing that loss is going to happen. I’m completely devastated every time I read this.

Science Fiction/Fantasy

The Bartimeaus Sequence by Jonathan Stroud - So what if I am a dumb millennial I love this series. It’s another dry and deadpan humor, with weird additions and Stroud’s use of footnotes to absolutely crack me the fuck up means I gotta rec this. I just gotta. Four(I think?) books following the deeply unlikeable Nathaniel and his Djinn Bartimaeus, who just wants to eat humans and have a deeply enjoyable enemies to lovers plotline with his arch rival.

The Magic's Price Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey - Okay I know I’ve recced this before. I will rec it again. This was the very first series I ever read that featured a gay protagonist and I was. Devastated? Reformed? I latched onto Vanyel Ashkevron and I am never letting this depressed emo boy go. Try me, I bite. Seriously, this book was released in the 80s and yet it is still relevant, I still cry - god i LOVE this series SO MUCH. And, MERCEDES LACKEY actually invented unbury your gays, sorry I make the rule on that one. :) Also there are magic talking horses??????? Seriously please read this series I love it so much.

Fire Bringer & The Sight by David Clement-Davies - This is another series that was absolutely formative in my baby lexicon. These are books about magical animals and their inner societal workings and both books address the ideas of good, evil, darkness, compassion and good will, and destiny. I am obsessed with these books, they are some of the most interesting of the genre I’ve read, and so incredibly intricately written. LOVE these books.

Vampire Earth Series by E. E. Knight - The Witcher before it was cool. Sort of but like...there are schools of Cat, Bear, etc and it has COOL VAMPIRES I LOVE THSI SERIES. Basically, earth has been taken over by a race of alien ‘Vampires’ and follows a human involved in the resistance. The writing in this series is...wow. It’s so intricate and interesting and involved. I own the whole series because I love it so much, including the after-series hardback novels. I’m so messy and I love it.

Kindred by Octavia Butler - You know how people are like ‘YOU SHOULD READ OCTAVIA BUTLER!!’ ? You should absolutely do that. This novel is mindblowing and interesting and the pace and narrative are so so so interesting. Heartbreaking, god, horrific. Butler is an amazing writer and this novel, while my personal favorite, is not by any means the only of her books I would recommend. STORIES. STORIES!!!!!!!

Fiction

The Ballad of Barnabas Pierkiel: A Novel by Magdalena Zyzak - This book is so fucking good. It’s imaginative, funny, intelligent....it’s honestly one of the best fiction novels I’ve ever read. Again, dry, absurdist humor, this book sort of reminds me of Terry Pratchett’s style of writing.

The Call of the Wild by Jack London - This is a classic, a true classic. The social commentary of this book is so so good, London’s style flows and, personally, as a dog and animal expert, the anthropomorphisation of Buck and his fellow animals is just so well done. I love this book, it’s quite an easy read, and I reread it at least once a year.

Rolling the R's by R. Zamora Linmark - Okay. Okay okay!!!!!! I gotta take a deep breath about this one. This book is. Yuh. This is a bit younger leaning than the other fictions, focusing almost entirely on high school level characters, however the experiences and commentary is just so so good. Focusing on a diverse group of characters growing up in Hawaii in the 1970′s, this book addresses the intersectionalities of gender, sexuality, race, immigration, education, and how we define who we are. I’m obsessed.

A Separate Peace by John Knowles - A heartbreaking novel about war, innocence, adolescence, and how we hide from our truths. It’s...so good, this book hurts me a LOT okay. The prose is phenomenal, the story is poignant, and it feels like I’m ripping my own heart out with a fishhook every time I finish it.

The Toss of a Lemon by Padma Viswanathan - This is one of those books I half recommend because it’s so good, and half because of the deep wealth of knowledge it presents the reader. The author’s use of her own culture is just....goddddddddd. Intricate and interesting and so delicately included in the narrative that you can feel the love the author has for it. It’s a long read and it took me almost a month to get through reading every day, but god. It’s so soft and amazingly written I both wanted to read it all at once and take my time with it. This is another one that deals with the duality of humanity and how we connect with one another. Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!

P.S. Your Cat Is Dead by James Kirkwood Jr. - I love this book I love this book I LOVE THIS BOOK. It’s fucking hilarious, entertaining, I literally laughed out loud at every single chapter. Hilarious and poignant and surprisingly deep, this book literally follows the journey of a man in which literally everything that could go wrong does. It’s fucking hilarious.

I hope that helped and gave you some new books!!! <3

#long post #book recs #milo writes

[alywats]

June/ July 2021 Reading Wrap-Up

So, it’s been a minute, huh? I finished my first year of grad school on June 8th, turned 23 on June 9th, and went face-down-head-empty on June 10th. I am trying to be better about managing burn-out, but that is a discussion for another time. Let’s get caught up on my spicy literary opinions, shall we?? I read significantly less than normal in June and July, but we still have 8 whole books!

1. Shrines Of Upper Austria –Phoebe Power (71 pgs) 4

This is a special poetry collection, because it was written by the person who taught me the most about poetry. In 2018 I signed up for a poetry class during my semester abroad in England, and Phoebe was my workshop leader. Cut to 3 years later, and I still think about pieces of advice Phoebe gave me, every time I write. This collection was published while I was there, and I actually went to the release event and heard her perform some of the poems, but for some reason I hadn’t gone back and actually read the whole book until now.  I love this collection a lot, it’s a mosaic of European stories and histories, specifically as they relate to WW2. I think Phoebe has such a strong voice and such a unique style of writing, in ways that may make some of her work a little difficult to unpack for some readers. Anyways, Phoebe was the first person I ever showed my writing to, she even gave me feedback on a poem that went on to circulate tumblr (lol), and she understood my voice before I really understood it myself… anyways I think you should read this if you’re into poetry!

2. Crush –Richard Siken (62 pgs) 5

I don’t know if I have the right words to describe this book. Are they love poems? Sometimes. This was an absolutely haunting reading experience. All of the poems in this book are so desperate, so obsessive, so panicked, that by the end you just need a deep breath. There is so much blood in the lines of these poems, and I think that’s the best sell I can make? I HIGHLY recommend this.

3. Grocery List Poems –Rhiannon McGavin (80 pgs) 4.5

The last thing I read on The Day I Read A Bunch Of Poetry, and it was by one of my favorite poets. This is Rhiannon’s second collection, and uh, can we get some commotion for the fruit imagery??? I really like this collection, it is very cohesive and so full of her voice (which I have come to love a lot). My favorite poem in this book is Elsa la Rose and I want everyone to read it.

4. West Of Here –Jonathan Evison (486 pgs) 3

Here, my guys, is where things took a turn. I started reading this book on like June 10th, and I did not finish it until JULY 12TH. I don’t know if my brain just finally needed to shut down after finishing a year of grad school, or if this book was actually just that painful to read. Maybe it was some combination of the two, but good lord this book was hard for me to get through. The premise was great: historical fiction about when Washington became a state with a current day Bigfoot B-plot. Woof though: I was  annoyed by every character in this book (oh and there were about 37243875 characters to keep track of across two different timelines), plus I was also kind of annoyed by how #woke and #girlboss some of the characters from the 1800’s timeline were? Clearly Evison was trying to skirt around some of the *ahem* problematic elements of colonizing Washington and treating Indiginous people the way they were treated, and also the way women were treated in the 1800s, etc… but it came off as oversimplified and cringy. This would have been a 2-star review BUT THAT BIGFOOT B-PLOT? I am a simple woman.  

5. The Pisces –Melissa Broder (270 pgs) 3.5

Haha, what? This book has mermaid sex. Okay, it also has some big Ottessa Moshfegh-esque character study elements, where we meet an unlikable narrator and relate to her *too much* for comfort. This is a read where you feel uneasy the whole time and the ending kept me awake for a little while after I finished it. It’s gross, it’s weird, and most of all there is a fish man ready for action. Did I like this? Who’s to say, really.

6. All The Light We Cannot See –Anthony Doerr (531 pgs) 3.5

This I read as a buddy read with my good friend Carly! Carly and I met the first day of college and we did music stuff together throughout. Now, we are both yelling about books on the internet (her book instagram is @book.trunks if you want to check out her hot takes!). But on to this book…. sad, just sad.

This book kind of wrecked me? And I did really like the writing. I became invested in the characters immediately, and the structure of the book felt like a kind of fragmented flashback, which is fitting for a traumatic book about WW2. I am becoming really sensitive to the ways authors use trauma like this though, did this book make me feel things because it was full of good, emotional writing? Or did descriptions of extreme suffering evoke those feelings because I am a human and WW2 was a nightmare? Does this matter? I don’t know, but this book was sad and I *think* I liked it?

7. Sweetbitter –Stephanie Danler (356 pgs) 2.5

This is pretentious lit-fic in its most pure essence. An overwritten coming-of-age/ finding yourself novel with minimal plot set in New York City, baby –the city of dreams! Our protagonist has a tragic past, and working in a fancy restaurant shows her things about the city and its people that make her question her place there. There’s sex and drugs along the way, and maybe NYC isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, hmm? Or, maybe this is *exactly* where she’s supposed to be. Does this sound exceedingly boring and predictable, because it was.

8. Supernatural Strategies For Making a Rock ‘n’ Roll Group –Ian F. Svenonius (250 pgs) 4

This is a quirky little nonfiction (memoir?? art piece?) about what it means to start a rock ‘n’ roll band! I thought this was super interesting and it reminded me of Chuck Klosterman’s writing a bit, so no complaints here!

#reading wrap up #july reads #June reads #books #book review #booklr

[sachinighte]

Fic Writer Review

Tagged by @uintuva

1. How many do you have on Ao3? 107, 116 if I include the ones I’d rather not think about that I shoved under the metaphorical rug of a different pseud.

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 184425, oh wow, did not expect that.

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they? 29, maybe 30. Not sure how much some of these overlap. Naruto, Dragon Age, Harry Potter, BNHA, Bleach, Sailor Moon, Hannibal, Hellsing, MCU, Mass Effect, FFXV, One Piece, Stargate, Teen Wolf, BTVS, X-Men, Criminal Minds, NCIS, Star Wars, YuYu Hakusho, Yuri on Ice, Inuyasha, Scooby-Doo, Negima, Voltron, Ocean’s 8, RWBY, The Black Jewels Trilogy, Underworld, Twilight. At least, that’s all my published fandoms.

4. What are your top 5 five by kudos? Number one is Don’t Ask Why It Works, It Just Does: 749. Number two is It’s Something Unpredictable (But In The End It’s Right): 595. Number three is With A Taste Of Poison Paradise: 410. Number four is And We’ll Fly And We’ll Fall And We’ll Burn: 400. And finally, number five is The Sharp Knife Of A Short Life: 385.

5. Do you respond to comments, why or why not? Yes, I always respond to comments because I don’t get many of them so it’s easy to do so, and plus I know love getting responses to my reviews from other authors. I know some people may not like this like I do, but I enjoy doing it.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? Uh, probably Land Of Confusion. I’ve written other angsty fics and endings, but there is literally no hope in that fic and no open ending for the mc.

7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written? I do write crossovers, though I haven’t done very many—at least none that got posted—in recent years. My craziest one is probably Bleach/BTVS with a crack ship of Kenpachi/Buffy.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic? Oh, yeah. I used to post on ffn, which basically guaranteed that I would, but I still receive some on ao3. I usually delete it, but sometimes I’ll roast the person a bit before I do.

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind? -///- …yes. It’s either a gift fic for a friend, people failing at having sex in a—what I think—humorous way, or weird shit I think is sexy for some reason.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated? Yes! A couple of times. It’s very sweet, I love it when people do that, I wish I could do that.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes, with my BFF, but it’s not published at all and my ex-gf actually took off with the physical copy when we broke up. Probably for the best, it was… ah, so embarrassing.

13. What is your all time favorite ship? I am an inveterate multishipper, it’s probably better to ask if I have any notps XDD. Even going by fandom idk if I would be able to choose.

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? There’s this Dragon Age fic that I’ve been writing for years now, half from Cullen’s POV and half from Anders’ spanning all of da2 and Dai. I’m pretty sure it’s my best work but it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Who the f*ck knows if it’ll ever be done, and if I’ll ever publish it. Pretty sure if I did I’d get burned at the stake by nearly everyone in fandom XD

15. What are your writing strengths? I like to think it is my characterization. It’s certainly the thing I get the most compliments on, which makes me feel very warm and fuzzy.

16. What are your writing weaknesses? Getting too wrapped up in useless details. It’s fine for short fic, but in long fic it’s… well… a bit overwhelming.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? It depends on whether the POV character can understand it or not; if they can’t then I try and translate it into the language as best I can, which might be a fun Easter egg for those who speak it? If they can, then I usually just do “…,” a said in (language). Otherwise I just treat it like normal dialogue, no fancy formatting or anything. I’ll post what I wanted it to mean in the author’s note, but tbh I’ve never been able to successfully learn another language despite years of trying, so it’s more than likely wrong even though I usually end up doing hours of research. If you look at some of my really early work, that might not be the case, as I’ve learned a lot over the years, but that’s my opinion as of now. It may change in the future as I learn more!

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for? The Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop. It was a poem, and super teenage angsty.

19. What’s your favorite fic you’ve ever written? I honestly can’t tell you. It changes by the day, in regards to my mood. I will say that I’m probably most proud of Don’t Let Your Life Pass You By; Well I’ll Be Damned, Here Comes Your Ghost Again; But The Light Is On (What Are You Waiting For?); and The Sharp Knife Of A Short Life. They might not all be my most popular fics, but they’re definitely the most character driven ones, in my opinion.

I never know who to tag for this stuff, so please, if you would like to do this, feel free to say I tagged you. It’s fun!

#my writing #my fanfiction #this is me

[ellenripleysbelieveitornot]

Crowley took to writing when the moments without Aziraphale seemed to stretch into infinity. There was something about the repetitive scratch of the quill against the parchment that seemed to calm him; maybe it was just the way it seemed to drown out the part of him that had (unforgivably) learned to miss someone.

At first, he was just writing down his thoughts, not bothering with any sort of organization. It was just a way to silence the part of his mind that always managed to drift to the angel.

But then he discovered poetry. It wasn't the art itself that drew him to the craft, but rather the way Aziraphale had smiled when he had shown off his latest acquisition. And, oh, his voice, the way it seemed to flow with the words when he read a sample to him aloud. It reminded him of the way the universe had sang when it was born.

He thought, maybe, if he could imagine Aziraphale's voice caressing his own thoughts in such a way, it might alleviate the ache in his soul, just a bit.

My love is the horizon, Where blue sky meets the Earth. Forever in my sight, But never mine to hold.

It was simple, and it didn't rhyme, but it said more with four lines than Crowley would ever be able to express out loud, and wasn't that the point?

So, he kept at it. Whenever that certain piece of his heart felt the loss of Aziraphale's presence, whenever visions of a bright smile and the sweetest eyes became too much, he'd write down a couple lines, and it brought him a brief sense of peace.

And things were fine that way, until they weren't.

It happened when they were at lunch. Crowley was rearranging the meal on his plate into complicated patterns and shapes, (moving it around and around so it seemed that he was doing something with it, so it seemed that food were the reason he were here, it was an act and one he played well) when Aziraphale pulled out a thin little book, that its cover claimed was a collection of poetry 'lost to time and memory' whatever that meant.

"Crowley, dear, listen to this," Aziraphale said. Then he cleared his throat and began to read.

"By your presence, I am come undone. By your absence, I am torn asunder.

Free me or keep me, What difference could it make?"

Crowley stopped listening. The words. He knew the words. He had written the words. But how?

Someone must have found one of his poems and, presuming the author to be long dead, had it published.

Crowley came back to himself just to realize that Aziraphale was expecting some kind of response from him. "Oh, yeah," he muttered at his plate. "Very nice."

Aziraphale looked affronted. "Nice?!" he echoed. "It's terrible!"

Crowley cringed. He knew he was an amateur, but 'terrible' seemed a little harsh. "Oh, yeah," he agreed anyway. "It's rubbish."

Now Aziraphale looked offended for some reason. What did he want from him? "It's beautiful!" the angel declared.

Crowley blinked. "But you said-"

"It's heartbreaking! The writer loves this person so much it's consumed them entirely. It's- It's- Don't you know how that feels?"

And Aziraphale was looking at him now, a hopeless desperation in those beautiful eyes. But how could Crowley possibly answer that question?

The truth was, he didn't know how it felt, not the way it was written in the poem. It had always been one of his biggest shortcomings, he thought. Try as he might, no matter what words he used, no matter the grandiosity of the metaphors, it was never enough. His feelings could never quite be put to paper. Not in any way that mattered.

"Erm..." he said instead, and Aziraphale's face fell.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I shouldn't have put you on the spot like that. I don't know what came over me."

"'S fine," Crowley mumbled, because his mind was still reeling, and the conversation drifted back to whatever they had been discussing before.

From then on, Crowley was utterly lost. He had written the poems imagining them being read by Aziraphale, but now that he had actually witnessed it, had an actual taste, he became like a man possessed.

Poem after poem poured out of him. Knowing that Aziraphale could read his words, could be moved by them, was intoxicating. If he could just get the pages to match what he felt, then maybe, maybe he had a chance.

I walked the halls of heaven So very long ago I stood within the Presence I lived with grace bestowed

And though it’s true I fell Into darkness from the bright On this loss I do not dwell For you keep my soul alight

And there isn’t any question Believe me, yes it’s true All the glory that is heaven Is nothing next to you

He started gifting his poems to Aziraphale. Not in person, of course, but he'd slide them through his mail slot, he'd tuck them between two books on the shelves in Aziraphale's shop, he left them anywhere the angel might find them and hoped that he'd know they were for him.

I bend my knees in worship. I lift my hands in prayer. I cry out before your altar, But you never seem to hear.

He didn't even know if Aziraphale found them all. But this was all he could do.

My true love is an angel, So perfectly divine I spend my days in worship, Kneeling before his shrine

My true love is an angel Wrapped in heaven’s sweet embrace I'd give my all to serve him And be worthy of his grace

My true is an angel And for this blasphemy I crawl Yet I surely cannot conceive of Any sweeter way to fall.

And then he was handed the Antichrist. And what good were words when faced with the end?

He stopped writing and focused entirely on just keeping Aziraphale by his side. He could live with Aziraphale never knowing of his feelings so long as things could remain as they were.

So, when they did the impossible, when they stopped the apocalypse, he decided to be thankful for what he had, and shoved all those feelings deep, deep down, resigned to never wanting more. He could spend more time with Aziraphale, now, without either of them having to check over their shoulder, and wasn't that enough?

Wasn't it?

No.

But if lied to himself enough, maybe he could start to believe it was true.

Until Aziraphale, with that same determined look on his face that he had gotten when he decided he was going to learn close-up magic, sat him down on the couch in the back of the bookshop and stood before him, wringing his hands nervously.

"Crowley, I need to read you something, and you have to promise not to laugh."

Crowley blinked. "Okay?"

"You have to promise!"

"Okay, I promise!"

"And- And could you take off your sunglasses?"

"What?"

"Please, Crowley, I really need-"

"Okay, okay!" Crowley did. "Better?"

"Yes." Aziraphale frowned. "Actually, no, it's much worse, now I can see what you're thinking, put them back on."

Crowley rolled his eyes. "Angel!"

"Alright, alright!" With shaking hands, Aziraphale reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his reading glasses, which they both knew he didn't actually need, but Crowley decided to let that fact go for now. After he had situated them on the end of his nose, he reached into his waistcoat and procured a worn sheet of paper. His fingers trembled as he unfolded it and began to read:

"I fear the way I love you, It's too much for me to bear.

I fear the way I love you, It hurts how much I care.

I fear the way I love you, Your presence is all I crave.

I fear the way I love you, But, now I'm ready to be brave."

Crowley wasn't sure what to say. It had been a while since Aziraphale had shared his favorite poems with him, and he couldn't quite remember how this was supposed to work.

"It's lovely," he said.

"You think so?" Aziraphale asked hopefully, suddenly looking a little less terrified. "It's not as good as yours, of course, but I thought I did pretty well."

Crowley's mind blanked. "Mine?" His voice may have squeaked, but he couldn't be sure over the pounding in his ears.

"Well, yes. They were yours, weren't they?"

Should he deny it? No. He was done hiding. "Yes."

Aziraphale looked... relieved. And that was when Crowley's mind caught up to the second thing Aziraphale had said. "You wrote that poem?"

Aziraphale nodded.

"For me?"

Aziraphale nodded again. "Like I said, it's not much, compar- you promised you wouldn't laugh!"

But Crowley couldn't help himself. The joy and love bubbled out of him in such a way that had to be given form, and laughter seemed to be it. Aziraphale didn't seem to mind, though, once Crowley swept him into his arms and pressed their lips together.

And this? This was poetry.

---

AN: Remember that AU I talked about? I decided to finally put my money where my mouth is. I feel like I should apologize for the awful poetry, so, uh.... sorry.

#good omens #good omens fanfiction #aziraphale #anthony j crowley #crowley #ineffable husbands #my fic

[twohauntedhouses]

the rules: answer 17 questions & tag 17 people you want to know better

I was tagged by @fionaappletini ! thank you so much Chloe 💖🐛

nickname: some people call me Lil (which i used to hate as a kid but now i dont mind as much) and some ppl will call me by my full name which is Lillian.

zodiac sign: leo sun gemini moon libra rising

height: 5'2" 😳

hogwarts house: ravenclaw

last thing i googled: describe by perfume genuis bc i love u mister genuis but i can never understand a word youre saying and i wanted to know the lyrics

song stuck in my head: the last one i remember is beautiful faces by declan mckenna

followers and following: 299 and 735

amount of sleep i get: not enough! im so shitty at going to bed on time, usually between 6 and 7hrs on school nights and 8 on weekends.

lucky number(s): i dont think i have any tbh.

dream job: screenwriter! (but im actually gonna be an english teacher)

wearing: jeans and a button down with flowers stitched on the collar and a long green sweater and my old lace up dyke boots

favorite songs: ever? uh narrowing this down is suuuuper hard for me but bennie and the jets by elton john, headfirst slide into cooperstown on a bad bet by fall out boy, running up that hill by kate bush, anything mitski has ever written (my body's made of crushed little stars, goodbye by danish sweetheart, a burning hill, geyser, strawberry blonde, class of 2013), the cave by mumford and sons, zhuangwho by carl hauck, all too well by taylor swift, the chain by fleetwood mac, stay down by boygenuis, daemon irrepit callidus, linus and lucy by vince guaraldi, silver dagger by joan baez. there are many more.

instruments: ive sung in various music groups and choirs for the past eight years! i also played clarinet for five years and sometimes i play chords on the piano to sing to.

random facts: ive kept a journal ever since i was 8 (i am now on my 7th journal). ive won a few regional awards for my writing and i had a script move on to be reviewed at the national level of a competition and i have a poem published in an anthology! my favorite drink is green tea with honey. my friends and i are starting a dnd podcast called Fools Errant! i really like astrology and i like to read tarot.

aesthetic: here is the tag for stuff that reminds me of myself on my aesthetic blog. so that i suppose! lots of flowers, red and green and gold, lesbian english professor.

im literally just going to tag the people im playing dnd with @greylunar @impulse-poetry @peachbruiseboy @harleenapolla @notantsnotart and anyone else who would like to!

#sorry this is long also u do not gotta do this if you don't want to #also sorry this is so late chloe ty for tagging me tho fr! #lily lore

[taule]

Hope you feel better 😊. I wanted to ask what your favorite music and novels are. And of course films, besides LOTR lol. I'm actually excited about The Green Knight movie. I saw the trailer and got excited. I've always been in love with Arthurian novels and poems. I hope this year has great movies and shows with better endings. I'm tired of redemption = death and just death for shock value. Here's to hoping.. - Mel

Thank you. I am starting to feel better. Sorry for the late reply though. I guess it would have taken me some time to answer this even without the other things. 

I am also supremely tired of seeing things which are made by entitled, unoriginal and uninspired creators such as D&D and JJ Abrams. I’m tired of all this subverting expectations crap and these men trying to pass their own lack of imagination off as giving the audience something “new”. Nobody asked for this shit. Myths that are as old as humanity itself don’t need some asshat trying to “reinvent” it for the modern audience when said myth speaks to something at the core of human psychology and has survived “modern times” intact for the past 5000 years. 

Uh. Anyway. Things I like…

I have to say, I’m an inconsistent, but methodical reader. I find that even the reading I do for myself is often research-like. Such as me having read everything ever written about Maul that has been published by any entity associated with Lucasfilm or going through any and all mentions of orcs ever published relating to Tolkien.

I am trying to read more novels but somehow still end up reading non-fiction most of the time (if you want my recommendations, that will be a different list). And the fiction I do read outside of Tolkien isn’t necessarily novels. More and more I feel like it isn’t always being published on paper that gives something legitimacy. So honestly the fiction I’ve enjoyed most in the past couple of years is found on AO3. I’ve also consistently liked Murakami. Especially his short stories.

Currently on my reading list: more non-fiction, all of The History of Middle-Earth by Christopher Tolkien (parts of which I’ve already read), more Tolkien (mostly rereading), Dune by Frank Herbert, more fics. I’m also on the lookout for good Monster Romance books. Especially ones in which the ‘monster’ doesn’t turn into a prince. 

As for films I hold dear to my heart… like with books, there’s LOTR and Harry Potter of course. And this might be an unpopular opinion, but I also like The Hobbit. There is a lot that could have been different, but I can accept it for what it is. And it also gave me Azog so…

Reading The Hobbit in English especially made me realize how difficult it is to turn into a coherent film. One major complaint is that it’s not enough material to turn into more than one film, much less 3. But if you look at how it’s written it skips over a lot. Now they’re here, and now they’re there. But you can’t make a decent film cutting from one scene to another one which might be days, if not weeks or months apart. And most people seem to forget that most dwarves have literally no dialogue. Ah, sorry for the tangent.

So, films… The Great Beauty, The Shape of Water, Hero (2002), Perfume, Cidade de Deus, Pan’s Labyrinth, Amelie, Baraka, Koyaanisqatsi, Moonlight, Life of Pi. To name a few. I also unironically like The Mummy. I think there’s a pattern there. There’s a lot of films and it would be a long list to just name recommendations, but I think what is important to me is the trace they leave behind when I’m done watching. 

I think the music question is the hardest to answer. My taste is at the same time wide-ranging but very specific. There are things I always come back to and then stuff that holds my attention for a short while. I think it’s easier to just make a playlist, which I think I will do. 

#maeself #personal

[britneyshakespeare]

thanks nancy @pavlovers for tagging me 💖✨🤧 now i get to talk to myself which is my favorite thing ever

rules– answer 21 questions and then tag 21 people who you want to get to know better

nickname(s): a couple, but i wish i had more epithets. the mysterious one. (the bi ace poetess)

zodiac sign: i blow in my tissue more personal information than this

height: 5′7

last movie I saw: uh i dont know but i got a bad movie night coming up w a bunch of my new College Friends (i became cool recently but only w a bunch of white improv guys so it’s... small prize i guess) and we’re gonna watch the room and a bunch of other shitfests like that. it’ll be. fun. two of them own matching tommy wiseau boxers. i hate to say it but i looked it up after and

they’re kinda stylish.

last thing I googled: well, now it’s tommy wiseau boxers.

favourite musician: 💖💗💕💞💞✨ MARiANNE ✨💞💞💕💗💖 FAITHFULL 🐇🌸🌷😘😍😸 BARONESS VON SACHER-MASOCH 😸😍😘🌷🌸🐇

song stuck in my head: i was talking to kaily in the car on the way to barnes & noble, and i said something about DNCE’s cover of Do Ya Think I’m Sexy with Rod Stewart, and then when i was waiting in line to pay, it came on in the store. DNCE’s cover of Do Ya Think I’m Sexy with Rod Stewart.

other blogs: follow @creatediana if you want my body and if you think i’m sexy (come on sugar tell me so)

following: 839

followers: 2885

do I get asks: yeah a little. little asks. very small ones.

amount of sleep: certainly enough

lucky numbers: i almost bought paradise lost by john milton when i was in barnes & noble and i was really tempted to, because i’m an early-modern english slut, but i’ve been in the middle of the knight’s tale (from chaucer’s canterbury tales) for weeks now in between a bunch of other reads. but you know, paradise lost is comparable to canterbury tales, because they’re both long english poems. but i’m rereading frankenstein by mary shelley for the first time since i was a SOPHOMORE IN HIGH SCHOOL (which references paradise lost and it’s quite thematically significant), and it’s really fascinating. and i haven’t read paradise lost in full, i feel like i HAVE to do that at some point. no, i don’t feel like it, i KNOW it. i do have to read milton. perhaps after i read more of the complete poems of alexander pope i got for christmas, i’m still in the pastorals, but really, i have so many volumes of poetry. most of which are cracked, because, like, no one just sits down and reads an entire volume of poetry in a couple of days like it’s a novel. yuck. no. you let it sit. i’ve been reading the complete poems of w. b. yeats for at least like a year and a half (serially. i’ve read random pieces here and there since 2016ish). and i like letting a poet’s works be a slow burn. but then again, most of my volumes ARE complete works. such as yeats, pope, rossetti, anne sexton. and others are collected but not complete, just highlights, like shelley, plath, tennyson. truly i don’t own many volumes which were meant to be read all together at once, which were published purposefully together and written in accord. but i do have canterbury tales, and the knight’s tale, that’s an especially long tale. it’s like, 2000+ lines. i can’t even tell you how many i’ve read. i started it as something i’d read between classes at college but i just finished finals on friday and don’t go back till september. and whenever i told myself i’d read something at school i typically didn’t, because when i have a free moment at school to really dig into a nice long-form reading, i’d just rather write something myself. i need to finish the knight’s tale before long, though, so i don’t forget everything about palamon and arcite and emily. i’m so silly for thinking i should’ve bought paradise lost. i’m so silly! i haven’t even finished canterbury tales. no, diana, you can buy paradise lost another day.

(what i did buy was two volumes of maya angelou & margaret atwood because i was feeling very modern poetry & very feminist. i prioritize Lady Literature always, i tell myself whenever i buy books that it’d be a disgrace if i put ALL of my money towards men—yuck!)

what I’m wearing: oh it’s a total Teacher Outfit. 

dream job: siren perhaps. poet. unrealistically wealthy teacher. enjoyable and electrifying widow who lives in a big house w a private library and has regular wine and cheese tastings on the second floor, mingling with a bunch of intellectuals and dilettantes, all of whom have at least mild disregard for each other but come for the appearance of being a member of High Society.

dream trip: i don’t think much about visiting PLACES so much as EVENTS. i always think it’d be much better to travel through time than space. if i could take a vacation into, say, early victorian england and hang out w the bronte sisters. or if i could mingle amongst the preraphaelites and pose for rossetti or waterhouse. pop into the 60s and fiddle around a melody on some exotic instruments with brian jones. those kinds of fantasies amuse me more than going to just, places. patches of dirt. i don’t like dirt, i like art and people.

favourite food: i eat more chocolate than anything else. that’s barely an exaggeration.

instruments played: haven’t played much of anything in awhile, but i’m trained in guitar.

languages: english is the only language i feel so privileged as to say i can speak and write comfortably, but i can read/understand varying levels of spanish, french, latin.

favourite songs: poem 16 by catullus

just a little taste.

no actually that reminds me awhile ago i found some guy who made a bunch of catullus lines into a bad rap song and i love it.

random fact: my dogs are very very good & i love them.

aesthetic: i’m standing on a sidewalk i see w my eyeball watchin all these couples pass me by like that’s what i want china (that’s me) why did you break away like taiwan thinkin bout you every night like sleepin w the lights on

kay i’ll tag some buddies now whom i love @laurenthelyricist @sneez @bohemian-brian @captainweirdboots @mylittlehappy and you know. anyone else who sees this & wants to do it. just tag me i’ll be happy. :-)

#this ended up being more chaotic than expected #tag

[char-writes]

Tag Game: 11/11/11

If I’m not mistaken, I was tagged back by @hyba for this game. Thank you very much!

1. Write down the name of the book that is currently nearest to you. Written on the Body by Jeanette Witherson! I had to read it for one of my classes here and I loved the writing style. I’ve been rereading it in hopes that I can try my own take on the writing style in one of my current writing projects.

2. What’s the last song you listened to? Oh man, you’re here to expose me, haha. Okay, so, the last song I listened to was “You Should See Me In A Crown” by Billie Eilish. I didn’t want to fall into that hole but, yesterday, one of my friends was playing the song in her car and it sounded cool so I had to check it out. And I actually think a few of her songs might actually end up on some character/wip playlists!

 3. What’s the last video you watched on Youtube? The video for billie eilish’s you should see me in a crown song haha

4. Biggest pet peeve? I’ve recently figured out that it’s noise. But only when I’m working on something. Like, if someone is tapping on their desk during a test or if I’m writing but can hear someone whispering on the other side of the room, it’s going to bother me to no end. I think it’s because I get easily distracted.

5. When was the last time you finished writing a story? Yikes. Uh... February 28, apparently. I write fanfic so that’s the day I posted the last chapter to one of my fics, haha.

6. Other than being a writer, what would you like to be? A journalist!!! I write for a local newspaper and it is so much better than I could have ever expected it to be. It gives me the chance to write, talk to cool people, do cool things, learn new stuff, AND the news desk is full of great people. I’d love to be able to continue that.

7. Have you ever published a story, poem, or book? Um, I have two self-published books on Amazon but I did that right after high school so they’re not good and I’m not really proud of them. One of them was really pretentious and the other is a poetry book that is typical nineteen year old angst and extravagance.

8. What characterizes writing style? Internal monologue, I think. I love a good introspective paragraph or two. I also really like metaphors and the more obscure they are, the better.

9. Have you ever considered writing children’s books - or, generally, books for any other age group? It’s crossed my mind a bit but I don’t think it’s ever been a serious thought. Maybe after I get these out there, I’ll look into other stuff!

10. What’s the worst job you’ve ever had? (if not applicable: What job would you hate to have?) Oh my god. I used to work at McDonald’s and you don’t want to know how bad that was. Like, I was at the height of my anxiety at the time and the managers were awful and pretty mean. And it was during high school, too, so, yeah, anxiety. I would feel physically sick before each shift because I knew I’d have to talk to so many people throughout the day. And there was never any real training. I was just kinda tossed into the deep end and was too scared to ever ask for help. It was a vicious cycle of anxiety. Anxiety kept me from asking for help and then I messed up; messing up led to anxiety attacks as soon as I got home. Like, tight chest, can’t breathe, might cry kind of anxiety attacks. It was awful.

11. Has a book or a story ever made you cry? If so, which one(s)? SO MANY but the first to come to mind is this series by Libba Bray, the Gemma Doyle Trilogy. It’s a fantastic series and one of my absolute favorites and the last book broke me. I was on vacation with my family reading it in the car and I was just torn apart. I won’t get into spoilers but, basically, there are deaths and my absolute favorite character was a victim. I was destroyed. And it was also middle school (or maybe even grade school) so you know I had the little kid confusion of but how could the author get away with that????

And now I plan character deaths for my books so we could probably all blame Libba Bray for that when the time comes.

BONUS QUESTION: Books that have made you laugh out loud or grin the whole time? Aww, I don’t think I read many books that are that light-hearted! I’m more in the camp of wanting angst and dark emotions! OH! And there’s also this book called The Name of This Book is Secret by, get this, Pseudonymous Bosch. It has this Lemony Snicket vibe to it but it’s not quite so perilous in the story. I don’t remember if it made me laugh out loud or anything but the voice was definitely really fun. It’s part of a series and I really loved it back in middle school.

It’s late here and I don’t have much time to figure out a list of questions. Do the ones I did, it’s a great list! 

Tagging a few people from my activity/recent followers. Feel free to ignore!

@minusfractions @scribbling-salmon @athiefswarwriteblr @drown-in-lava-choke-on-rubies @dreamstormdragon @greenwood-writes and anyone else!

#rambles #tagged

[muggle-writes]

do I have that book challenge

tagged by @elizabethsyson and while photos were absolutely helpful (for example, in explaining the first question) I did this mostly from memory in downtime at work so I couldn't exactly take pictures as I went, and tbh I don't trust tumblr not to eat my post if I upload a bunch of pictures at once

Do you have a book with deckled edges?

thank you so much for the picture because if that's the thing with the pages not exactly matching up, (but within a small deviation from perfectly square) yes, my copy of the first three Dragonriders of Pern books in one volume has deckled edges. also probably some other books, but I've been reading that one recently so I'm sure about it

Do you have a book with 3 or more people on the cover?.

yeah: Inverloch (Volume 1)

it's the printed version of (the first portion of) a webcomic, which I didn't know when I picked it up at a garage sale or something. I hadn't even heard of webcomics yet

and. hm. don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the premise of the story and it was never really bad... I was thrilled when I realized it was a webcomic and still online and i could read the whole thing.

but

the major plot twist, one the author had apparently planned from the very beginning, honestly had some very unfortunate implications that would haunt me if I ever attempted a reread.

Like, it was set up well enough to be a surprise but not a shock. and it enabled the happy ending. but I probably would have preferred almost any other happy or vaguely positive ending, or even a meaningful depressing ending, I was that disappointed

on the other hand the rest of it was written well enough that I cared so.... eh. it is what it is

I'm just not sure I still love it enough to recommend, but I also wouldn't stop someone from picking it up off my shelf to read, you know what I mean? Especially just that first part, which was plenty good.

Do you have a book based on another fictional story?

D&D guidebooks are totally based on Lord of the Rings, right?

lol in reality uh

the copy of Scandinavian folk tales including my favorite fairy tale ever was always my dad's, not mine, no matter how many times I read it before moving out

uh

my wife has several Halo books? like the video game. I'm not actually sure which came first and I haven't read any of those, but they are on "my" (our) shelf

I also have a lot of Harry Potter meta/derivatives, including that themed Haggadah I think I posted a picture of recently. But the phrasing of this question makes me think the intent is "fiction based on other fiction" so none of those quite count.

so yeah, Halo's the closest I've got. also there's a Star Trek book on that shelf that I didn't even know we had until I went looking for clocks on covers

Do you have a book with a title 10 letters long?

Sadly I don't have my own copy of Dragon's Kin, which kicks off an excellent subseries of Pern books, (nor Dragonsong but I didn't expect to have that one) but what I did find was

The Visitor (which is animorphs#2)

Do you have a book with a title that starts and ends with the same letter?

Erec Rex: The Dragon's Eye

Do you have a Mass Market Paperback book?

does my solid half of the animorphs series all on one shelf count or is this looking for specific branding?

Do you have a book written by an author using a pen name?

(immediately thinks of Lewis Carrol) um Edwin Abbot was also a mathematician but sadly not a penname, but I do I have a copy of Flatland

Oh, but I'm pretty sure I have some of the ghostwritten animorphs books, do those count? Specifically someone mentioned recently that animorphs 25 was the first of the ghostwritten books and I definitely have that one

Do you have a book with a character’s name in the title?

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and Ender's Shadow on my shelf, the rest I mostly have as ebooks. also the first Erec Rex book (mentioned above) and the entire Kirsten (American Girl) series plus the first Kit book.

Do you have a book with 2 maps in it?

the first one I found was The Malloreon Volume 1 (also has 3 characters on the cover). it's got a map of the western kingdoms before the first book and a map of Mallorea in the middle of the third book

Do you have a book that was turned into a TV show

Animorphs again

Do you have a book written by someone who is originally famous for something else?(celebrity/athlete/politician/tv personality…)

I definitely had a phase of buying books by famous people, so I have the worst bulkiest copy of Origin of Species which is printed in a terrible font (it also has deckled edges for that matter), and The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, that I could find at a quick glance. Probably something by Steven Hawking hiding somewhere

my phenomenal copy of The Elements (Euclid) doesn't quite count because he's most famous, now, for writing those so...

(Einstein's Relativity - in translation obviously because I know very little German - is deceptively short but that was my parents' book that I tried and failed to read, not my own)

Do you have a book with a clock on the cover?

Disappointingly, An Uncommon History of Common Things does not. I do have a Doctor Who coloring book with a clocklike gear pattern on the cover which is the closest I'm finding

Do you have a poetry book?

yeah someone once gave me a book of Japanese death poems, translated of course. I've been meaning to read them. for that I have to find it, and I can't right now :/ now that I remember the book I want to go read it

Do you have a book with an award stamp on it?

not that I can find? apparently Dragonflight or Dragonquest won "a Hugo or Nebula award" (bc McCaffrey was the first woman to win one of those) but wikipedia isn't telling me which award or which book, and I don't have the dust jacket for the original-trilogy-in-one-volume copy that I have so there's no telling if it "should" have an award printed on the front

Do you have a book written by an author with the same initials as you?

ooh wouldn't that be fun. I don't seem to :/

what I do have is a book written by an author with what my initials would be if I had taken my wife's last name instead of the other way around which I guess is close enough

Do you have a book of short stories?

yes, surprisingly. The Girl Who Heard Dragons and I haven't read any of them, not even the story I got it for

oh, and First Meetings, which is a bunch of short stories in the Ender universe

Do you have a book that is between 500-510 pages long?

That's... really specific. Closest I could find was 483 pages and 513 pages (Volume 2 of The Belgariad and The Malloreon, respectively) In general I have a lot of books around 300-350 pages and a fair few over 700 pages, but not many close to 500

Do you have a book that was turned into a movie?

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, for sure. I think Flatland was also made into a movie and it was as phenomenally terrible as you would expect of a story about 2d shapes. not even shapes with faces, just shapes, and one sphere.

Do you have a graphic novel?

I was going to make all sorts of qualifications of "well... if something originally published as a webcomic is now in physical book form.... (Inverloch again) but actually I have volumed 1 and 3-7 of Tomo (manga-style "preteen protag moves in with Christian family members and has both fantasy adventures and learns the benefits of being Christian" no-subtlety series that I picked up at Family Christian Stores when they were still everywhere. also I probably still have the first six Serenity "books" but I can't find them (not fantasy: rebellious "sinful" teen moves to new school and hangs out with the Christians because she wants to sleep with one of them, eventually sees the errors of all her ways, un-dyes her hair, and converts. Also no subtlety)

I had a phase when I was "too old" for veggie tales but still thought FCS was the best place ever but if that really was the best of their "teen" content it really wasn't great

Do you have a book written by 2 or more authors?

are we limiting this to novels? I have The Great Snape Debate (meta published before Deathly Hallows, with short chapters by two alternating authors, plus they got Orson Scott Card to write a chapter to draw reader attention with the big name and hey it worked, I bought it, arguing (between all of them) both sides of "will Snape turn out to be on Harry's side after all" and also The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern which as the title implies, is more of a guide than a real story.

Oh, but I do have a copy of Invasive Procedures (Card & Johnson).

Did I miss any questions? tumblr's being particularly weird today.

anyway I suppose I should tag some fellow bookworms. @knightbusofdoom @copperscales and if anyone else wants me to edit to in so you're "really" tagged, just may me know, and if you just want to do it please do and tag me back

#tag games #book scavenger hunt #this was fun but it took a lot of time for some of them #asks and answers #there's some definite themes here