Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life

Since 2017, I have only done stuff that I thought was interesting or useful regardless of whether it pays, because we have more than enough money, and despite what billionaires might tell you, there is literally no difference between "more than enough" and "much more than enough."

So I no longer work for money. But in retirement one must keep busy, which is why I have taken on an unpaid gig as the social media intern for a coffee and tea business that donates 100% of its profit to charity.

so when ilya wants to speak russian, he just does because shane understands him. he just responds in english. there are times shane encounters new words and ilya will translate it for him but for the most part, shane can understand ilya when he's speaking russian.

In response to all of my asks: No. I mean, my new novel Hollywood, Ending is about the experience of sudden fame and the ways that real human beings must navigate being seen as More Or Different From Regular Persons, but I started writing it in 2018 before HudCon existed.

If anything, it is about what I saw my friends go through, and to a lesser extent what I went through even though I was grown up and married and everything when my work got near the center of U.S. pop culture.

In the novel, I try to write about the cost of publicizing one's private life, but just to state the obvious, the heated rivalry fandom is not the first time this has happened--in fact, on some level, it happens to everyone who participates in the social internet.

Like, it used to be that the business of commodifying one's private experiences was primarily an issue for movie stars, but now everyone who uses the social internet understands the costs and benefits of trading your frailties for public attention.

As the audience, we already know that Ilya loves Shane because we heard him say it in Russian. But we also know that love is not enough - Shane loves Rose but they weren't compatible. Sometimes love isn't enough, for a variety of reasons.

This is why Shane and Ilya are terrified of coming to the cottage. Because we still don't know if they're compatible beyond the incredibly hot sex and psychic level hockey passes. The tuna melt date was nice before Shane crashed out, but that was just one afternoon.

"I like you" is the missing piece in their relationship. I know that I love you and I desire you and we play good hockey together, but do I like you?

The cottage scenes answer: yes. I like playing with you and I like cooking with you and I like talking to you and I like sharing space with you and I like sleeping next to you and I like waking up with you. I like you.

Man what a good tv show tho.

Also, having and caring about a public persona gives literally everyone on Earth the power to easily make your life worse just by saying that you or your work suck, which is a complex thing to navigate. (Trust me.)

supporting the shane as snoopy agenda