Agent Ginger Gold

A local paper had some great photographs, all taken by Nicole Hester:

The day before, Rep. Justin Pearson tries to attend a Senate Committee meeting and is barred access by the Sergeant at Arms.

Lawmakers and protesters link arms as the descend the capitol steps.

Once inside the chamber, Democratic representatives continued to stand together with arms linked.

They continued standing together with arms linked as votes were cast.

Democratic representatives take a group photo protesting the redistricting.

Rep. Justin Jones burns a photo of the Confederate flag with the words, We will not go back.

And stomps the ashes.

KeShaun Pearson being escorted from the building by the Staties.

KeShaun Pearson (left) being taken into custody. Rep. Justin Pearson (right) showing his support of his brother.

Additional information: State lawmakers have been gunning for Pearson and Jones nearly their entire terms. Most notably, in 2023, the House expelled them for participating in a protest at the Capitol. Their districts had to have special elections to have them reinstated.

Pearson is one of the plaintiffs of a lawsuit seeking an injunction against the redistricting.

Last year (it's been a fucking AGE), I did a links posts for alternates to Amazon. Then shit happened (more shit happened) and also now Amazon is allegedly removing affiliate links to erotica (mostly queer erotica, although it's been done to straight books as well). So here we go again.

Amazon supports MAGA, ICE, Trump, and the entire Christofascist agenda. Also they are attempting to dominate the market, and I take that personally. However, I understand why authors (me included) still use it: because readers won't leave it and authors have bills too. But I am going to continue encouraging people to leave it, or at least to use it less.

SO WHERE TO GET BOOKS:

Kobo (with Kobo plus, which is sort of like Kindle Unlimited) --wide ebook distribution! (I have an old Kobo and it's so much lighter and easier on my hands than a Kindle, so I love Kobo books.) This link is for Kobo US, but there are international Kobo stores.

Smashwords - indie books galore, including some erotica, and has big sitewide sales several times a year.

Bookshop.org --Bookshop.org does paperbacks (and once or twice a year will do Free Shipping sales! woo!) They have expanded into ebooks AND are actively working on selling erotica too--they expect that to be done by the end of the second quarter 2026, according to Draft2Digital. Erotica just requires more guardrails, I assume because America is run by fascist puritans. Bookshop is also going to eventually get to distributing "free" ebooks but for right now, anything "free" on Smashwords etc that you distribute to Bookshop is listed at 99 cents.

Bookshop also has affiliates! So if you are losing Amazon affiliates $, maybe look into using Bookshop.

Libraries (if you live in America and Canada, idk about other countries. Although I think some major libraries like the Brooklyn Public Library will offer e-library cards no questions asked.... ???) You can access library books through various apps, like Hoopla, Libby, Biblio, Gardners, Vivlio, Tolino, Overdrive, Cloud Library, BorrowBox, etc.

--authors, if you distribute through Draft2Digital, you can have D2D distribute to all of these library services for you. HOWEVER, Hoopla and Gardners and one or two others will probably flag anything too spicy. So for those, maybe select your less spicy books.

Everand-- a book subscription service

Apple Books

Fable (has a bookstore and also is a book reviewing/discussion app)

Barnes & Noble--- still a big corporation, but not Amazon

Itch.io ---itch was one of the early victims of America's (and Visa and Mastercard's) puritanical bullshit last year, and the owners didn't handle it well. Nonetheless, you can get ebooks there (as well as comics and video games, all indie, and many, many of them by queer artists.)

Author websites--yes, some authors have sales set up directly through their own websites! They make waaay more profit that way. Some will even sign paperbacks and send them to you! (Also be sure to check out author mailing lists. As governments try to crack down, supporting indie and queer artists is so vital.)

Draft2Digital itself! It is set up so that people (bookstores) can order paperback books? But I have not personally tested that one (yet). You can get ebooks, paperbacks, and audiobooks through D2D and authors, you can produce them there as well.

Independent bookstores!!! Yes this includes large famous bookstores. If they are not amazon, if they support your local economy, then yay! This everything from Waterstones, to Powell's, to the tiny little indie (often gay) bookstore in your neighborhood. If they don't have a book you want, ask them to order it for you. (AND, I forgot to mention, Bookshop lets you name a local bookstore so that a portion of your proceeds go to that bookstore. We like baddies supporting baddies. Kobo used to do this as well and might still do it, I just haven't checked recently.)

AUDIOBOOKS

Libro.fm

You can also use Libby from your local library system for audiobooks) (Ooh, forgot to mention that you can get magazines from your local library through Libby. Support your local libraries!)

Hoopla also carries them, along with many of the other library app services.

Chirp

Kobo audiobooks

Apple Books

For authors:

Author's Republic is an audiobook production and distribution service, though I haven't tried yet)

Findaway Voices is now InAudio, and they will distribute your audiobooks for you to several places. They also have Spotify as an option.... You might get exposure there but Spotify pays crap and also is pretty openly evil (imo) so I opt out of sales there. Which is fine, since, again, they pay crap.

BOOK REVIEWING/READING TRACKING

Goodreads is owned by the Zon. So some alternatives are:

Fable

Storygraph

Librarything

Bookshelf

Okay I know there are more booksellers out there, but that is a decent starting point and I have a book to finish so. Go forth! Buy indie! Spend in ways that align with your values! Give billionaires the finger! (and so on and so forth)

Let’s talk about miscarriages. 

First of all, a simple definition: A miscarriage is when a pregnancy ends on its own before the baby can grow enough to survive outside the womb. 

When we say “miscarriage”, we refer to the pregnancy spontaneously ending in the first 20 weeks (so up until halfway through a typical 40-week pregnancy). If it happens closer to birth (after 20 weeks of pregnancy), it’s referred to as a “stillbirth”. We will focus on miscarriages rather than stillbirth in this letter.

A pregnancy spontaneously ending in an early stage is more common than it happening closer to birth. Most miscarriages happen in the first 13 weeks.

A miscarriage usually involves vaginal bleeding. It can range from light spotting to heavy bleeding. It may also include the passing of tissue or blood clots. Abdominal pain or cramps may also be present. (This is why a miscarriage that occurs before the person is even aware they’re pregnant may be confused with a heavy period). 

However, some people may only experience the lessening of pregnancy symptoms (such as a sudden stop of morning sickness) that alerts them to the miscarriage. Some miscarriages also occur without any noticeable symptoms at all and may only be discovered at the next ultrasound. 

Let’s look at some myths and facts about miscarriages: 

Myth: Miscarriages are rare. 

Fact: About 10 to 20% of all known pregnancies end in miscarriage (and the “real” number is probably even higher, since many miscarriages happen before the person even knows they are pregnant). 

Myth: Miscarriages happen because you do something wrong or aren’t careful enough. 

Fact: Most miscarriages happen because of severe problems with the unborn baby’s DNA. These are usually random genetic glitches in the egg or sperm - meaning there’s nobody to “blame”. The baby wouldn’t have survived, no matter how careful the pregnant person is. 

Myth: When we talk about “medical treatment” for a miscarriage, we are talking about people who choose to have a miscarriage. 

Fact: Nobody chooses to have a miscarriage. It’s by its very definition the spontaneous ending of a pregnancy. A person may need to undergo medically necessary treatment because of a miscarriage. It may be necessary to remove tissue that remains in the uterus. This isn’t the trigger of the miscarriage, it is done after the pregnancy already naturally ended. It is done to prevent infection or stop heavy bleeding. This procedure is called a D & C (dilation and curettage) and it can be a lifesaver!

Myth: If you had a miscarriage, it’s a sign you deep down resented the baby. 

Fact: The most wanted pregnancy ever could end in miscarriage. People who tried  for years and finally got pregnant could experience a miscarriage. People who jumped through legal hurdles and spend a lot of money to be able to undergo sperm donation or IVF could experience a miscarriage. This is just a horrible and untrue thing to say about people who experience a potentially traumatic health event that’s entirely out of their control. 

Myth: It’s easy to get over a miscarriage. 

Fact: It’s a life-changing experience. It’s always emotionally challenging. There’s the aspect of the unexpected (and potentially scary) health event, and of course there’s also the aspect of a loss, of grief. It shouldn’t be surprising that, for most people, it’s not something they can easily shrug off. There are a lot of emotions that can come up - during, right after and also months or years after. There’s no time limit on when someone will be “over it”. In fact, they may never feel “over it”, just learn to live with it as part of their reality. 

Myth: If it was an unplanned pregnancy, the person should be relieved to have a miscarriage. 

Fact: There’s no “Should” in loss. Even if they didn’t want to be pregnant, they may still grieve. Even if they do feel some relief, it may be tinged with emotional pain, frustration, feelings of helplessness or guilt… And all of that is valid. Nobody but the person who experienced the miscarriage has a right to say how they feel about it. 

Myth: If you had a miscarriage, it means you’ll never be able to have biological children. 

Fact: Nearly 90% of people who miscarry will go on to have normal pregnancies and healthy babies! 

With all my love, 

the procedure to remove me is medically and legally a late term abortion. i was aborted, and it saved my life. if they hadn’t aborted me, my mother and i would both be dead, my siblings would have been left with a dead mother, and i would have never even gotten a chance to live a single day. and now, people are being denied this procedure and dying because it’s literally an abortion!! mothers and their babies are being killed because their doctors are not allowed to perform life-saving abortions.

on the same note, my sister was recently denied an abortion. which is to say, cleaning out the already dead fetus after she had a miscarriage from a wanted pregnancy. they refused treatment unless the DEAD fetus was actively killing her, because the procedure to remove it is medically and legally an abortion. they basically said to her “come back when you’re dying of an infection or sepsis or something, until then you just have to bleed out.” my sister could have died from this, people HAVE died from being denied abortions after having a miscarriage. if she was one of these people, my sister would have been dead, my mother would have to live the rest of her life without her daughter, and my nephew would have had to live the rest of his life without a mother.

THEY RELEASED THE COYOTE VS ACME TRAILER !!!!!

WE WON !!!

>looks inside

examples:

John William Waterhouse official site

A local paper had some great photographs, all taken by Nicole Hester:

The day before, Rep. Justin Pearson tries to attend a Senate Committee meeting and is barred access by the Sergeant at Arms.

Lawmakers and protesters link arms as the descend the capitol steps.

Once inside the chamber, Democratic representatives continued to stand together with arms linked.

They continued standing together with arms linked as votes were cast.

Democratic representatives take a group photo protesting the redistricting.

Rep. Justin Jones burns a photo of the Confederate flag with the words, We will not go back.

And stomps the ashes.

KeShaun Pearson being escorted from the building by the Staties.

KeShaun Pearson (left) being taken into custody. Rep. Justin Pearson (right) showing his support of his brother.

Additional information: State lawmakers have been gunning for Pearson and Jones nearly their entire terms. Most notably, in 2023, the House expelled them for participating in a protest at the Capitol. Their districts had to have special elections to have them reinstated.

Pearson is one of the plaintiffs of a lawsuit seeking an injunction against the redistricting.

I really like how the scientology speedrunning trend is developing, in this clip we see that the participants are

Not deterred by the closed door

Working as a group

Protecting their identities

Inflicting material costs to the institution via property destruction

Getting away at the end