Not All Who Wander Are Lost

I don’t have any issue listening to this stuff in public either, on the train or what have you, but I started chpt 4 of Perpetual Motion and I had to stop at the seventh/eighth minute because Sherlock starts groaning little oohs and mmmhs and LOCKY’S VOICE IMITATING THAT IS JUST WAY TOO MUCH AND I OFFICIALLY HAVE TO POSTPONE LISTENING TO SOMETHING FOR LATER BECAUSE I CAN’T DEAL WITH IT IN PUBLIC, THAT’S A FIRST, IT’S TOO MUCH, I CAN’T DEAL?

Aajfkahh;;jfjshh;;risks this is not okay

This website (AO3 User: GwendolynnFiction) is shadily “reccing” fic in order to sell its “Learn to Write Fanfiction” class. It has created biographies of the authors and gives a strong impression it represents us, or at least has our endorsement. My own “bio” there contains false information, incorrectly gleaned from my twitter account (AFAICT).

If they were not aware exploiting other fandom authors’ work for their own financial gain was antithetical to the spirit of the fanworks gift economy, surely they would have sent us all notices about how they love us and can’t wait to share our work with the world, or invited our participation. They did not.

There are rec lists in the Sherlock, Harry Potter, and Marvel fandoms. Visit the relevant page and CTRL + F to find if you are listed there.

I have already demanded every reference to me and my work be removed from their site.

Most of the links seem to go to either AO3 or Mediafire but only one link takes you to SoundCloud and for my couple of offerings, they seem to have downloaded the files from SoundCloud, converted them back to mp3 files and then re-uploaded them.  I have asked for my name and ahem, ‘links’ to be removed.

AH!!! I THINK I KNOW THIS NONNY! I KNOW THIS!

Is it this one?

Do you like books!?

OF COURSE YOU DO

Do you like reading books?

DUUUUUH!

Do you collect books and let them sit on your shelf!?

WHAT IS THIS!? AMATEUR hOUR? OF FUCKING COURSE! 

Do you spend WAAAAAAY too much money on books even though they’re totally worth it but holy fucking shit fifteen dollars is the median and why is the world so effortlessly cruel?

Who’s got two thumbs and an empty wallet! Yes yes and yes!

WELL HAVE I GOT A SOLUTION FOR YOU

Thriftbooks is an amazing online site that sells used books! These books are, for the most part, in great condition. I’ve used this website for everything from textbooks to fiction to everything else in between! It has a wide selection with an even wider selection of options per book!

You want softcover? They’ve got it! Hardcover? Of course! Audio? Why not!

Hell! They even sell the books in other languages!

You might say to me, humanity, why are you telling us this? We already have barnes and noble!

Because, my poor, naive friend, thriftbooks sells the majority of it’s books for under four dollars.

That’s right. You heard me. Under. Four. Dollars.

And right now, they’re having a huge deal!

2 books for $7

3 books for $10

4 books for $12

But wait! There’s more!

If you leave a book in your cart for long enough, chances are you’ll be alerted when a seller nearby, for a cheaper price, has the same book! You’ll get it cheaper and faster, with less waste of paper and time!

And prices change! That book that would have cost you $3.79 one day might be $3.45 the next, and man oh man isn’t that the best thing to see when you check up on your cart.

So what are you waiting for, book lovers! Go! Go shop!

Go and rule the world!

AND THAT EVER $50 YOU SPEND THEY GIVE YOU $5 BACK.

guys

five dollars

on this site

is a book

that is the cost of an entire book

So to prove my very real point, I went to Barnes and Noble and picked out some of my favorites books that I already have on my shelves

(also, fyi, y’all should read these they’re bangin)

AND BECAUSE THE SHIPPING IS SO INSANE, IT WAS MEAN TO COME OUT TO $47.85 (and that’s at an online price, which discounts by a few dollars)

But with shipping, handling, and the extreme cost of books, my total came to this:

$72.30

Okay. Then I went onto thriftbooks and chose the same books in the same formats (hardcover, softcover, etc.)

Keep in mind that not all books are under $4 due to size, availability, how new they are to the world yada yadayada

But this was the final shopping cart.

Look.

Look at those lovely books.

My final check out price?

$21.86

AND THAT DOESN’T INCLUDE ANY OF THE AMAZING DISCOUNTS, DEALS, AND/OR PROMO CODES.

If you do the math, I saved $50.44.

And even if Barnes and Noble had given me that free shipping, I still would have saved $25.99. Do you know what that could buy you? That could buy you four more books on thriftbooks!

Thriftbooks fucking saved my broke college ass. And I’d encourage you all to use it if you can. Shipping may take 4-14 days, but I swear to god it’s worth every dollar that I would have burned. 

THIS IS IN NO WAY AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO STOP SHOPPING AT BOOKSTORES. PLEASE DON’T. LOCAL BOOKSTORES ARE IMPORTANT AND VITAL AND SHOULD BE SUPPORTED!

HOW

HOW CAN IT GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS!?

It can’t. There’s no way!

WELL YES IT FUCKING CAN, BOOK NERDS!

Did you ever think to yourself; I love to read. But I sure wish there was a way to read my own books while I multi-task by helping the environment, the economy, and the seemingly never-ending and growing gap between low-income schools and libraries and their availability to reading material all at the same time…

Well, there is.

It’s called shopping at Thriftbooks

And what’s more:

Boom.

Right there.

This place is fucking amazing as hell and you should use it as often as you possibly can.

Evolving with Grace

I just commented this on a transphobic post that was all like, “In a sexual species, females have two X chromosomes and males have an X and a Y, I’m not a bigot it’s just science.” I’m a science teacher so I responded with this.

First of all, in a sexual species, you can have females be XX and males be X (insects), you can have females be ZW and males be ZZ (birds), you can have females be females because they developed in a warm environment and males be males because they developed in a cool environment (reptiles), you can have females be females because they lost a penis sword fighting contest (some flatworms), you can have males be males because they were born female, but changed sexes because the only male in their group died (parrotfish and clownfish), you can have males look and act like females because they are trying to get close enough to actual females to mate with them (cuttlefish, bluegills, others), or you can be one of thousands of sexes (slime mold, some mushrooms.)

Oh, did you mean humans? Oh ok then.

You can be male because you were born female, but you have 5-alphareductase deficiency and so you grew a penis at age 12. You can be female because you have an X and a Y chromosome but you are insensitive to androgens, and so you have a female body. You can be female because you have an X and a Y chromosome but your Y is missing the SRY gene, and so you have a female body. You can be male because you have two X chromosomes, but one of your X’s HAS an SRY gene, and so you have a male body. You can be male because you have two X chromosomes- but also a Y. You can be female because you have only one X chromosome at all. And you can be male because you have two X chromosomes, but your heart and brain are male. And vice - effing - versa.

I added some emphasis in there. Because. Follow Evolving with Grace on FaceBook!

(via veggiezombiex)

Author’s description:

Part 1 - Sherlock (The Walking Man) Part 2 - John (The Waiting Game)

When it was all over, when the east wind had blown through and they’d picked themselves off the pavement, Sherlock said enough.

When it was all over, when Mary was dead and Rosie didn’t have enough family left for John to risk even an adrenaline high, John watched Sherlock go.

Eighteen years later, the real journey begins.

Reader’s notes:

And here’s something to offset the heartbreak of my last recording….

You can thank/blame @sw70sw70 for this one – she’s the one who suggested I read this. As I was reading it, I was struck by how gentle and lyrical it was, and I kept hearing it in my own voice. And thus a new project was born.

Thanks to @consultingsmartarse and @totallysilvergirl for pronunciation and place name help. Any mistakes are my own. Oh, and thank to @lockedinjohnlock-podfics, for having a sympathetic ear when I was feeling sorry for myself after some negative feedback. And @aranel-parmadil, for being the awesomesauce that she is. HUG FEST.

And of course, @suitesamba for her beautiful words and for giving me permission to record them.

Title: Performance in a Leading Role Author: @madlori Rating: E Length: 156,000 words Complete/WIP: Complete Summary: Sherlock Holmes is an Oscar winner in the midst of a career slump. John Watson is an Everyman actor trapped in the rom-com ghetto. When they are cast as a gay couple in a new independent drama, will they surprise each other? Will their on-screen romance make its way into the real world?

Rec: This is one of the Fandom Classics™ for Johnlock and (in my opinion) for very good reason. I like AUs for Sherlock, which show John and Sherlock still being very much themselves, but doing different work, or in a different life situation, and this fic is an excellent example of that. I really enjoy the details of behind-the-scenes life as an actor, and also how well-written the media coverage and talk show parts are. This was a bit surprsing to me, given that I don’t watch talk shows and don’t really follow celebrity media coverage at all, but I think the behind-the-scenes perspective makes it more interesting (or perhaps I have deep, subconscious need for celebrity gossip that I’m not fulfilling). I got very drawn into this story right from the beginning, and definitely felt all the emotional ups and downs that Sherlock and John go through over the course of the story. The end is highly satisfactory, and I would recommend the follow-on fics in the series as well.

Have you ever thought about an abridged version of your podfics dear @aranel-parmadil, @consultingsmartarse and @lockedinjohnlock-podfics? As far as I see it, you are interested in getting new listener/fellower aka introduce new people to the (original) work. Still, podfics that run more than 12 hours (tbh, longer than 24 or even 48 hours!) are challenging. Abridged versions are standard in/for medial adaptation - we all know them.

Why not doing an abridged version (12 hours tops, best 4-6 hours) or creating a podfic series (multiple parts) of your podfics (like for professional audiobooks and radio plays)? Obviously with the permission of the original creator AND with the help of your listeners (aka maybe a poll/feedback about their most favourite parts etc; Ao3 and tumblr). And you ‘only’ have to edit your work and record some bridges to the remaining parts, if you choose to. And, obviously, not all your work. Maybe a fandom or a personal favourite, or one of the running more than a day ones, or one that you wished to edit anyway (technical or vocal reasons)? Be Sherlock Holmes and run an experiment ;)

It would be a win-win, would it not?

Old fans would re-listen/re-read the works, you would get at least hits and maybe even comments for it, and while doing so, promoting the new work, which hopefully would not only have old but new fans as listener/fellower. Especially regarding the aftermath of season 4 and the fallout of the (Johnlock) fandom, it seems to me as a good way of celebrating fandom and its transformative works.

What do you think?

I can see where you are coming from and no, please don’t be afraid to ask the question (it’s fine, it’s all fine). It’s just not something I would be comfortable with doing. Now, if an author whose work I had recorded approached me and said that they had an abridged version and would I like to work with them to sort an abridged podfic, I would be happy to do so. I am just not sure that many fic writers would do this.

It’s an interesting question.

For me, I would be extremely uncomfortable with that.  I put a tremendous amount of effort into making sure I don’t change anything that the author wrote, unless it’s an obviously egregious typo.  I will absolutely go in and patch reading mistakes like ‘I will’ vs ‘I’ll’, even.

You can ask my beta, I am very very fussy about changing the authors work.  She is a writing professor and will commonly give me feedback about the writing itself, wanting to change words around, or tense, or whatever, and every single time it makes me really really uncomfortable to even consider.  I do occasionally contact the author to see if a change is acceptable, but I also try to not pester authors.  They are also doing this for fun and don’t want it to be a job.

For everyone who doesn’t like the long podfics, there are others who do.  I’ve recorded a variety, actually, some as short as 5 minutes long, s’more moderate ones at an hour or 2, but I do tend towards the long fics, because those are the ones I get the most enjoyment out of reading.  The character and story development you can get out of a long fic is just more interesting to me.  And as Aranel knows, the amount of work that goes into a podfic is iceberg-like - what you see in the finished product is a small fraction of the work that goes into creating them, so you really have to love the story to record it.

Ok, I’m babbling, but it’s a topic near and dear to my heart.

My most popular podfic (to date), “All the Best and Brightest Creatures”, clocks in at an astonishing 30 hour recording.  So there ARE people out there who like the long stories.  There are frankly probably more short podfics than long ones, just because of the incredible time commitment needed to tackle the beasties.

(and some day, I hope I can earn a spot on your top podfic list, @a-different-equation – I eagerly check it each time I see it go by, and my wings droop just a little bit when I’m not there. ;))

To get back to the original suggestion, about podficcing just most loved bits, you can always ask for a recommendation for a favorite chapter for one of the long ones, and just listen to that.  Chapter 17 of AtBaBC seems to be a bit of a favorite of my listeners, for example (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5279255/chapters/14947816).

And if you want a recommendation for a short one, I’m quite fond of ‘Found’, from the Johnlock collection by cwb (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4786646) which is 11 ½ minutes long, and ‘A Winter’s Walk’ by cathedral_carver (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3845308) which is half an hour.

Alright, that turned into shameless self-promotion, sorry.

I am, at heart a storyteller - I am driven to present my favourite tales in the form of pods.  The kind of experimentation I’m actively involved in is whether listeners prefer longer podfics or shorter one-shots, whether they prefer unrated, teen, mature or explicit podfics, and whether they prefer daily postings or weekly ones.  My findings, so far, are that there are horses for courses.  My most popular podfic to date (The Edinburgh Problem) is one that is over 20 hours long and was presented as a ‘Sunday Special’, where listeners ‘tuned in’ every week with a cuppa, as if they were listening to a radio play.  Conversely, one of the most popular single chapters is 2 hours long (A Brand of Gold). I think, if you do a good job on any kind of podfic, it will be recommended and therefore listened to by more people!

It saddens me that podfic will never be anything like as popular as written work, that, in some circles, it is seen as a second-class of fan fiction because it’s not ‘original work’.  In my eyes, it is absolutely original.  Every playwright and screen writer needs performers, and while little fan fiction is written expressly for performance, the very best of it is enhanced by the very talented reading of our fandom podficcers. How lucky are we to have a professional audiobook reader in our fandom?  (Yay, way to go, aranel!) Seriously, this is awesome, we are truly blessed!  I am blown away by the variety of talent and sheer cleverness there is in our fandom. Honestly, it’s amazing.

As aranel and bagofthumbs have already pointed out, there is a phenomenal amount of work going on behind the scenes of a podfic.  I reckon, as a general rule of thumb, that there is at least three hours of work behind every hour that you hear, and when you get to a complicated presentation with cover art, music, sound effects or new skills to be learned, it can be as much as 8 hours per hour of listening.  We podficcers take our hobby very, very seriously.  I devote about 30 hours a week to my presentations, with additional time for reading and sourcing material. I kind of treat it like a second job and this is a personal reason why I would not like the additional task of abridgement.  Wow, what a whole lot of new work to do!! Please, no!!!

@a-different-equation, you poor thing, you made some lovely suggestions and we’ve all jumped on you and said “Oh no, please no!!”  The absolute best thing we could ask of you (and anyone who follows us) is to keep recommending us, like and re-blog our podfic postings, keep listening, encourage people to leave kudos when they have enjoyed our work and leave comments to encourage us to do more.  In that regard, we are no different from writers - kudos and comments are our hobby’s lifeblood.  Without those, it’s like performing to an empty theatre and as you can hear from bagofthumbs’ comments, that can be so disheartening.

I listen to podfics when I’m doing housework, or pottering about the house so the longer the better - a good juicy one will clean my house, do the laundry and the ironing, change the beds, tidy the garden, organise the accounts and feed the cat for a good week or 10 days. I admit I do sometimes forget where I’ve got up to if I’ve had a day where I couldn’t listen - I got quite far with @bagofthumbs fantastic podfic of the James Holmes chronicles and then lost my place.

However… some people like the fact that fic, long or short, hasn’t been subjected to commercial editorial values. My interest in line by line hatchet-wielding puts me in a minority. And, as noted, abridging is a specialised subset of editorial expertise.

I think that we must stop seeing podfics as an audio version of a written work, because it isn’t a synthesised voice reading different combinations of words - it’s a human that intonates, uses auditory effects, does voices, makes dramatic pauses and makes a unique interpretation of something written. Therefore, I have no problem with an abridged version of a work. It isn’t what I’d normally seek out, as I like the feeling of completion, but perhaps it’d make me more prone to try new things and listen to stories in AU’s and pairings I normally don’t listen to, because it’s more bite-sized.