gildedSentinel

there’s sixteen Colorado counties that their most searched was “wolf furry”, plus thirty-odd counties (not counting either Arapahoe or any of the ones marked here as “Insufficient Data”) which may well have had plenty of searches for “wolf furry”, just fewer than for whatever they’re labeled here

and “skunk furry” searches in Arapahoe County outnumbered “wolf furry” searches in the entire state of Colorado

1. The FBI's Famous Cases & Criminals archive (fbi.gov/history/famous-cases) has detailed breakdowns of real fraud cases, Ponzi schemes, and confidence operations. The language they use is clinical and precise, which is perfect for getting the procedural details right.

2. The FTC Consumer Sentinel Network publishes annual reports on the most common fraud tactics in the US. Great for understanding how modern scams actually work and what makes people fall for them.

3. The Smithsonian's American Art Museum has a free digital collection of forgery case studies. If your character forges documents or art, this is gold.

4. Court Listener (courtlistener.com) is a free legal database where you can read actual court transcripts from fraud trials. Want to know how a real con artist talks under oath? This is where you find out.

5. The Internet Archive's collection of old newspaper crime sections. Search for "confidence man" or "swindle" in papers from the 1920s through 1960s and you'll find incredible real stories that would feel too dramatic for fiction.

Bonus: The Psychology of Fraud section on the Association for Psychological Science website has accessible articles about why people trust, how deception works cognitively, and what makes someone a convincing liar. Essential reading if you want your con artist characters to feel psychologically real.

It usually feels really bad. Because this is the point it becomes real craft. It's so, so difficult to really be able to identify if it's truly not going to be anything or you're just in the hardest part of the process, and really the only way to know is to... write through it. Write it badly. Or, if you really can't, put it in a drawer and come back to it after a few months of breathing space. Remember, you can fix so much in the edit, but you can't fix nothing!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/writing-advice-1-82451675

As they shouted out with glee,

"Unholy Drink Cloaca

And I *thought* the name of the book was "the helpful mole" but the internet is telling me this book does not exist

Less confident in this part, but I vaguely remember it being a series of hole-in-the-bucket style tasks, where the mole needed a new spoon to eat his porridge, and at the end of his helpful mole tasks they awarded him a silver spoon. It was probably British, and I think the art style was somewhat like the Mouse Soup books.

Bad news: she couldn't remember the title or author

Good news: she thought she still had a copy!

Bad news: she looked all over and couldn't find it

Good news: she was able to figure out what it was with some web searches!

Apparently it's from a series of books about a fox called Basil Brush. He has a friend named Harry the Mole.

And the book in question is..... Basil Brush Gets a Medal!

Look at him!

Like yes I use this for my kid all the time, but I have called grown adults helpful moles to their faces.