local jet and hama apologist

“Three weeks,” Locus repeats, internally aghast. “And there’s—” ⟨No way to cut that down, no.⟩ Lopez takes a step back, precise and smooth. ⟨I’ll make this quick. Might as well enjoy some time alone while you have it.⟩

something about trust

Writing below the cut!

first, though, to help you look for yourself – what do you like and want in books? if you like fantasy and dragons in children’s lit, there’s more of that in adult fantasy! if you like mythology stuff, there’s more of that in adult fantasy as well as mythology retellings! if you know what you like, just keep looking for it, and if you’re worried about the content, storygraph has user-added content warnings for books. 👍

now for some specific recs:

sarah gailey (though check the TWs). i really enjoyed american hippo + magic for liars was super readable!

starter villain by john scalzi. read this last month, super easy read, very fun and silly

black water sister or spirits abroad by zen cho. i always feel transported to another world by these two books

discworld by terry pratchett. i fucking love discworld. so easy to read. if you don’t know where to start there are whole guides to help you! i personally started with going postal. it’s getting close to december which is also the perfect time for hogfather

dial a for aunties and/or vera wong’s unsolicited advice for murderers by jesse sutanto. absolutely breezed through these, funny and silly crime capers

anything by becky chambers. cozy and thoughtful sci-fi, very character-driven. if you like found family go here

the murderbot diaries by martha wells. action romps about a robot bodyguard. very relatable if you are socially awkward

legends and lattes by travis baldree. if you want cozy fantasy this is what you want

you are so very edgy and Not Like Everyone Else!!!

I don't give a fuck about "cringe." I truly don't. I give a massive fuck about the algorithimification of art.

A sing-song audio of "everything is content" being used to encourage creators to record their entire life into tiny videos day after day just for the privilege of being seen.

People referring to "feeding the algorithm" on sites that do not even function on algorithms.

Jump on this trending sound!

"X meets Y" descriptors going from a "don't use this in your elevator pitch" to "literally it's the only way anyone is gonna pick up your book."

Training up-and-coming authors to describe their book by tropes and aesthetics that are, golly, awfully easy to feed into ChatGPT.

It's the "Tok" of "BookTok" that is worrying. Not the types of books being read. Not the "cringe" (whatever that means for you). Not the people making the videos. I am a huge proponent of talking about books you love early and often. But the nature and landscape of TikTok - the things it pushes to the top - the way it encourages long-time users to think - looks and smells awfully similar to machine learning optimization.

To the point that reviews and recommendations sound more and more like prompts. To the point that we become more and more comfortable with viewing the worth of things based on what is shown to us, when, and how often.

Considering entertainment monopolies have a history of skewing numbers to send people where they want them to go, I'm just not a fan of priming the industry I love (both as a writer and a reader) to lead me around by the nose like that of my own volition.

ears is big. so you can put the cat ears wherever you want if you start them at the same point as where the human ears would go.

just like. pull the sideburns back a little and it's fine. it's fine.

The men in Blacksad are beautifully drawn as fully anthropomorphized animals, whereas women... hum. A bit uncanny

The only fully animal-like women in Blacksad are the ones that aren't sexy/ femme fatale-like and that is deeply annoying.

Rare examples doing one-time apparition

v: stemmonade

c: stemmonade

p: stemmonade

v: vmc0390

Not the fundraiser for “renew ofmd” billboards raising $20k in less than a day 😭