ey

Leaves have no form or order- they’re a green mass without reasonable veins or connection points to stems. See the weird bit that crosses Vince’s arm

Same with the yellow flowers tbh they look pasted on and are all the same level of blur despite the leaves being crisply in focus, and several seem to not have stems

The metal in the window has no actual pattern and isn’t continued into the second window

The chunk of rock texture in the middle of the wood next to the window

The folds on Vince’s clothes don’t seem to fall in a natural way and seem excessive, especially on his pants.

Overall the space is… Odd. Where is he? A random corner against a plain blue wall? Why is one wall made of wood and the other has no discernible texture? Why does the stone part have that weird corner and have the foundation so high up in comparison to where Vince’s feet should be? Why doesn’t the stone wall match the geography of its base? What is the fabric thing on the lefthand side that’s conveniently the same blue as the house and jacket?

this is the only known photographic portrait of Van Gogh, age 19 (c. 1872)

If you love diverse filipino fantasy with bipoc leads, angry bi women clawing for space in a world that's always rejected them and soft boys who'd do anything for them, awesome elemental magic based on early Filipino shaman/ babaylan/katalonan mythologies and the Tagalog creation story, and the Bakunawa/Laho the 🇵🇭 sea dragon 🐉 and drowning colonizers then I hope you'll keep an eye out for SAINTS OF STORM AND SORROW coming in June 2024 from Titan Books

These sort of writers seem to believe they are the injured party, that publishing no longer caters to them because a few diverse books have squeezed through the gates. When really the needle has BARELY moved. Despite lots of lip service and pushes for diversity over the last few years publishing has stayed massively, hugely white. 

So when you see authors pushing their identity to the forefront know that it is because we are searching for readers like us, the ones who grew up rarely to never getting to see characters like us in our stories, or seeing white authors use us as the butt end of jokes, as racist caricatures, token side kicks, or cannon fodder.  By pushing our books by their target demographics I’m hoping to find the readers for whom our books are a love letter.

I kind of laughed it off as a funny quirk, then mentioned I couldn't relate because I find singular POVs to be extremely dull and a major turn-off when it comes to reading. But y'know, to each their own. Brains like what they like.

The temperature of the group chat got noticeably chillier, and I was informed curtly that several people in the group write singular POVs and I should think before I speak.

I said I know, just like they know I write multiple POVs, but they felt fine trashing that.

"Well, that's different."

"Why?"

"Because you're a fluke. No one likes reading multiple POVs."

Oh-kay. Again, I didn't want to get heated over it and again reiterated that not everyone's writing style will vibe for everyone. I then helpfully added, "It's like, y'know. I don't particularly enjoy first-person narratives, either. They feel juvenile to me, probably because they're predominant in a lot of YA lit, and it's jarring to read in adult fic. Doesn't mean it's bad; it just means I don't like it."

Which others immediately pointed out was false because while the original instigators were being outright mean about styles of writing, I'd been polite and very gently tried to steer them away from shitting on the writing style of other people within the group.

My gentle nudge was viewed with hostility and treated like an attack because, apparently, it's only a safe space provided you agree with them.

It's also since been brought to my attention that their initial mean-girl act might actually have been staged to try and make another author feel bad because she'd just found an agent and was really excited about her book being optioned.

Basically, it was sour grapes.

They were trying to make it feel like less of an achievement by saying her style of writing (multiple POV with limited 3rd person narrative) wasn't good, and no one would like it. "It's common and trashy," etc etc. That kind of thing.

What they did not bank on was me speaking up and pointing out that their opinion was not a fact and that just because we don't like something doesn't make it bad. I basically ruined their attempt at bullying this other woman, and they didn't like that.

If this kind of behavior is making you think they're all young, barely out of their teens, you'd be forgiven, but alas, many of them are my age and older with kids.

Some people just never grow out of peaking as the high school bully, it seems.

Anyway, new group formed.

Different types of writing styles respected and uplifted.

A bearcat (binturong) or as I’m going to call them, a long panda, are a species of viverrid similar to no other animal I have ever heard of but they’re basically one of those species that evolved into mustelids without being mustelids. And can look like cars, possums on in this case a scruffy long panda.

‘…My school is older than your entire town.’

‘Sorry, you think *how far* is okay to travel for a shopping trip?’

“All right, it’s going to be a long bus ride, so make sure you’re prepared for that.”

We all brace ourselves.  A long bus ride?  How long?  We’re Americans; a long bus ride for us is a minimum of six hours with the double digits perfectly plausible.  We can handle a twelve hour bus ride as long as we get a bathroom break.

The answer.  “Two hours.”

- Missing a turn and now you need to cross the border;

- Towns built 500 to 800 years ago with really small roads where cars can barely fit;

 WW2 bombs.

There is stuff here from the Aztecs, but since it wasn’t made by settlers people think that America is only as old as when Europeans came over.

I went walking on some public footpaths in England and everyone was like “oh this one was a Roman roads, these are so ancient!” and I ended up cranky because there are ancient or at least hundred of year old roads in the Americas, we just don’t pay attention to them because Colonization.

they’re from Oregon: