Serial Glomper. Novice Fanfic Writer. A lot of BBC Sherlock. New influx of 00Q. Sometimes poetry. Updates sporadically. Has a lot of angst lying around. Helps mod letswritesherlock.
Ngl the actual criticism could be legitimate but if i see a post criticising an individual creator and when you look at that person's account it's ALL just long posts criticising that creator and attacking them personally like
That's no longer legit. It's at best obsessive, at worst, harassmsnt
Like esp when it's a smaller creator like an author or an artist, if the blogger in question is basically a one-man protest brigade against that person, and that person hasn't actually like. Done anything hurtful to an individual - ie like. Sexual assault, physical abuse, theft, etc
Then it's like. Cool. What's happened here is you as an individual have gotten really fixated on this creator or their work as Representative Of All Wrongs.
No amount of apology or change of behaviour from them will matter, bc you're being obsessive and parasocial.
And i won't reward that
And i certainly will not engage with it
It's good to like, aware of media and engage critically but when you're just like. Obsessed with a random person and stalking their socials and doing the "this bitch eating crackers" shtick but with beefed up media criticism language, that's NOT good
As always, remember to have hobbies and activities that are not social media, that involve friendships in meatspace where possible, that are creative or constructive in a way that satisfies you
If you find yourself fixated on someone like this, take a step back, take a breath, and redirect.
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For anyone who hasn't seen them before, Hidden Search Operators are handy tricks you can use when you're either searching or filtering AO3.
summary: string is a generic way of explaining that you can search AO3 for a specific word that appears in a summary. You can do this from the search bar in the header, from the Any Field box at the top of the Advanced Search form, or from the Search Within Results box at the bottom of the filter menu.
Examples:
summary: Bruce
summary: "Bruce Banner"
summary: Bruce OR summary: Banner OR summary: Hulk
You need to put quotation marks around your search term if it is more than one word. The quotes make sure that the site searches for those two words together.
The other two operators listed work best in the Search Within Results box.
expected_number_of_chapters: 1 will return results where every fic has only 1 chapter currently posted.
You can use expected_number_of_chapters: -1 if you want results where every fic has more than 1 chapter currently posted.
otp:true will return results where there is only 1 relationship tag on the fic. If you want results where there are 2+ relationship tags (and no fics with only 1 relationship tag) then you can use otp:false
This page is so beautiful and honestly I hope it reaches and helps any new people that are just starting out on Ao3 because it's helping me and Iâve been using the site for 5+ years now
I saw your tags @jackdaw-sprite and I figured I could offer you some help? You've got a few options to find fics that are actually about your fave who is often sidelined.
My own personal go-to is to use the Search Within Results filter. You can find the filters by clicking/tapping on any tag. If you're on a wide screen like a laptop, they'll be on the right hand side of the screen. If you're on a narrow screen like a phone, you'll need to press the Filters button at the top of the page to open up the menu.
In that menu, scroll down until you're near the bottom. That's where you can find the box labelled Search Within Results. In that box, you can type
summary: Renhardt OR summary: Rendog
When you filter for that result, you'll get 19 fics with that name mentioned in the summary, and if the name is in the summary you've got MUCH higher chances of them being central to the fic.
There's also a way to find fics with a tag in the X position. Fan coders have had this same issue, and so they've created userscripts that you can add to your web browser (like an extension). Here are a few that might be helpful for you to try:
AO3 Actually Relevant Characters - Sorts and highlights works based on how relevant the tagged character seems in the work's tags and summary.
AO3: Prioritise my Faves - Hide work if chosen tags are late in sequence, or if blacklisted tags are early
AO3 Secondary Character & Pairing Filter - Replaces works with placeholder if the tags you want aren't the first few tags, with option to show work.
Editing to add: this version of the post has a syntax error in it. To remove oneshots with a filter, use
For Intersex Jam 2026, I made an informative zine. âIntersex Inclusion: A Crash Course for Creativesâ is a quick primer on how to include intersex experiences in your creative works. The text-only version* is available for free, licensed under CC BY 4.0, and I encourage others to repost and use this zine in place of asking random non-activist intersex folks about how to represent our entire community with dignity.
* (it's supposed to be in comic form, but due to rampant computer crashes, I wasnât able to assemble the artwork into a screen-reader accessible PDF in time for the deadline.)
Overwhelmingly, the most common question I see from allies to random bystanders who just so happen to be publicly intersex is âhow do I include intersex people?â
I know they mean well, but it gets tiring. I hold no enmity for them in my heart; in spite of that, Iâm tired. I want to see folks like me being considered at allâwithout having to see random, non-activist intersex folks awkwardly struggling to rehash the same three points again and again because well-meaning but ignorant allies keep asking the same question of non-activists while prostrating and flagellating themselves over how they didnât spawn into existence as a perfect ally. Itâs such a demanding task that thinking about it makes me want to roll over and take a nap.
Fortunately, I am an old dog incapable of learning new tricks; hence, I am back on my bullshit to provide a bunch of infographics loosely assembled into a zine. I made sure to pack it with resources and citations good for your nutrition, all with love from the universe.
Take my hand. Letâs be inclusive of intersex experiences in our creative works, together.
This is a zine specifically focused on creating and developing intersex characters, how to handle intersexuality in a variety of genres and creative project types, how to worldbuild while conscious of intersexuality, and common pitfalls for uninformed allies new to writing intersex folks. For references more specific to writing, see versegmâs âAn Intersex Writing Referenceâ and Hans Lindahlâs âTips for Writing an Intersex Character with Grace.â
[Content warning: in order to respectfully but realistically talk about intersex history, this zine contains brief, undetailed discussions of topics such as medical gaslighting and abuse, sexual harassment and assault, and medical and sexual abuse against children. These are included strictly for the purpose of educating on intersex history and experiences. Slurs and bigoted or discriminatory language towards intersex folks and traits are included without censorship, also to educate on their history and meaning. Full content warnings are available within the zine itself.]
been stewing on an analytical approach to fiction which I call "is this book afraid of me?" and in order to answer this question you determine how hard the book is trying to make sure you don't come after the writer on twitter
Please keep making art. Please make it for yourself. Please donât let everything become even more of the same flat general appeal nonsense that doesnât seem to have anything to say
I love the âcaptainâs logâ mechanism in Star Trek as a method for time skips and exposition.
I am, however, devastated that we never got an episode where any captainâs voiceover is strained and slow. very precise about the events theyâre describing. While the screen itself is showing the most batshit insane events and making it clear that the captain is trying VERY HARD to keep everyone involved out of a court martial.
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Look, itâs a weird hill to die on, especially when I donât really explain, but children deserve to experience fear, disgust, and discomfort in safe scenarios where they can process those sensations.
Media for children used to be scary and thatâs important.
âSince it is so likely that (children) will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.â
â C.S. Lewis
It's not a fun part of the movie when a character the kid likes dies, but they can experience loss without losing someone they actually know that way, and learn how to deal with grief in the future from how the protagonist is taught to deal with it. The real deal will still be way worse, but a 7 year old who's allowed to know what death IS is likely to grow into a 15 year old who can deal with their feelings when it happens.
Hiccup from the How to Train Your Dragon Books: I've nearly been eaten six times! Once not even by a dragon but by the man who would become my greatest foe who was planning to cut me in pieces and eat me raw. I was also assaulted and marked with a slave brand, forced to see my family and friends impressed into slavery, and got tortured by being dunked repeatedly in a freezing ocean that would have drowned or frozen me. Am I a joke to you?
Sources:
How to Train Your Dragon (nearly eaten once)
How to Be A Pirate (nearly eaten THRICE, twice by a dragon, once by a human)
How to Ride A Dragon's Storm (nearly eaten by a dragon, assaulted and branded)
How to Seize a Dragon's Jewel (nearly eaten by a dragon)
The irony of this new breed of self-righteous AI hunters on AO3 is that they're all just copy and pasting peoples fics into AI detectors, which are all operated by AI and therefore THEY are feeding people's work into the algorithm without their consent and in some cases no doubt circumventing the locks people put on to avoid getting scraped...
Don't copy and paste anyone's AO3 work into third party websites, you're not the good guys in this situation?
My sycamore tree began life in the gravel at the edge of a parking lot. If trees can feel pain, that is a painful, unlucky death. I carefully dug it up and put it in a pot I made out of a disposable cup.
Hello small one. This world may be cruel, but I will not be.
I decided to take care of it, not expecting it to survive, and when my sycamore tree unfurled one tiny leaf and then another, it chiseled a tiny foothold in my terrified brain, the kind of brain that doesn't remember a world before the atomic bomb and before 9/11.
I googled the lifespans of trees. My neurons had to stretch and expand to accommodate what I learned: My sycamore tree may live five hundred years. It's hard to think something so big. In twenty years, my baby sycamore tree will be three stories tall, and the home of many creatures. In five years, my sycamore tree will be taller than I am. In one year, it will be summer.
There's this concept called sense of foreshortened future where people who have lived through trauma can't conceptualize a future for themselves because deep down they don't expect to survive, When I look forward, all I see is fire and death, melting ice and burning sky. We were raised Evangelical. All we see is Judgment Day, except there is no heaven.
But now there is a tiny gap in the wall, a crack in the door of my cell
and on the other side, I see a tree
There is, in the future, a great old sycamore tree, full of clean winds and the stir of a thousand wings. A hundred years from now. Fifty years from now. There will be forests in that world. There will be a world.
It takes courage, but we have to imagine it.
Most tree species can live in excess of three or four hundred years. I think I'm learning something. I think there are ancient voices saying hello small one, touch the dirt and the leaves, for now you are part of something that cannot die
in 2030 I will be thirty years old and the world will not have ended and there will still be hummingbirds, and we will have photos of the stars more beautiful than we can now imagine.
I planted an Eastern Redcedar; they may live nine hundred years. There will be nine hundred years. The people in that time will remember us. Maybe we will meet the aliens (hi aliens!).
I will blow out the candles on many birthday cakes in a world where there are wolves in dark forests far from home. I am learning to imagine the future. I learned recently that elk were reintroduced to the Appalachian Mountains after over a hundred years of extirpation, and that they are expanding their range.
That tiny crack I can see through now opens a tiny bit more:
Maybe elk will pass through my hometown, maybe there will be a forest where the pasture is on the high hill that I can see from my home
say it, say it, say it: ten years, thirty years, a hundred years from now
I am learning to imagine the future. There is a crack in the wall of this prison, of this machine, of this darkness, and through it, I see a tree.
Look at the insulting (and money-grubbing) crap some feckers just sent David Gerrold
David was way politer than I would have been. But then he has a few years on me.
I'm adding a break here. Seriously, I have to take a breath every time I read the (absolutely breathtaking) insolence of this shit. (And it makes me want to take a brickbat to anybody who says "Warm regards" to me in the immediate future. [mutter])
...Doubtless I'll get past that. But JEEEEEZ. :/ (TL:DR for those interested: "Hi there! Your work is fabulous! You should have an award! Send us money to be part of the process.")
("The entry fee for the Discovery Awards is $150 USD for the primary book entry. If you would like the book considered in additional categories, each additional category entry is $100 USD.")
Beware this shit, my cousins. If they have the absolute baldfaced GALL (or utter ignorance, who knows which) to send David mails like these, they won't mind coming after the rest of us. :/
(Via David:)
Here are a few of the email messages I have received today -- and my responses.
--
On Wed, Jul 8, 2026 at 10:10 AM Cassandra R. Baldridge [email protected] wrote: Dear David ,
I recently finished learning about Bouncing Off the Moon, and one aspect stayed with me long after I finished reading about it.
What immediately captured my attention was how the novel combines the grand scale of a future shaped by political instability and corporate power with the deeply personal journey of three brothers forced to navigate life on their own. Charles "Chigger" Dingillian and his brothers aren't simply surviving in a hostile lunar environment, they're confronting questions of trust, family, and resilience while carrying knowledge that powerful forces will do anything to obtain. That blend of compelling character dynamics and high-stakes science fiction creates a story that feels both intimate and expansive.
Books that leave that kind of impression deserve more than another advertisement or another promotional campaign. They deserve thoughtful professional evaluation from people whose opinions carry weight within the publishing industry.
That is why I wanted to personally invite you to consider entering Bouncing Off the Moon into the 2027 IndieReader Discovery Awards (IRDAs).
What immediately sets the Discovery Awards apart is that every single entrant receives a professional verdict written by an IndieReader reviewer after reading the complete book. It isn't an automated score or a participation certificate, it is a genuine editorial assessment that can be quoted as promotional copy, used as a credibility blurb, or shared with readers if the verdict is positive.
For many authors, that professional verdict alone becomes a valuable long-term marketing asset.
Beyond that, the Discovery Awards were designed to place exceptional books in front of people who can genuinely influence an author's career.
Among the opportunities available to top-winning books are:
Book-to-film consideration by acclaimed producer Ram Bergman, whose credits include Knives Out, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
Review for potential literary representation by Dystel, Goderich & Bourret Literary Management, the New York agency whose clients have included bestselling authors such as Colleen Hoover.
Professional publicity consultation from Wildbound Literary PR for the top fiction and nonfiction winners.
A full professional IndieReader Review for qualifying winners.
Featured author interviews through IngramSpark and Bookfinity, helping winning books reach booksellers, librarians, publishers, and readers worldwide.
In addition, category winners, Best First Book winners, and Best Cover Design winners receive industry exposure, featured interviews, recognition materials, and promotional opportunities that continue well beyond the awards announcement.
One aspect I especially appreciate about the Discovery Awards is how the judging process is structured.
The focus remains on the quality of the writing and the originality of the work itself. While editing, production quality, and design are considered, the primary objective is discovering exceptional books that deserve wider recognition, regardless of how they were published.
After learning about Bouncing Off the Moon, I genuinely believe it possesses qualities that would make it a meaningful submission for the 2027 program. Its combination of imaginative world-building, suspense, and emotionally grounded storytelling demonstrates the kind of originality and narrative ambition that the Discovery Awards were created to recognize.
Whether the outcome is a professional verdict that strengthens your marketing, category recognition, or one of the top industry opportunities available through the awards, I believe your work deserves to be seen by experienced publishing professionals.
If the Discovery Awards sound like something you'd like to explore, I'd be happy to send you the submission information and answer any questions you may have.
Thank you for continuing to create stories that challenge readers to imagine the future while remaining invested in the people at the heart of it.
Warm regards,
Cassandra
--
On Wed, Jul 8, 2026 at 5:04 PM David Gerrold wrote:
You may feel free to consider my book for the award.
I, however, have no interest in filling out any paperwork at all.
--
On Wed, Jul 8, 2026 at 12:10 PM Cassandra R. Baldridge [email protected] wrote: Dear David,
Thank you for your response. I completely understand, and I appreciate your willingness to have Bouncing Off the Moon considered for the award.
To make the process as simple as possible for you, you do not need to complete the paperwork or submit everything through the official link yourself. I can handle the submission process on your behalf. I will just need the required information and materials sent directly to me, and I will take care of organizing the entry.
The requirements I would need from you are:
The final manuscript or published book file for Bouncing Off the Moon
Book cover image
Book description/synopsis
Author biography
Publication details (publisher, publication date, ISBN if available)
Any additional information you would like included with the submission
The entry fee for the Discovery Awards is $150 USD for the primary book entry. If you would like the book considered in additional categories, each additional category entry is $100 USD.
My goal is to make this as straightforward as possible while ensuring your book receives the professional evaluation and consideration it deserves.
Please feel free to send the materials directly to me, and I will guide the process from there.
Thank you again, David. I look forward to helping Bouncing Off the Moon receive the recognition it deserves.
Warm regards, Cassandra
--
On Wed, Jul 8, 2026 at 5:11 PM David Gerrold wrote:
Yeah. No thanks.
I have a very firm rule. Money goes TO the writer, not FROM.
--
Cassandra R. Baldridge 12:23 PM (7 hours ago) to me
Dear David,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I completely understand and respect your position.
I know many authors have a personal rule that money should always flow toward the writer rather than away from them. It is a reasonable concern, especially with the number of questionable services and practices that exist in the publishing industry.
At the same time, I think it is important to distinguish between paying for a guaranteed result and making a professional investment. In any business or creative industry, growth often requires some level of investment. Companies invest in marketing, entrepreneurs invest in development, and professionals invest in tools, education, and opportunities that can increase their visibility and reach.
Publishing works in a similar way. While no legitimate award, marketing effort, or professional service can guarantee success, authors often make strategic investments in areas such as editing, cover design, publicity, advertising, and industry recognition because these can help position their work in front of the right audiences.
The IndieReader Discovery Awards are not a promise of publication, sales, or representation. The value is in receiving a professional evaluation of the work and having the opportunity for additional recognition and exposure. Ultimately, whether that type of investment makes sense is a decision each author has to make based on their own goals and circumstances.
I appreciate your honesty, and I certainly do not want you to feel pressured into something that does not align with your approach. I simply wanted to clarify the purpose behind the opportunity and the difference between a cost-based service and an investment intended to create professional possibilities.
Thank you again for considering it, David. I respect your decision either way and appreciate the opportunity to discuss your work.
Warm regards, Cassandra
--
David Gerrold 8:04 PM (26 minutes ago) to Cassandra
I'm going to assume you're not a bot, but the text of your note is definitely bot-like.
I am a published author with 60 years of experience. I have worked with almost every major publishing company in NY and elsewhere, including multiple publishers in Europe and Asia. I have published best-selling books. I have won awards. I have been the guest of honor at numerous events, including this weekend. I have written short stories, novellas, novelettes, novels, trilogies, plays, teleplays, and several movie scripts.
You can look me up on SFADB and ISFDB.
I do not need your services. There is absolutely nothing you can offer me that would be worth me taking a single dollar out of my wallet for you. And, to be blunt about it, I find your assertions not just ignorant but insulting -- because if you had the slightest idea at all about my career, you would not have offered your services. I am far beyond any need for your services.
But more than that, I do not believe that any business that sells such services to working writers can ever deliver anything that is going to put more money or recognition into their pockets. This is the electronic equivalent of "Who's Who?" -- a book of people who paid to be included.
Sorry, but please do not write to me -- unless you intend to apologize for the implied insult.
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(dry look) Nobody gets to tell me when to cringe. I reserve such assessments to those who have sufficient experience to correctly judge whatâs cringeworthy.
The rule could have heavy impacts towards trans people across society.
Last week, the Trump administration quietly released a sweeping new federal rule that would use funding threats to force institutions across the country to reject transgender people. The 400-page proposed regulation would codify the administration's anti-trans executive orders into binding federal policy, imposing a blanket prohibition on federal funds going toward "gender ideology"
The proposed rule, formally titled "Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance," rewrites the government-wide framework governing all federal grants across every agency. Among its most consequential provisions, it requires that before a federal grant recipient can receive money, the award must pass a "pre-issuance review" conducted by a political appointeeânot a career expert or peer reviewerâto ensure it is "consistent with applicable law, Federal agency priorities, and the national interest." The regulation explicitly instructs these appointees to screen for "denial by the recipient of the sex binary in humans or the notion that sex is a chosen or mutable characteristic." [...] An institution that acknowledges transgender people existâthrough its policies, its training, its healthcare, its bathroom access, its HR procedures, its name-change processesâcould be deemed to "deny the sex binary" or to âsupport the notion that sex is mutableâ and have its federal funding blocked.
Importantly, the gender ideology prohibition has no age limitationâhospitals could be targeted not just for providing care to minors but for providing gender-affirming care to adults, because prescribing hormone therapy to a transgender patient of any age could be deemed promoting the belief that "sex is a chosen or mutable characteristic."
This is all very bad and horrible, but I want to be clear that itâs worse and more sweeping than just eliminating trans research.
This torches everything. And I do mean everything.
A very abbreviated list of its ramifications include (but are not limited to):
ending funding for ALL DEI related initiatives
allowing the government to terminate grants at any point for any reason
preventing researchers from publishing, going to conferences, and being part of academic societies
requiring that topics must support the presidentâs agenda.
What this means, and if anything Iâm under selling it, is the death of science and research in America. It allows the government to restrict any topic they please at a whims notice, putting officials who have no background in the topic in charge of deciding funding continuity. It controls what gets researched and if/how researchers are allowed to share their discoveries. There are no books to burn if the government never allows them to be written. This is fascism plain and simple.
Please, if you only ever write one public comment, this is the one to do.
Bringing back this guide to writing an effective public comment. This gives you the basics you need to know, what you need to include, a basic outline you can follow, etc.
Public comments are not a vote, it is a chance for you to say "here is an issue with this law I think you need to address" and provide justification for legal challenges if it goes forward:
"Comments raise the bar that agencies have to meet when making a rule; âif an agency fails to adequately respond to significant, relevant comments in a final rule, members of the public may seek to challenge the rule in court on that basis and claim it could be struck down.ËŽ"
But also, if possible, don't stop at writing a comment. Don't stop at calling your representatives. You should ideally be talking to people in your community about this and organizing resistance on-the-ground; there is a good chance people are already doing that even if you aren't hearing about it.
Some added 101-level context from someone (me) whoâs worked in federal grantmaking for 20 years and is literally certified on this document - this is a document that governs all federal grantmaking. Itâs been around for over a decade and is a mega-document that combine multiple previous smaller documents that have been around for ages. It is updated every few years and generally the updates are minor - a notable change in the previous update was raising the small procurement threshold from $10,000 to $15,000 for example. Deeply dry boring minutiae that no one outside of federal grantmakers need concern themselves with. It was also federal GUIDELINES, which means there was flexibility.
This yearâs is different. They are now federal REQUIREMENTS, which means thereâs no flexibility. As was said previously, the 400 pages are not singularly devoted to being absolute shitheads to trans people. Theres a lot of stuff in there, some of which is the standard dry boring grants stuff, some of which is the horrible ideological warfare outlined above.
This document is issued by the OMB, the Office of Management and Budget, which is currently lead by fucking Russell Vought, the principal architect of Project 2025. This is how theyâre going to implement all the horrible shit in there that wasnât covered by Executive Order. Russell Vought is actively coming for my job, my marriage, and my kid, and most of my friends lost their jobs last year because of him. He is the fucking arch villain behind the heinous shit the current regime is doing.
So yes, please comment. You donât have to read all 400 pages before doing so, itâs dry and dense as fuck, but I thought this information might be helpful. Also, while there is a public comment period, this isnât voted on by Congress. The OMB just fucking issues it. Pressuring your elected officials into publicly saying âhey what the fuck are you doing hereâ is good, though.
Please note the comment period is open through JULY 13th, not JUNE 13th. I saw a lot of relogs yesterday saying "last day!" and I just want to say it is very much not too late.
As of today, 7/8/26, we have five days for public commentary on this to go through. I am begging y'all: if you care about independent science in the country that produces the most global science funding in the world, please leave a comment.
[id. A twitter post by @/Bennieeexyz
Jury duty letter came addressed to my cat.
Not a mistake. "Felix Martinez" - that's his full name according to his vet records.
My last name. His first name. Somehow he's a registered voter now.
Called the county clerk.
Me: My cat got summoned for jury duty.
Clerk: Is the name correct on the summons?
Me: Yes, but he's a cat.
Clerk: Is Felix Martinez a legal resident of this county?
Me: He's a legal cat.
Clerk: Sir, if the name matches our records, he needs to appear or file an exemption.
Me: He can't file anything. He has paws.
Clerk: You can file on his behalf.
Me: Under what exemption? There's no box for "is a cat."
Clerk: (pause) Check "unable to serve due to medical reasons."
Me: What's the medical reason?
Clerk: He's a cat.
Me: That's not a medical condition.
Clerk: It is if it prevents him from serving.
Sent in the form. Got rejected two weeks later.
"Insufficient documentation. Please provide medical professional's statement."
Took the letter to my vet.
Me: I need you to write that my cat can't do jury duty.
Vet: Why is your cat summoned for jury duty?
Me: Excellent question. No good answer.
Vet: This is the weirdest request I've gotten.
Me: Can you just write that he's medically unfit to serve?
Vet: On what grounds?
Me: He's a cat.
Vet: (started typing) "Patient is unable to serve due to species-related limitations including inability to speak, read, or comprehend legal proceedings."
Me: Perfect.
Sent it in. Got another rejection.
"Summons is mandatory. Failure to appear will result in contempt of court."
My roommate thought this was hilarious.
Roommate: Felix is going to jail.
Me: This is serious.
Roommate: Bring him to court. See what happens.
Decided that was actually the only option left.
Day of jury duty, put Felix in his carrier. Brought the entire paper trail of rejection letters.
Checked in at the courthouse.
Clerk: Name?
Me: Felix Martinez.
Clerk: (looked at the cat carrier) Is that Felix?
Me: Yes.
Clerk: (long stare) He's a cat.
Me: I've been saying that for six weeks.
Clerk: Why didn't you file an exemption?
Me: I filed three. All rejected.
Showed her the letters. She read through them, expression shifting from confusion to disbelief.
Clerk: Someone rejected the veterinary documentation?
Me: Twice.
Clerk: (called her supervisor over) You need to see this.
Supervisor read everything. Looked at Felix. Looked at me.
Supervisor: How did a cat get registered to vote?
Me: You tell me.
Supervisor: This is a data error.
Me: Took you six weeks to figure that out.
They dismissed Felix immediately. Apologized for the inconvenience.
Supervisor: We'll remove him from the voter registry.
Me: Appreciate it.
Supervisor: (pause) Out of curiosity, how would he have voted?
Me: Probably whatever party supports universal treats.
Got a formal apology letter a week later and a voter registration card.
For me this time. Apparently I wasn't registered, but my cat was.
Roommate: Felix committed voter fraud.
Me: Felix committed nothing. He's innocent.
Roommate: That's what they all say.
Felix is sleeping on the jury summons now.
Fitting end to his legal career.
end id]
Hereâs the thing: authors know when they get a rec on an older story. Thereâs a telltale uptick of kudos (with a 10-15% comment rate if youâre lucky) in your digest email.
The thing is, thereâs no way to know where these people are coming from. In the before, when fandom was more in the corners we all knew about, you could search LJ or a message board or whatever social bookmarking site we were using. You could join the community and participate.
You could get a little dopamine hit by seeing someone tell their friends why they loved your story.
Anymore, those recs are hidden in discords, or in tiktoks or instagram slideshows that you canât search for. Theyâre inaccessible, not discoverable unless youâre already there. You may never know why 27 people left kudos on an old story of yours, what they liked and found in your writing. You just get the thumbs up and a kinda lonely feeling, cause these could be your people. You could like them, maybe. You could be friends.
But youâll never find out why they stopped by, or what people are saying about you behind your back, and thatâs sad.
So thank you to the people who still do public rec lists on this webbed site. You are my sunshine, and Iâm appreciative of all of you.
If you're a new writer and you're asking yourself "is this too personal, is this too much, will people think this is weird" that feeling is the exact location of your actual voice. The stuff that makes you want to close the laptop is the stuff nobody else could write. The safe version is always worse. Always. I have never once read something and thought "this would have been better if it was a little less honest." go further. It's always go further.
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What would you do if you were a queer Black teen girl in the 2010s midwest that suddenly became a witch after reading from an ancient tome?
Now you've got to fight monsters , face off against an evil that's after you ... and also two vampires have feelings for you ( and they dig each other a bit too) . Check out this Black Queer YA Coming of age Magical Girl Witch in the midwest story!
The Three Tomes. Live on Kickstarter
Card Captor Sakura and Sailor Moon x Twilight and The Vampire Diaries ( minus the racism).
Too often in media, Black women and femmes are seen as disposable. They're stepping stones on the path to the " true relationship". They're the side best friend, they're killed off for the narrative..
Too often in media Black people period are questioned for why they're in fantasy, or supernatural stories. " Why is a mermaid Black?" " Why is that dwarf Black?" " Why is that knight Black?"
There's rampant biphobia and questioning of people's queer idenity as nonbinary or fear of being open about your Black queerness period...
Too often in media our stories as Black people are only accepted if it centers our pain. Very rarely are we given opportunity in mainstream media to have our whimsical and fun coming of age stories without black trauma at it's core. Our history is part of us, but we can have our " Juno's " , our " Twilights" , our " Hunger Games" ...etc.. too. We are able to be and should be present in all genres and tell all kinds of stories.
The Three Tomes aims to dismantle all of this. It's a Queer YA coming of age story about Tammy Harris, age 17. She lives in the Chicago Suburbs and is having her own adventure and dealing with grief and change through the magical lens of witches and vampires. The story centers on her, and a host of queer black and brown characters taking the lead. A Lesbian Witch, A gay Vampire priest, a gay Vampire villian, two bi, and pan vampire boys ( tammy's love interests) and Tammy's best friend who is nonbinary and black/indian mixed.
Character Bios here
Black people can be whimsical, magical and we deserve to be in fantasy stories.
Support The Three Tomes on Kickstarter as we push towards our stretch goals for full animation of scenes and episode 3. To check out episode one and learn more about the world of The Three Tomes.
Check out THE MASTER POST here.
A queer YA coming-of-age story about a black teen witch girl in the 2010s, fighting monsters and falling in love with vampires.
I usually tell my students that âclose readingâ means looking at what is actually on the page, reading the text itself, rather than some idea âbehind the text.â It means noticing things in the writing, things in the writing that stand out. To give you some idea of what this means, Iâve made up a list of five sorts of things that a close reading might typically notice: (1) unusual vocabulary, words that surprise either because they are unfamiliar or because they seem to belong to a different context; (2) words that seem unnecessarily repeated, as if the word keeps insisting on being written; (3) images or metaphors, especially ones that are used repeatedly and are somewhat surprising given the context; (4) what is in italics or parentheses; and (5) footnotes that seem too long. This list is far from completeâin fact, no complete list is possibleâbut the list is meant to begin to give you an idea of what sorts of things we notice when weâre doing close reading.
What all five of my examples have in common is that they are minor elements in the text; they are not main ideas. In fact, your usual practice of reading which focuses on main ideas would dismiss them all as marginal or trivial. Another thing they have in common is that, although they are minor, they are nonetheless conspicuous, eye-catching: they are either surprising or repeated, set off from the text or too long. Close reading pays attention to elements in the text which, although marginal, are nonetheless emphatic, prominentâelements in the text which ought to be quietly subordinate to the main idea, but which textually call attention to themselves.
Most of you have been educated to ignore such elements. You have been taught to seek out and identify the main ideas, dismissing the trivial as you go. This has had to be trained into you: read to a young child sometime, you will notice she has the annoying habit of interrupting the flow of the story to draw attention to some minor thing. Close reading resembles the interruptions of that child. It is a method of undoing the training that keeps us to the straight and narrow path of main ideas. It is a way of learning not to disregard those features of the text that attract our attention, but are not principal ideas.
Jane Gallop, âThe Ethics of Close Reading: Close Encounters,â Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, Vol.16, No.3 (Fall 2000), pg.7-8 (x)
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