idk who needs to hear this but jane austen is genuinely really funny. people who think she writes boring books where nothing happens, i get why you think that because society has told you that but please enjoy this banger from just the first couple of chapters of pride & prejudice:

“How pleasant it is to spend an evening this way. I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading. How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book. When I have a house of my own I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” No one made any reply. She then yawned again, threw aside her book, and cast her eyes around the room in quest for some amusement.

this is funny! we all know people who are like this!

anyway look up pride and prejudice read by elizabeth klett, she does an incredible job and it’s free!

Here's an archive.org link to that reading!

you are all so valid this makes me so happy

Must a show be “good”? Is it not enough to be an alternative history that asks “what if instead of the Catholic-Protestant schism causing complications in Tudor England, it’s Animorphs?” that’s super horny on main, has the vibe of A Knight’s Tale, surprisingly pretty accurate historical costumes (with a few notable exceptions), and a bunch of British character actors acting absolutely wild?

I need you all to understand that I have watched the trailer released for the show My Lady Jane a solid dozen times.

And not ONCE in this goddamn trailer does it even HINT at the fact there are ANIMAL SHAPESHIFTERS INVOLVED.

THEY MISSED THEIR TARGET AUDIENCE.

I was informed of the show’s existence by this Bluesky post

Which was VERY good advertising

I’m sorry, what? Why the fuck doesn’t the advertising or even the literal series description page on Amazon mention the shapeshifters?

That seems like a kind of important detail.

BTW my store has now sold out of the few copies of the book we had, and i've had multiple requests, so if you think you might want a copy (it's YA) then hie thyself to thy book-dealer of choice

also, i think everyone involved in producing this owes bree for a publicity campaign

I'm reading The Ties That Bound: Peasant Families in Medieval England by Barbara A. Hanawalt (the source of trothplight) and it's a really amazing reminder that people have always been Like This.

Take this anecdote, for example, which would not be out of place on r/legaladvice or r/shoplifting:

Or this one, which has real "what are you going to do, stab me? - quote from man stabbed" energy

People have been peopling for millennia, and they will continue to do so!

Women of Xal is 45% Off: We need one more review

✨ STEAM SUMMER SALE 2024 WOOO ✨

We need literally *one more review* for Steam to calculate our score. I'll put more details beneath the cut so as not to spam y'all, but if you're looking for a dating sim with poly, asexual, and aromantic options, or one with dark-skinned men and ladies, or one with political mystery and drama, or even one with silly alien shenanigans.... consider checking us out and dropping a review? :'> We'll be forever grateful.

Links are below. Click to continue reading if you're curious about the review situation. Oh, and feel free to join us on Discord!

STEAM | ITCH.IO | DISCORD

So listen i have this book coming out in uhhh 10 days and I am Worried about it, because it is a Comedy, and comedy is really hard to market (why????? it's funny pirates, what's not to like??) even when it is, yanno, normal mainstream comedy.

It is even worse when it is Unhinged Comedy That's Mostly Going To Be Funny To People On Tumblr. (For example, the main character being a supreme gremlin made of 90% memes by weight (examples: carries around a bag that is never called anything but his "little rucksack"; has a near-verbatim "stick me legy out real far" moment; talks about his metaphorical "orphan gruel bowl" which is a direct reference to that one Oliver Twist gif) because those are funny to me personally.) Unhinged Tumblr Comedy is difficult because tumblr is not a platform where it is easy to market things to people, because we are generally violently anti-capitalist and LOATHE advertisements and reflexively resist being marketed to for most anything. I LOVE that about this website. Except for right now, because I have bills to pay and a cat to feed. So look, fellow tumblr gremlins, I am just trying to say that if your personal brand of comedy is laughing at the kind of jokes that could only be produced on this hell website, and:

then this book might be for you. Beneath the wall-to-wall hijinks, it is political and it is righteously angry and it is the funniest thing I have ever written (which is saying something, because I have written some funny shit). It's called RUNNING CLOSE TO THE WIND. Here's a picture of it.

If all that sounds cool, you can read a review of it here and the first chapter of it here to see if it as funny as I am claiming it is, and then if you think that it is, you can preorder it here. It comes out on June 11! Ten days from now!

Thank you for letting me market to you for a minute. Signal boosting would be very much appreciated.

I manage to get an eARC of this book (highlight of my year) and can confirm it is absurdly funny. I was half worried my neighbors would call in a noise complaint with how hard I was laughing. Also if you are a fancy books™️ person like myself the broken bonding has a BEAUTIFUL signed edition with painted edges, foiling, the works

Good news: this book IS one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. Comedy is Hard but THIS BOOK is pure comedy. (With a side of horny and heart)

Hey everyone! This is my lovely friend Cyrus Nemati, who many of you may know as Theseus, Dionysus and Ares from the first Hades game.

He has spent the last couple years developing his very first indie game, Vampire Therapist, which plays with the many vampire character archetypes from across media.

It's been reviewing VERY well but it's not getting very many wishlists, so if you're interested in vampires, fantastic art and clever, funny, and thoughtful writing about vampire mental health, go wishlist it on Steam!

And listen, Cyrus may be too humble to leverage his colorful career as your favourite Hades hotboys, so I'm gonna do it for him 😌 GO SUPPORT FANTASTIC INDIE DEVS LIKE THIS ONE!

cyrus is a genuinely NICE DUDE and if you're a vampire enjoyer please check this out!!!

For the people who want to read about the Dead Boy Detectives but don't know where to start, ask your local book or comic book shop to order this Omnibus for you: 775 pages of story...

775 pages? I had forgotten there was so much material.

Collects The Dead Boy Detectives #1-12, Sandman Presents: Dead Boy Detectives #1-4, The Sandman #25, The Children's Crusade #1-2, Ghosts#1, The Witching Hour #1, Time Warp #1, Doom Patrol Annual #2, and Swamp Thing Annual #7.

I've done some art for awesome web versions of Beauty and the Beast I've read, but here's some Beauty's from Beauty and the Beast adaptations I physically have on my shelf.

From top left we have Honor "Beauty" Huston from Robin Mckinley's lovely first novel, 1978's "Beauty", her first adaption of the classic tale, which Disney 100% took inspiration from for their version with it's chatty castle staff and bookworm Beauty.

Top right is Beauty from Mckinley's second adaptation, 1997's "Rose Daughter" , a dreamlike and fantastical version featuring a Beauty who is a talented gardener and plagued by dreams of the Beast awaiting her since childhood.

Bottom right is Annabelle "Belle" from the 2008 novel 'Belle' by Cameron Dokey, part of the Once Upon a Time book series of fairytale adaptations. Similar to Mckinley's Honor this Beauty is the plainest of her three sisters, but has a talent for woodcarving which comes in useful once she's taken into the Beast's domain.

And finally we have Beauty from @megan-kearney 's "Megan Kearney's Beauty and the Beast" which was originally a webcomic that ran from 2012-2019 but can now be also purchased as a paperback 3 volume set and I'm happy to say I own all of them :) This Beauty is a kind hearted scholar who has a past more mysterious then even she realizes...

They're all excellent books and I would highly recommend them :)

Oh my goodness!! This is beautiful, thank you SO much!! My girl, she's perfect!

Time to check in at the No-Tell Motel

My new single-player TTRPG, No-Tell Motel, is now available! Come on over and grab a PDF, or throw in $5 more to pre-order your physical copy.

In No-Tell Motel, you play the overnight clerk at a sleazy motel. One of your guests murders another one, and no one much seems to care who did it or why. No one but you, that is.

Playing the game only requires a standard deck of playing cards and a six-sided die. You use the face cards to identify your motel's regular guests (yes, the book comes ready with 16), and the numbers cards to randomly generate things that happen between them.

And unlike most build-as-you-go mystery games, you can make your best guess and still get it very, very wrong.

The nightly spread of the game looks a bit like a hand of Solitaire, and that's on purpose. I wanted playing the game to feel a little bit like something you'd do to pass the time in the small hours of the morning.

Here's how it works.

The rules generate different murder victims and methods, a highly randomized yet still coherent matrix of guest gossip, actions and conflict, and most importantly: a way to find out if your accusation was correct, and what the consequences are for pointing the finger.

If you like pulp crime, The Conversation, or Errol Morris's Tabloid, you should check out No-Tell Motel.

My chronic pain doctor suggested I exercise more

I asked him “how?”

He looked confused. Said I should try a bit every day

I said “not when, how?” I asked what exercises I should do

He suggested half a dozen options that had all been explicitly banned by other doctors. I’m not allowed to run. I’m not allowed to bike. I’m not allowed to use my rowing machine or my punching bag.

I walk my dog whenever I have the energy and when it doesn’t hurt too much

What else can I do?

He told me I should exercise more

And then he changed the subject.

doctors: you need to exercise more

disabled patients: can you give me an example of exercises someone with my condition can/should do?

doctors:

I've found it helpful to look up guides for elderly patients, since doctors are more likely to acknowledge needing an approach with them that assumes there may be unexpected difficulties with their standard advice

There's a fairly wide range of elderly focused tips on how to exercise if in pain, if deconditioned, if your balance is compromised, etc.

Plus it focuses more on keeping and increasing ability rather than say, weight loss.

Update: found one of those guides specifically for any issue that might make it hard to be standing vs sitting: https://www.verywellfit.com/chair-exercises-for-seniors-4161267

I don't want to derail this because this is a HUGE issue I continue to run into with doctors. I was entirely on my own having to find types of exercise I could do. Turns out the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs actually has made HUGE playlists of various kinds of adaptable exercise videos. The tag to search for is #LiveWholeHealth . The videos have a huge range of focus and duration so you can get just what you need.

MC:

From Book Two, A Moment With Our Detective 🌲💚:

James

Jane

Pulp Fiction anyone??!

Here at Queer Liberation Library we’ve got you covered! from Beebo Brinker, to the Gay Detective, this was such a fun collection to put together for our readers

they are flying off our digital shelves though, so get your holds in when you can! 🌈

ISSUE #8 IS HERE!

PURCHASE ISSUE #8 HERE.

Issue #8’s cover was designed by Anna, our magnificent Art Director.

WAYS TO ENGAGE WITH OFIC:

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT. HAPPY READING AND HAPPY SPRING!

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Toshiro Mifune as Matsunaga Drunken Angel (1948) dir. Akira Kurosawa

From the book Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD:

The single best book I've read on organizing for people with ADHD. (I've read...so many)