Just something I really want to share on here because it’s important.

this is really important to remember, even if you said something stupid and don’t feel like repeating it- it can still feel isolating to folks with hearing and auditory processing problems!

the best fanfic is the one the author had fun writing actually.

the second best is the one the author used to work through some issues.

scribbellz

may i offer you a gift basket in these trying times

it is full of Malice

New basket for the new year

It is Finally February. Survive February, and here, for your troubles:

It is March and Malice is three! She is having an acceptable birthday.

It is April and Vice is three! He is having a tolerable birthday.

It is May and Malice is experiencing nature. Horrifying stuff.

It is June and Malice is beset by infants.

It is July and Malice is in prison. I offer her fresh infants but she cares not.

It is August and Malice is having rainbow time. Vice does hairstyling; she is not amused.

It is September, and the Queen of Muppets has madness in her eyes.

It is October and the Meatball Supreme is only doing tricks this season.

It is November and Malice is harassing squirrels, so Vice will be hosting book club this month. He has very strong opinions.

It is December, and the only present you're getting this year is Malice.

I don’t know who needs to hear this but grief is so much more than just something you experience when someone dies. it’s okay to grief opportunities and time lost. people you used to know. people you used to be. relationships. ways of living. places. your childhood. you can feel grief over so many things and it’s okay and real and seeking help is okay too, you’re not being disrespectful.

"average cat owner spends 3 years in prison" factoid actualy just statistical error. average owner spends 0 years in prison. Miette's mother, who kicked her body like the football and went to jail for One Thousand Years is an outlier adn should not have been counted

I love how every single Georg post observes the original's typo

i like that you said "observe" instead of "preserve," implying this has religious importance.

Celebrate Trans Authors and Trans Characters this Transgender Awareness Week!

Happy Transgender Awareness Week everyone!! We asked our rec list contributors for their favorite books with trans characters or by trans authors, and the result is this list of 20 awesome books, all with trans characters (though some open to interpretation) and most by trans authors! This adds to the list of 11 books we did for Transgender Awareness Week last year. The contributors to this list are: Linnea Peterson, S. J. Ralston, Nina Waters and Shannon.

What are your favorite books by trans authors and/or starring trans characters?

You can see all our favorite books with transgender characters by visiting our related shelf on Goodreads.

See a book you need to buy? Shop our affiliate shop on Bookshop.org to browse these and more books there!

Want to contribute to these lists? Patreon backers at all levels can join our Discord and become reccers with the Press!

nothinggg better than torturing an emotionally repressed character until every single trauma they've ever refused to process starts spilling uncontrollably out of the cracks. like a matryoshka doll situation of repressed trauma and baby you better believe i'm going in there with a hammer

So, there's a dirty little secret in indie publishing a lot of people won't tell you, and if you aren't aware of it, self-publishing feels even scarier than it actually is.

There's a subset of self-published indie authors who write a ludicrous number of books a year, we're talking double digit releases of full novels, and these folks make a lot of money telling you how you can do the same thing. A lot of them feature in breathless puff pieces about how "competitive" self-publishing is as an industry now.

A lot of these authors aren't being completely honest with you, though. They'll give you secrets for time management and plotting and outlining and marketing and what have you. But the way they're able to write, edit, and publish 10+ books a year, by and large, is that they're hiring ghostwriters.

They're using upwork or fiverr to find people to outline, draft, edit, and market their books. Most of them, presumably, do write some of their own stuff! But many "prolific" indie writers are absolutely using ghostwriters to speed up their process, get higher Amazon best-seller ratings, and, bluntly, make more money faster.

When you see some godawful puff piece floating around about how some indie writer is thinking about having to start using AI to "stay competitive in self-publishing", the part the journalist isn't telling you is that the 'indie writer' in question is planning to use AI instead of paying some guy on Upwork to do the drafting.

If you are writing your books the old fashioned way and are trying to build a readerbase who cares about your work, you don't need to use AI to 'stay competitive', because you're not competing with these people. You're playing an entirely different game.

I've been mulling this post over since I reblogged it this morning, and if Malcolm doesn't mind, I'm going to clarify for a few people who might be wondering: If these people aren't playing the same game as us other indie authors, what game are they playing?

The answer is that they're playing the algorithm.

It'd be so easy to drop this at Amazon's door, but quite frankly, all book retailers reward this behavior. If you are pumping out work regularly, the sales algorithm will reward you because it keeps you relevant. I'm not talking about authors who produce one book a year or even two or the few people who are genuinely that prolific.

I'm talking about the above people, who, let's face it, treat indie publishing as a form of content farming.

I have zero issues with authors who use ghostwriters, especially when they're honest about it. (James Patterson is a notable example.)

But the people who hide it or attribute it to their "hustle game" while claiming we're all in competition with each other are not competing with writers; they're competing with other Algorithm Gamers because they've realized that no matter the quality of their work, as long as they have something in the New Release category, they're making money.

They're competing to stay relevant in terms of quantity, not quality because they don't actually have anything to say.

It's all just clicks to them -- and I'm willing to bet they make more money from getting people to click their (usually undisclosed) affiliate links than they do their actual books.

So take heart, dear writer. You are not competing with these people.

The vast majority of us don't view the rest of our community as competition. We're just trying to get our own work out the door while also supporting our friends as best we can.

Work at your own pace. Make the art you want. Support other writers. It'll be worth it. I promise.

Art is not a competition!

Explain yourself.

some people might not have seen all of them yet

i am SO glad people are explaining their choices because one of my favorite parts of what’s going on here is the huge variety of reasons and lines of thinking people are using all to arrive at the exact same answer

at this point so many of you have independently described similar personality traits for all the tetriminos that i almost feel like i could draw them as people

they are reading the comments

some wild shit going on in the notes that’s hard to pick up on if you’re not getting notifications every time someone says anything:

see one of my problems w movies n tv shows is that they often show a character of like a scientist or a historian and try and make them extremely boring but that shit just doesnt work on me. theyll b like 'well in 13th century turkey...' n everyone will b like ughhh shut up professor dinglebarry no one cares and like. well excuse me. stop the movie. id like to hear more about 13th century turkey.

curious to hear y'all's suggestions for the worst possible pasta shape

(Assume that "pasta" needs to be made of sheets or strands of dough with enough surface area relative to thickness so that they can be cooked.)

I was going to suggest fettuccini but twisted with the ends connected to form a Möbius strip, but then I realized that would fuck like hell.

@fishofthewoods I did NOT expect to get such a strong contender so early.

@alilcajun @aralioideae

a couple of challengers emerge

You are all fucking madmen

I can’t decide whether this is an affront to my heritage or possibly the best thing I’ve seen all week.

Okay so this is a big deal

To me, and to a significant subset of Sir Terry's fans (including most of you who've found this by the tags), his writing is serious commentary on the human condition - politics, prejudice, self-control, revenge vs. justice, religion, idealism, faith in people vs. cynicism, and more - dressed up with fantasy settings and a hefty leavening of humor to make it fun to read. And it is WILDLY fun to read, actual laugh-out-loud or at least a snicker averaging about every page.

But there's this common idea among the "important literature" people that fun and funny books are not also worthwhile or important in the same way.

This is a Discworld book being released WITH ACADEMIC COMMENTARY and AS A PENGUIN CLASSIC. That's a HUGE amount of recognition.

@thebibliosphere

Oh, I’m about to tear up. I had to fight so hard to do my thesis on Pratchett because the university didn't like what they considered pop culture being studied as literature and this is just... Existing. 🥹

In Advanced Higher English, we had to do a mini dissertation on two pieces of literature of our choice and I did Night Watch and Les Misérables so this is bringing me so much joy.

There are so many different shades of white light bulbs, I am so overwhelmed walking down the light bulb aisle, and then I'm never happy with the one I choose, no matter which one I choose, I get it home and I put it in and I'm like, ugh, I don't like THAT white

Color temperature range charts may be useful when going to try the next option (i kept a list of "nopes" in my wallet until i discovered I want shaded reading lamps, bathroom and kitchen lights all between 3800-4200 and everywhere else not above 3200 nor below 2800. YMMV, I enjoy warmer tone colors but not too warm or I'll get sleepy/depressed).

Different temp-colors for different areas/tasks.

Omg but this is so helpful, I am so glad I am not the only person just completely bewildered by how many different tones are being labeled with a single word! This will help me so much!!!! Thank you!!!!

When will we talk about the parallels between chapter 39 of SoC and chapter 37 of CK

Paraphrasing here, but chapter 39 of SoC says this when Inej is choking Heleen “it was not enough- it would never be enough- but it was a beginning”

And then, when Pekka is on his knees in front of Kaz, “Kaz looked at Pekka Rollins, Jakob Hertzoon, kneeling before him at last, eyes wet with tears, pain carved into the lines of his flushed face. Brick by brick. It was a start.”

This was so intentional, showing their parallels and how they’re the only ones for each other.

Chapter 27, Crooked Kingdom: “Was she meant to find a kind hearted husband, have his children, then sharpen her knives after they’d gone to sleep? How would she explain the nightmares she still had from the Menagerie? Or the blood on her hands?”