emi my beloved!!

23) do you wear jewelry?

so much. constantly. I will not leave the house without 3-4 earrings per ear and a necklace (and I'm thinking of getting 2 more piercings, probably after season 2 of the podcast wraps up and I can take a break from headphone-wearing.) and usually also some rings. tl;dr if I'm ever not wearing jewelry it's a sign that something is deeply wrong. stake the impostor through the heart before it's too late

26) how’s your spice tolerance?

pretty good for a white person! I am cajun 🔥

27) what’s your favorite or go-to outfit?

shorts and a very subtly-cropped crop top. also this one very Basic linen dress I have had since I was like 14 that is so comfy

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a suldrun appears!!

4) mythical creature you think/believe is real?

Idk about "believe" but I desperately want there to be sea monsters and lake monsters. I mean we've barely explored the ocean, there could be a Meg down there we don't KNOW there isn't

8) do you change into specific clothes for the house when you get home?

not reeeeally but if I'm wearing jeans I will change into shorts or a dress. rip to everyone else but when I'm at home I'm an orchid in a greenhouse not a leftover tupperware of soup in the freezer

22) do you have an emotional support water bottle?

not in specific, but I do always have a water bottle on me. I have a work-branded one with stickers, a bougie insulated Rifle Paper Co one from my days of working retail that is the designated Car Bottle now, a regular little sports one, and a fucking massive (48 oz?) free nalgene I got from a local creek cleanup day that is printed with the work of a local artist and also the ugliest thing I have ever seen (sorry to this man.) that one is for when I have to drive across the desert and fear that I might get lost old testament-style

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5. What’s a tag you never want to use for your works even when it applies?

Hmm. I'm not sure there's anything that falls under this, since due to my paranoia I'm a chronic overtagger-for-safety. But I think in Twilight fandom in general it can be tough to decide whether some tags even apply or not—does a canon-compliant story count as "adoptive sibling incest?" Does edbella need "age gap"? How about carlesme or jalice? (I would tend to err on the side of "no," but I can easily imagine a scenario where that enrages someone.)

And it's a warning, but it can be so tricky to figure out if/when "Major Character Death" applies when the major characters of canon aren't necessarily major characters in the fic and vice-versa.

11. Three tropes that are fine but overrated.

Already answered here, so instead I'll do three tropes I think are underrated.

#1 is arranged marriage/marriage of convenience. I know it gets plenty of love I just don't think it can be rated highly enough

#2 is exes-to-lovers, or just like second chances in general. I think there are specific ships and fandoms that do this really well, but I wish it was more popular in general because it's such an interesting writing challenge and inevitably yields cool results.

#3 I've seen posts on here lamenting that Sense8 AU fusions never caught on and I agree. Make everyone platonic group-soulmates with freaky involuntary psychic bonds!!

39. Wildest AU scenario you have written?

idk I think everything I've written is pretty tame, at least in this fandom. In a previous fandom I wrote a modern AU where one character was a cat. Not like he was turned into a cat, he was simply a regular cat from the start and the main human character had a cat instead of his canonical human best friend. I realized belatedly that this was me trying to isolate said main character and force him to confide in a different friend instead—in canon she's more like his gf's friend, but I like their dynamic and the way she challenges him, so I wanted more of that instead of main character + enabler canon bestie. but neither could I bear to erase Enabler Canon Bestie entirely, so: cat. anyway the fic was a very standard romcom; not wild at all

also once in Orphan Black fandom I wrote this ridiculous AU from the pov of the angel who is supposed to take Cosima's soul to heaven but keeps getting thwarted by her freaky psychic niece at every turn. it was extremely silly

my wildest AU scenarios remain partially written/unposted—you know the ones ;)

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a wild emi appears!!

33. Give your writing a compliment.

it's, um. usually pretty compelling I think

34. Do you write to improve? Or is that not a concern for you?

I sure do! it's not thee reason but it is a reason

35. Thoughts on writing challenges/contests.

I think they're neat as a source of motivation, inspiration, and community, but shouldn't be taken toooooo seriously

send me yet more writing asks

it's emi!!!!

🗺 what’s a book series you love that’s inspired by the culture/history of a specific country?

Hmmm. I really like Nghi Vo's Singing Hills Cycle, though that feels like it's drawing inspiration from several different Asian countries. I also recently enjoyed Little Thieves, which is German-inspired. So Let Them Burn (Jamaican-inspired) was also decent.

But in general I don't think I read too many series that feel tied to any one specific country! I have a lot of stuff that fits this bill on my tbr, though, so maybe I'll have a different answer in a few months, who knows

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🥺 what’s a truly underrated book/series you recommend and wish the whole world would read?

I already mentioned a few here, but I also think more people should read little oddities Follow Me to Ground by Sue Rainsford and Prosper's Demon by K.J. Parker

and not actually underrated but no one I know is talking about it and I wish they would: Our Share of Night/Nuestra parte de noche by Mariana Enriquez

😈 who’s your favorite villain/antagonist? are they special to you like a protagonist is?

Other than the ones mentioned here, I also love the "antagonist who truly genuinely thinks they're the hero" types like God/John Gaius from the Locked Tomb and the Gentleman from Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. I guess the pattern here is I love affably evil™ men with no self-awareness and horribly maladjusted women who knowingly and gleefully take out their issues on the innocent (I'm bisexual)

☕️ drop a HOT unpopular opinion about a book/character. be savage.

suldrun my beloved fellow Night C!rcus hater (I don't even need to tell you about that one) <33

[ok disclaimer that I wrote this at like 1 AM so it's even more savage than usual and if I flambéed anyone's fave to a scorched crisp then remember it's just MY OPINIOOOONNNNN]

some other books that make me feel like the only one brave enough to point out that The Emperor Is Naked:

Already mentioned The Cruel Pr!nce and The House in the Cerule@n Sea, but I also disliked Lone W0men, the N!nth House books (first one was ok but whaaaat even was book 2), and anything I've picked up by Sarah G@iley (has cool ideas and cannot execute them even a little bit.)

A Study in Dr0wning. don't get me wrong I love Ava Reid's prose but christ on a cracker that was a drag. I suspect many of the people who rave about it were just so calibrated to expect bad/mediocre prose in their YA that encountering decent writing bowled them over

Daughter of the Moon G0ddess is a hot mess that IMO only got all that buzz because these clowns out here don't watch xianxia and so mistook it for having a shred of originality when actually it's a frankenstein's monster of scenes from Princess Agents and Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms + 16 megapopular genre tropes in a trench coat. don't get me wrong there's nothing wrong with being tropey and unoriginal but you have to be like, good at storytelling then

my other unpopular opinion is that everyone needs to stop trying to make me read The Song of Ach!lles. fetch is not going to happen, it could be the best-written book in the world and I would still loathe every word. I hate that fictional man so much I keep 16 heel-destroying weapons on my person at all times. I think everyone who wants to rec me specifically TSOA should be forced to sit through minimum 3 different performances of euripides' The Trojan Women before they're allowed to mention it in my presence

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🥺 what’s a truly underrated book/series you recommend and wish the whole world would read?

series: you already know it's The Monstrumologist! Or at least the first three. thank you for succumbing to my influence there you're a real brick ioco

books: The Blue Castle! I'm glad that between @bellasbookclub and 2023's Blue Castle Book Club it's getting in front of more eyeballs

😈 who’s your favorite villain/antagonist? are they special to you like a protagonist is?

Probably the only one special to me like a protagonist is Ianthe from the Locked Tomb. From books I've read recently-ish, the antagonists who stood out most were Minya from Strange the Dreamer (she's an adult she's a child she's a cruel demon she's misunderstood she's committing war crimes she just lost her first tooth) and Clarissa Mao from the Expanse books, though I've been spoiled for the fact that she gets Prince Zuko'ed later in the series (I'm down for that too I just want her back where IS she)

📓 do you read classic literature? if so, what’s your favorite classic? give your top 3 if you can’t choose just one!

maybe so.gif

I feel like everything I enjoy is either real gothy or the complete opposite of that. there's no fathoming this taste

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🙄 what’s a popular book that you dislike, but you’ll get crucified if you say it?

sooooo many. uhhh The Night C!rcus and The Cruel Pr!nce come to mind immediately. Also The House in the Cerule@n Sea (I think we're allowed to dislike that one now that the author has put his foot in his mouth, but we should have been allowed to dislike it before. it has all the moral nuance of an episode of Barney)

Also I didn't like Deathl.ess but unlike the other three I don't wanna knock the quality of that one, I just personally found the style annoying

😌 what’s your go-to genre if you’re in a reading slump or don’t know what to read next?

reading slump: sci-fi, especially shorter stuff like novellas and short story anthologies

don't know what to read next: I usually reread a classic but I actually haven't run into this problem in many moons since I started keeping an actual physical TBR list/putting 8 things at a time on hold at the library/setting my own personal Cait Corrain Bombed Books Challenge

send me bookish asks 📚

oooh good ones. in the interest of some genre diversity I'm gonna answer these for Twilight and the Emily books here goes

20 - part of canon you found tedious or boring

Twilight: apparently I'm in the minority here, but the part that's...boring. everyone else on this webbed site seems to love the long descriptions of Bella chopping vegetables or whatever, but not me, sister. also the vampire-less part of New Moon ok sue me

Emily books: there were some definite lulls in Quest, particularly the bit where she's engaged to Dean which I found boring right up until it Wasn't

24 - topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

Twilight: to save us all some time here I'm just gonna link Princess Weekes' "confederate vampires" video

Emily books: I'm not in the fandom, such as it is, but I don't have to be in the fandom to know it's Dean

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3 - What were your top five books of the year?

Answered!

4 - Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

Feels weird to say this when none of their individual books are my favorite, but I really like Ava Reid's prose. I also didn't trust the hype about Laini Taylor but turns out I really like her style, too. And I liked Our Share of Night enough to go buy it in the original Spanish, so I guess Mariana Enriquez too!

5 - What genre did you read the most of?

Just from skimming my list, I'd say fantasy, with sci-fi, horror, and classics trailing close behind. Also a lot of genre-blending stuff, in particular historical horror and historical fantasy/fantasy of manners

send me end-of-year book asks

not me queueing up an ask game and then forgetting to log in to the entire app all day sorry ioco ily

3 - What were your top five books of the year?

I feel like 80% of what I read this year were flops, but now that I look at this list, I read so many books that 20% non-flops isn't too bad, actually. My favorites this year were mostly "finally got around to reading" books that are only new to me! And of course we had some gems from Bella's Book Club, both regular and from the summer reading challenge (shoutout to Braiding Sweetgrass, the Emily books, and The Hollow Kingdom!)

10 - What was your favorite new release of the year?

At the beginning of the year I said it was gonna be System Collapse and I was 100% correct, it was System Collapse

send me end-of-year book asks

2/2 From my prev. ask (I forgot to ask what your favorite romance or fantasy book is.)

interesting!! I'll admit to not knowing the first thing about cassandra clare outside of having read the fandom history classic The Cassandra Claire Plagiarism Debacle—feels like I probably missed the boat re: the age at which I might have been interested in her original fiction.

I don't read romance, but I guess my favorite fantasy is fantasy of manners Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. someone could smack me over the head with that 600 page tome and I'd say thank you tbh

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