dandthegods-notreligiousblog - Tumblr blog

[dandthegods-notreligiousblog]

put in the tags:

whether you are neurodivergent (or starting to consider the possibility)

your exact score

anything you hate that wasn't on here

and the number one food you Will Not Eat.

[dandthegods-notreligiousblog]

After having quite a low spoon day the past couple days and barely able to express it to my partner, I decided to make this:

For everyone who experiences low spoons days, and especially for those like me who can be completely debilitated by it. Hope this helps.

[short animated gif of a spoon outline drawn in red with a small portion of the handle end is filled in like a low battery warning. The spoon blinks as if to indicate the spoon is low as a battery would be. End ID]

[dandthegods-notreligiousblog]

I don’t post my stuff on here, but my website has a handful of my stuff!

www.explosiveimagination.com/writing

btw, i'm planning on being more active this summer, and i'm looking for new writeblrs to follow! please rb this post if you:

are a writeblr

write horror/gothic/fantasy

are active at the moment

and i'll check you out!

[dandthegods-notreligiousblog]

*reads this as I sit awake unable to sleep cause my brain wants to get my own wedding planned by 3am

*cant do anything until morning

So I have been on an absolute hyper focused mindset on wedding planning, even though it's still going to be a while before we actually have a ceremony. Our goal is to be in a home of our own first, and be in a financially stable place to have a nice ceremony where my friends and family can fly up to be there for us. However, I am just in planning mode like crazy for some reason! I already have my rings picked out, I may have my dress picked out now, and I have a fairly good idea on what the ceremony will be like (we've agreed on doing a handfasting and incorporating as much pagan stuff as we can get by with). Idk why I have been so nose-deep in all of this even though it's not going to happen for a while yet, but I am so pumped about it! Does anyone else do this??

[dandthegods-notreligiousblog]

I feel that sometimes. especially cause it comes from the “write what you know” echoing in my head whenever I’m writing. My current WIP has a conflict similar to what I dealt/am dealing with and the ending was hard to figure out because my situation is on going and the way it needed to end was hard to imagine. But I took time as I wrote the rest of the thing to think about how I’d want the situation to end if it was completely my control. because that’s basically what writing is - it’s loading all the card in your hand and dictating how things turn out. another way I found helpful was the sprinkle in some of myself into the situation. Even though the characters aren’t me or anyone I know, I drew from my own life and added those little things. It added a realism and flavor is genuineness to the story and feeling of the piece.

sorry to be vague, but just some thoughts about it.

also this is why I write fiction - the closer it is to my life the harder it is to write, personally

(this is open to criticism and advice)

I think one of the reason I'm struggling so much with my WIP is that... The point of the story is actually opposite to my experience in the subject.

And i hate being this kind of hypocrite.

It's nothing controversial, really, it's just I don't think I should be going around with a novel whose ending differs so much with what happened actually to me.

I know, I know. I started writing it because of spite, now i just feel like someone who is writing about something they do understand and experience but sugar-coating it and wrapping it with a glittery holo paper. Basically I'm trying to turn a dog sh*t of experience into something less shitty for other people dealing with the experience to feel better about themselves even if it never happened to me.

(the experience in question is nothing controversial or uncommon, just... I feel like I wanted to show something different for once)

[dandthegods-notreligiousblog]

ill Keep a lookout if it does happen! I love binging all your interview and lecture videos on YouTube. Helps me get into the mindset and spirit for writing (Thanks)

(also, you did your LiveTalksLA with Joe Hill on May 13th in 2021. So thanks for that birthday gift of an event to watch)

Hi Neil,

My birthday is May 13th, and I was thrilled to see you’ll be in Chicago and Madison on the 13th/14th. Unfortunately I’m going to have to work that weekend. Will any of the “Evening with...” shows be recorded and posted anywhere? I’d love to see it somehow.

thanks for your time :) and hope you’re doing well

I don't think we've recorded one since about 1998. We really ought to.

[dandthegods-notreligiousblog]

in some texts they are described as “dark elves” rather than “dwarves”. I found that out at the same time as Thor the Dark World was released and had a fun laugh at that idea of dwarves invading instead of Christopher Eccelston in makeup

Fun fact: Originally in Norse mythology, the “dwarfs” (of their proper Nordic name the “dvergar”, singular dvergr) were not identified by their height. They were not particularly small - in fact they usually had the same size as humans or gods. Their small stature only came later in popular imagery and popular depictions. What mostly defined dwarfs were their supernatural crafts, their habit to live under the ground or under mountains, and that they turned into stone under the sunlight. 

[dandthegods-notreligiousblog]

@neil-gaiman made me think of your essay about needing libraries, and your work to keep them.

A horrifying halloween cartoon for @Guardian Saturday.

p.s. my new book is out: tomgauld.com/childrens-books

[dandthegods-notreligiousblog]

Meanwhile I’m here who grew up on (a version) of The Water Babies 👀👀👀

Hey, Mr. Gaiman. How important is it to "say" things through one's writing? I was told that I shouldn't write things just to be entertaining, that I should strive to have a message every time. Is it really important to have a message in every story, or can it just be a bit of fun?

Your writing, your rules. Some food is nutritious, sometimes you crave an ice-cream.

I don't think you should strive to Have a Message, because I have read too much bad Victorian fiction that had Morals. I wouldn't swap my Alice in Wonderland for The Water Babies at gunpoint, and The Water Babies is nothing but improving and important messages about, among other things, not forcing small children up chimneys.

[dandthegods-notreligiousblog]

I kinda read it as he feels he is failing his last purpose in life (since he figures he’d die from Czernobog). So it might be more of his own mind than the gods/spirits actually being there.

There is one thing I still do not understand about the novel (well one among other things).

Chapter twenty - when Shadow is drowning in the lake, he has a vision of Whiskey Jack alongside the buffalo man and the condor woman (aka the thunderbird). Whiskey Jack looks at him sadly, shakes his head, and they all walk away from Shadow, which senses a great loss and wants to plead for them to come back and to not give up on him.

How do you interpret this scene? Is it simply that Shadow feels himself dying and thus pictures it as America leaving him? Is it something to do with how he is cutting his own ties and links to the American land? Has he done something that would truly make the land and its native beings give up on Shadow?

After all this time I am still very confused by this scene. 

[dandthegods-notreligiousblog]

@neil-gaiman anything you can add? or give a direction with what to look for?

American folklore question…

In the novel, John Chapman (aka Apple Johnny, aka Johnny Appleseed) mentions several times his wife, a Choctaw woman, and there are several mentions of him going crazy after her death (in fact Wednesday lists this as one of the episodes of his life that are remembered as folktales and legends). 

However… I did the basic research on John (and by basic I mean, really basic, I am unfortunately not well-versed in American folk heroes). And one thing that keeps being mentionned is that John Chapman never had a wife (and in fact after his death it was his sister that inherited his belongings). 

So… can someone enlighten me here? What is Neil Gaiman referring to? 

[dandthegods-notreligiousblog]

Hang in there and be safe!

and maybe write some of the stuff (or everything!) down. You might be able to make a good book out of it!

Hey Mr. Gaiman,

I've been kicked out of my mom's house, and am cross country from my friends. (I'm 18 btw)

I was just wondering if you could give me a few words of hope.

I'm so sorry. Hang in there. Sometimes things like this are, in retrospect, the best things that could have happened, but that's rarely any consolation at the time.

[dandthegods-notreligiousblog]

The show “Miracle Workers”. It’s on HBO Max

We are gathered here today to mourn the loss of one of our brethren, cruelly taken in his prime due to cholera. Which reminds me...

[dandthegods-notreligiousblog]

The Christmas Mouse: Starry Smile

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The Christmas Mouse: Bow Full of Love

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The Christmas Mouse: Snow Friend