driftbit

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Update to my bingo card for @batmanisagatewaydrug's reading challenge! My reading. Has been all over the place for a variety of reasons. I've tried a bunch of new things, some of which. I really disliked. And some of which have started a newfound itch in my brain. To summarize, here are my new additions: - Straw Dogs of the Universe by Ye Chun for historical fiction - The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu by Joshua Hammer for a book set in a country I've never been - Gilead by for Marilynne Robinson my Aughts - Reforged by Seth Haddon for an indie publisher - The City in Glass by Nghi Vo for fantasy - Cubs & Campfires by Dylan Drakes for my romance My extended thoughts are below! :D

The Vibeless Ones

Straw Dogs of the Universe: Man I was not in the headspace for this. I think this was an extremely well written book, but the misery was a bit too much for me to handle right now!

Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: Too much "bad-ass military guy" shit and not enough librarians. I fell asleep seven times while trying to read it.

Gilead: I fell asleep only five times while trying to read this! While I like the format of it, I think this story in this format didn't work. Was totally not for me.

Storytime: I Like Romance Now

So, before this year, I never read any romance novels and wrote them off as not for me. For a class I'm in, I had to read Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert and I really disliked it. I don't think it's objectively a bad book, it just was not for me. Per the gentle prodding of my coworkers and this challenge I decided to pursue the mission of, "Is There Any Way I Would Like Romance?"

Cubs & Campfires: Yes. I found this looking through the website romance.io and searched for if there were romance novels that were a. Queer and b. With bears as leads. This romance was EXACTLY what I never knew I wanted. These men love their bodies, revel in the fact that they're fat and queer, it has an interesting setup for them falling in love, the sex scenes were plentiful and written in a VERY fun way. It made me actually think for a few days I would want to camp, and I HATE camping! Highly recommend, AND there's a sequel to it coming out this month which I WILL be getting.

Reforged: Yes, a second time. This is a fantasy romance between a paladin and a prince who is suddenly king after all his siblings have mysteriously died. The main dynamic in this was really engaging, the king has a lot of depth to him even while on the surface he just seems like a bit of a bratty twink. While I put this one down as my small press pick, I like the sequel to it EVEN MORE, and I'm about to read the threequel.

City In Glass Was Good

City in Glass: Not a romance! But it's one that I've known I should read and would like so I put it off. Who would have guessed that I liked it. I really enjoyed how unexplained most of the worldbuilding went. I'm still curious over what interpretation of angels and demons Vo was considering while writing this, or is angel and demon just the closest approximation to what the characters are. While this was a novella, I liked how slow the pacing felt; even if it was short it did a great job with making the process of building a city arduous.

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I have a Juno Steel one I'm quite proud of. I feel like I found this Daniel Jacobi one on tumblr before but I don't remember the user who made it but it's like. Who Jacobi is in my head. This is also my brain's Canon Grifer's Bone setlist (again, don't remember the tumblr user who originally shared it!).

reblog with playlists you’ve made or found for various fiction podcasts (and not just the ones I tagged)/their characters/songs that remind you of either plsssss

ESPECIALLY if you’re the creator and have a playlist you listen to while writing of something

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a collection of very normal zoom chats from the process of getting my master's degree

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do y'all think I can remove these

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Update two for @batmanisagatewaydrug 2025 book bingo.

Up to three! The negative temperatures and endless snow are good for something.

1. Sequel: Nona the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir.

What can I say that others have not said? It’s just really good.

2. Comic/Graphic Novel: Saga vol 1, Brian K. Vaughan

Been on my TBR list for ages. Did not disappoint. Looking forward to more.

3. Memoir: Second Nature, Michael Pollan

Has changed my view of gardening and the intersection of nature and culture.

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i also read boy island this year! personally i loved it and i’m really into the artists style. do you have any thoughts?

YOOO :D thank you for asking!! I read a lot of graphic novels, and don't typically read ones with Boy Island's style of art. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would-- at this point I should know just to trust anything Silver Sprocket publishes. In the description for the book it describes itself as a fable, and I think that's a really good description for what it feels like, especially crossing the ocean and encountering people along the way in a very Odyssey kind of way. That, as well, works I think with the way the dialogue is written? In general I find the dialogue to be well balanced between sounding realistic and that sort of heightened, stage realism you see in fables and stuff like that.

I did also REALLY like how in the end Boy Island didn't feel any different. Especially for me, I started testosterone in the middle of last year, and I certainly knew it wouldn't fix all my difficulties being misgendered, but now like. Seven months out and the majority of strangers still don't get a proper read on my gender? I haven't changed at all other than maybe being a bit less anxious all the time? Fox is right, Boy Island DOESN'T feel any different, but not in a depressing way.

Also. I enjoyed the Starman character. I might not have his name 100% right since it's been a hot minute since I read the book but. He always gave me a laugh.

I'd love to hear your thoughts too! :D

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I'm doing @batmanisagatewaydrug's 2025 book bingo card! Thank you to him for these wonderful prompts. I intend to fill the card and update every five books with what I've read! I won't always be this quick, my semester hasn't yet started. Under the cut will be my thoughts about the books I've read so far.

Up Next: At some point I'm gonna reread The Name Of This Book Is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosh which was a favorite of mine when I was a kid. I'm also notoriously Not a romance reader amongst my coworkers, and have inadvertently formed a book club to read Cubs & Campfires by Dylan Drakes in February.

My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness by Nagata Kabi is the memoir I read. Initially this was going to be my graphic novel/manga pick and I was going to kick the can down the road for memoir since I don't tend to enjoy them, totally forgetting that Graphic Novel Memoirs Exist And I Own One. This one was fun! I have wanted to get back into manga, and this was a decent place to start. I liked the color palette a lot, although I found the paneling overall very straightforward, the art often replicating what was going on in the text. The story and the journey Nagata went through was really compelling, her frankness was eye-opening, and I really valued hearing her insight on getting oneself to grow for yourself.

Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is the collection of shorts stories I chose. I've had it on my to read list for a while since the last story was mentioned by one of my favorite essayists. It was brutal. The stories really have stuck with me, they're very heavy reads with very little hope, the final stories being the most hopeful of the lot. I really enjoy stories about cycles of violence, and there are a wide variety in here with different points of view, some of which are excruciatingly uncomfortable. Hope isn't often present which makes the spots of it really pop out more.

Boy Island by Leo Fox was recommended to me by my friend and coworker-librarian. They've been getting back into comics while I've been easing away from them for a while. My friend and I have been talking together about being both trans and librarians and tired and frustrated at the world. This book helped remind me I need to get weirder I need to remain freaky as shit in the face of wanting to be The Good Trans Person That People Can Accept Right? (Wrong).

Drowned Country by Emily Tesh is the sequel to the final book I read in 2024, Silver in the Wood, which I loved and ended up crying over. I'm not immune to bears (gay). I have nothing but ire for this sequel. I cannot recommend it. The melancholy ending of the first book? GONE. Fun voice of the bear-huntsman-immortal-man who is very soft spoken and contentious? GONE. Worldbuilding? BROKEN. Just read Silver in the Wood and be done with.

Harrow the Ninth by Tasmyn Muir is my science fiction book. HOOOOOOO BOY. I read Gideon the Ninth last year in December and I already feel like I need to reread both of these. Muir does such a good job tossing you in a world and being like Figure It Out, Sucker! The second ish person point of view. CRAZY GOOD. Had me slack jawed multiple times. Still kinda doubt that I fully understand what was happening at times, especially now that we have complicated bloodline stuff, BUT I'm havin' fun. I love bones. I love weird flesh stuff. I love whatever the fuck is going on with God. One flesh one end.

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Joel Smallishbeans rep on the work outfit???

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Random question for my fanfic writing friends:

When you go to AO3, what’s your total word count?

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monolith! :D

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PLEASE go read captain's play!! link is now in the post <3

My playbill for captain's fic Second Red Hand, made during the wonderful @mcytplaywritingfest !! thank you to my friend Mack for hosting it :D please please go check out captain's play it's a super fun alternate version of last life

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just posted my play for @mcytplaywritingfest, Second Red Hand, over on ao3 here!! I had such a blast with this, and it got an AWESOME playbill cover by the awesome awesome @driftbit right here, go check it out!! it rocks!! this is a play surrounding an alternative version of the events of last life, with a hungrier bdubs and a less self-certain etho <3

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My playbill for captain's fic Second Red Hand, made during the wonderful @mcytplaywritingfest !! thank you to my friend Mack for hosting it :D please please go check out captain's play it's a super fun alternate version of last life

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HELLO BONJOUR ÇA VA?

Made during the super fun @mcyt-jukebox-bonanza for the song Can EU Hear Me? by Kid Kapichi. I wanted to make a whole animatic for that song it itches my brain and it's so. it's so. it's so.

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WORKING AT MY JOB YEAH THAT'S RIGHT I'M WORKING AT MY JOB ‼️ For the super fun @mcyt-jukebox-bonanza for the song Customer Service by Sugar Pit!

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Made during the fantastic @mcyt-jukebox-bonanza for Oh No :: He Said What? by Nothing But Thieves. I have a whole AU I want to write in my brain which I'm gonna brain dump below. :] I might write it eventually. once I'm not in four different events at once. @-@

Okay SO. It's set in a cyberpunk-y city where megacorporations own everything and it Sucks for most people. But not for Joel! He's some kind of influencer/maybe a solo singer/artist act and he works for one specific talent agency. He's really well known, and kind of their main Face. Etho is an android at the same company who is half Joel's assistant, half rat to the upper administration board. The reason why he's an android is because that means he doesn't need sleep or food, so whenever he's not in Active Assistant mode, he's basically scouring the web to make sure that Joel's image is Perfect. One night, he ends up coming across a post that's a video someone took of Joel where Joel is basically BASHING the company he works for and lowkey admirers; it's really Typical Joel Trash Talk, but it's started to really tick some people off. He's saying that the company/fans would be nothing without him, they wouldn't be successful or anything were it not for his talent. Naturally, Etho has to report it to the higher ups, who aren't pleased that Joel is shit talking them and being like, they're nothing without me etc etc. So the managers order for Etho to Take Care Of Joel. Problem: they're not specific with what this means, though, and Etho Genuinely isn't sure if they're asking him to straight up kill Joel or to just take him out of the public eye for a bit. Etho opts to start with the latter since that'll give him time to mull over what he should do, and they go on a little Road Trip.

Eventually Joel ends up seeing himself from an outside perspective while on the trip through different newscasts and strangers' reactions, and realizes how Bad this all looks once he's out in the middle of nowhere, outside of his cushy life, seeing how Normal People live and are effected by capitalism. And only then slowly does he realize Etho took him out of the spotlight on purpose; Etho might have been asked to Make Him Go Away. In my head the whole fic ends on a cliffhanger of literally Joel begging Etho not to kill him and Etho Finally feeling prepared emotionally to do it. :]

Also, since you've made it all the way through my ranting, pls check out this live version of Oh No :: He Said What? IMO it's even better than the original recording. Beefy ass bassline.

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I mentioned tumblr to a coworker today and she was like, "Isn't that a dating app????" and what I said was no. But what I SHOULD HAVE said was, "Only if you're desperate and transsexual."