eldritchunicorn

[eldritchunicorn]

[eldritchunicorn]

you just never quite know what you'll get when you open my inbox

[eldritchunicorn]

at a conference I attended recently, a researcher pointed to the difficulty of finding material in archives because so much depends on the metadata and the terminology used to describe things changes over time. "it would be so helpful," the researcher said, "if I typed 'lesbian' into the library of congress database, it would also show me results that were categorised in the 50s, when the materials were interpreted as 'intimate female friendships'"

which is what tag wrangles at Archive Of Our Own do incredibly effectively: searching for "omegaverse" also leads to "alpha/beta/omega dynamics" and "alternate universe: a/b/o" and so on. but ao3 achieves this frankly incredible categorisation and indexing system by the power of countless volunteers putting in hours and hours of unpaid and unthanked free time, and it's completely understandable that most archives do not have that kind of infrastructure, but also how incredible that a fan-run website has better searchability, classification, and accessibility than the library of congress

[eldritchunicorn]

"these researchers published a paper on something that literally any of us could have told you 🙄" ok well my supervisors wont let me write something in my thesis unless I can back it up with a citation so maybe it's a good thing that they're amplifying your voice to the scientific community in a way that prevents people from writing off your experiences as annecdotal evidence

[eldritchunicorn]

[eldritchunicorn]

That Time a Published Author Told Me to Un-Queer My Novel

So, I don't think I ever shared this story on Tumblr before.

As you may know I've spent the past ten years turning my old Welcome to Night Vale fanfic into a stand alone novel called Echo of the Larkspur. Now, I haven't been working on it ten years straight. I'd pick it up, do a bunch of editing and rewriting, submit it to agents/publishers, get turned down, put the book away, wait 2-3 years, dust off the book, re-edit and rewrite, etc etc. A cycle that repeated itself far too many times that I would like.

Well, during one of these cycles when I was in the 'get rejected by every agent and publisher I submit to' stage I asked the writing group I was in what I was doing wrong. Because at this point I had reached a hundred total rejections and I was starting to suspect that the issue was with me.

One of the members of this writing group, a male author who was traditionally published, offered to read my first chapter and give his advice on how to fix it. This was, in retrospect, a mistake. But I was desperate. I sent him the first chapter and waited for his response.

Folks. The email he sent me changed my life.

First he said that agents wouldn't publish my novel because it was Sci-fi with hardcore gay erotica in it. This is curious because while the book certainly is queer, at no point in the conversation with this man did I say it was hardcore erotica. Nor did the first chapter feature any. It's almost as if he assumed that just because something was gay, it had to be hardcore erotica. Interesting.

He went on to say that a Human/Robot pairing was weird and that there was "No Way" my story could seriously address the issues of a relationship like that. Once again, he only read the first chapter. He just...assumed I wouldn't think of that? And that my book wouldn't cover it?

The author then said “I also felt that the LGBTQ inclusion really seems to cloud things.” Direct Quote.

And then this is when he said my favorite quote of them all:

The idea of a book being a sci-fi with romance AND a mystery is a Modern Art Marzipan Owl. It's just too confusing! No one can handle a story that is a mystery in a sci-fi enviroment AND has a romantic subplot! THEIR BRAINS WOULD LITERALLY EXPLODE!

Thankfully he had a solution to my book problem. His answer? Turn the book into an Action Spy Thriller and turn S.A.G.E., a robot that identies as a gay man, into a sexy lady robot who needs a MAN to teach her what it means to be human.

(I assume the male lead will teach the 'confused' female robot how to be human via his penis.)

Now my favorite part about this advice is that at no point did he outright say "Remove the gay part". No, instead he sneakily changed the robot love interest into a female robot as if I wouldn't notice. Just sort of swept away the gay bits as something totally unneeded and just mucking up the narrative. Also that's not the plot of my story, I have no idea where this virus thing came from.

(Also note that the female robot can't be robotic-like at all. Must preserve the average straight-man sex drive at all costs I guess)

He then finished his email basically saying that I should remove everything that 'traditional publishers' don't like (aka the queer parts) and make it easier for 'your average reader' to digest and my book will be good as published!

When I said this email changed my life I meant it. Because it made me realize I'd rather be self published and unknown than traditionally publish milquetoast trash like he suggested. Like holy fuck. If I removed all of the "Difficult" to digest stories out of Echo of the Larkspur then there wouldn't be a book left!

So here I am. Self publishing my Marzipan Modern Art Owl of a book. I know it'll never see the inside of a bookstore or top the charts on Goodreads but hey, I'd rather it speak to one person than have a thousand people get excited for the part where the male lead teaches the lady robot how to be human (via his penis).

If a Queer Sci-fi/Romance/Mystery novel sounds like your jam then consider preordering it!

Looking for something to read now? Can't afford the book? Willing to read in exchange for an honest review? You can join my ARC book readers here!

[eldritchunicorn]

(Source)

This is EXACTLY why we beg y’all to boycott HP, especially the reboot. Anywho, gonna take advantage of the tag inevitably trending by listing pro-LGBTQ+ groups to support and invest:

Mermaids

The Trevor Project

InterACT

The National Black Justice Coalition

Lavender Phoenix

Black AIDS Institute

GLAAD

National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center

Lambda Legal

Queer the Land

Act Up NY

Human Rights Campaign

FOLX HELP

Feel free to add more charitable organizations below! Oh and one more thing: DO NOT HARASS THE KIDS CAST ON THAT SHOW, or you’re equally as bad as Jowling-Knowling-Rowling.

[eldritchunicorn]

You CANNOT separate art from the artist when the artist is still alive and producing new media to profit off.

So on that note, do NOT watch the new Harry Potter series. Do not hate watch it. Do not watch it because “it’s going to be my childhood remade”. I do not care. Do not watch it. This is a direct move to erase the original trio who have all stood against jkr.

[eldritchunicorn]

found a really, really wise take on bluesky

[eldritchunicorn]

She fully didn't watch the segment because Jon did a very nuanced, thoughtful segment. He drilled down to kids just wanting to have a community and have fun.

What these TERFS are pissed off about is that he showed how disingenuous y'all are when you go "omg that trans athlete hit a ball really hard and it hurt a cis women" because when you look into it cis women even on their team hit harder then them. Because he pointed out that cis girls harm each other in sports all the damn time. He pointed out that when there was a bill to protect cis women athletes against sexual predators like coaches. Y'all decided not to pass that while passing an anti-trans bills all while claiming you just care about protecting women.

[eldritchunicorn]

[eldritchunicorn]

No children are allowed in the Library of Congress.

It's not that kind of library.

In other words...

You are being lied to

again

[eldritchunicorn]

TIRED: all translations are bad. it is impossible to capture the spirit of any work in another language.

WIRED: while it is true that certain aspects of a work might be difficult to translate, to condemn every translation and translation as an enterprise creates a ludicrously high, unfeasible barrier of entry for anyone interested in said work, rendering it accessible only to people who know or learn said language to literary fluency.

INSPIRED: “bad” translations do exist, but we should celebrate the individuality of translation rather than bemoaning the impossibility of exactly reflecting the original, and look at each translation as a new and meaningful take based on a unique interpretation of the work.

[eldritchunicorn]

trying to find books about your Niche Fucking Interest moodboard

[eldritchunicorn]

The Internet Archive needs your help.

A coalition of major record labels has filed a lawsuit against the Internet Archive—demanding $700 million for our work preserving and providing access to historical 78rpm records. These fragile, obsolete discs hold some of the earliest recordings of a vanishing American culture. But this lawsuit goes far beyond old records. It’s an attack on the Internet Archive itself.

This lawsuit is an existential threat to the Internet Archive and everything we preserve—including the Wayback Machine, a cornerstone of memory and preservation on the internet.

At a time when digital information is disappearing, being rewritten, or erased entirely, the tools to preserve history must be defended—not dismantled.

This isn’t just about music. It’s about whether future generations will have access to knowledge, history, and culture.

Sign our open letter and tell the record labels to drop their lawsuit. 

[eldritchunicorn]

crazy how every time a female character gets cliche misogynistic writing we have to explain to people again that fictional characters are not real and do not choose things for themselves.

[eldritchunicorn]

People might wonder why I love etymology so much and the reason is simple — our everyday language is full of poetry. The English word "clue"? It comes from a Middle English word for "a ball of yarn", "clewe", which is a reference to the myth about Theseus and the Labyrinth. The Czech word "potkat" — "to meet"? The "tkat" part actually comes from "tkát" — to weave. To meet someone is literally to get interwoven with someone in Czech. How am I supposed to not love this?