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Title: Adam Binder

Author: David R. Slayton

Series or standalone: series

Publication year: 2020

Genres: fiction, fantasy, LGBT+, paranormal, romance

Blurb: Guthrie was a good place to be from, but it wasn't a great place to live...not when you were like Adam. Adam Binder hasn't spoken to his brother in years, not since Bobby had him committed to a psych ward for hearing voices. When a murderous spirit possesses Bobby's wife and disrupts the perfect life he's built away from Oklahoma, he's forced to ask for his little brother's help. Adam is happy to escape the trailer park and get the chance to say "I told you so"...but he arrives in Denver to find the local magicians dead. It isn't long before Adam is the spirit's next target. To survive the confrontation, he'll have to risk bargaining with powers he'd rather avoid, including his first love: the elf who broke his heart. The Binder brothers don't realise that they're unwitting pawns in a game played by immortals. Death herself wants the spirit's head, and she's willing to destroy their family to reap it.

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Shout out to the time MY ARM WAS BROKEN and the teacher I approached about the enormous pain in my arm told me to stop making a fuss, "it's not broken or anything".

Anyway, I ended up walking around with a BROKEN ARM for a full week before my dad spotted it.

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every single time

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I know I don't shut up about this but frankly not enough people are angry about the 5-day/40 hour workweek (and I am AWARE a lot of people work even more than that). I feel like a lot more people should be absolutely furious that we only really have two days a week and some occasional hours in the evening to socialise, run errands, do chores, or relax.

It's no wonder so many people are profoundly lonely and disconnected from their communities when maintaining a social life in what little free time we have is incredibly difficult. If you have kids, a second job, a very long commute, or other responsibilities, it's nearly impossible.

We literally aren't meant to live like this and I'll never stop being shocked how many people just take it as the natural state of things and don't want to throw a brick through a billionaire's window every time they think of it.

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InkBlot Festival 2024

Ahhhhh! What a day!

This morning, way too bright and early, I caught the bus, the train, and the tram to InkBlot Festival, an indie creators comic expo in beautiful south Manchester.

My friends, I need to stop going to these things. They are super dangerous 😂

This one had way more novels than I was expecting, too (I was expecting 0 lol), and I am a sucker for novels. Well. As evidenced by the above, I'm also a sucker for comics, but...

I picked up these novels, and there was another one I really wanted, too, but I wanted to pretend like I'd stuck to my budget so I picked up the author's card instead and have put it on the list for after payday (can't wait).

My other task, besides finding cool new comics to read, was to swipe business cards from as many tables as possible 😂 for Reasons. (Also, you know, for the purpose of finding even more cool new comics in the future xd)

Anyway. It was fun, I'm excited about these comics - already started reading one of them! - and I'm also very happy I got to ride the Manchester tram for the first time (I think also first time on any tram).

:D

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hbomberguy donating all the adsense money from his james somerton video to creators from whom somerton plagiarised so they can finally be compensated for their labour... maybe i cried

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Enjoy queer media on youtube? feeling disillusioned, but still want gay shit?

Behold, my list of youtubers doing pop culture commentary I enjoy, in addition to the ones mentioned in the Hbomb video. A couple have links to my favorite videos of theirs, and the rest are listed in honorable mentions.

Lily Alexandre

Princess Weekes

Kat Blaque

Ro Ramdin

Sophie from Mars

CJ the X

Honorable mentions:

Jessie Gender

Strange Aeons

Nick diRamio

Jammidodger

Council of Geeks

The Leftist Cooks

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Hey, tumblr. Been a while. Have a casual art drop.

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Sadly relevant.

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"I'm not good at social media" - A story by me.

While I'm sitting here ruminating on my life (as I am wont to do), my thoughts drifted to the story I have told myself for at least ten years but absolutely longer than that:

I am not good at social media.

And, you know, It's kind of true, in so many ways. But it turns out I was very wrong, in so many other ways. So I thought I'd spill those thoughts out onto the internet to maybe help you if you find it while thinking "God, I'm so bad at social media".

First thing's first: If you're good at social, you're probably also good at social media. Despite the clue being in the name, it took me far too long to realise this. Do you find it easy to communicate with other people, to start conversations with strangers? Great! You might also find it pretty easy to use social media!

But if you're not good at social, social media can be daunting, even isolating. You post things, nobody answers, you feel like you're yelling into the uncaring void. And, really, you kind of are.

You see, people are more likely to be social with people they have a connection to - whether you're friends, or attend the same venue / event, or share a hobby / interest, or are famous enough that fans want to speak to you - they're much more likely to interact if they've got that link. It's like a cheat code for hopping over that first hurdle.

But if you're a private person (and I spent ages being very private due to various pain points in my life), hopping that first hurdle is like trying to leap a chasm. You have that human urge to find some sort of camaraderie with other human beings (even if you're an introvert, even if you're neurodiverse, sooner or later loneliness really bites us in the arse), but whenever you try, you're holding all your cards close to your chest while hoping to get a peek at other people's.

That's just not going to work very often. I say very often because sometimes you'll bump into another lil tortle and slowly but surely peel cards away from your chest to show one-another and it could become an amazing friendship. Great!

I'll tell you what does work, though.

You're probably going to hate it.

I fucking loathed it.

The answer is to let extroverts do their thing.

You see, extroverts actually love introverts. They fucking ADORE us! Every extrovert out there loves to have a whole pack of introverts, because we are fun, and interesting, and we know the weirdest shit, and they love helping us come out of our shells and have fun in life.

But we can find extroverts a bit weird, right? A bit scary? A bit intense? They wanna peek at our hand of cards?

Spoiler: They wanna peek at our hand of cards because they've peeked at a lot of hands of cards, and they have a whole mental catalogue of who holds what cards, and they YEARN to put us in touch with other people who might share some of those cards.

Extroverts get joy from helping us make friends.

And all we have to do is let them.

So how does this make you "better" at "social media"?

Well, at its heart, social media is great for talking to people you know. Keeping in touch with acquaintances and friends. Making new ones? Yeah, you can do that, it's not impossible, but chatting with ones you already have? Yeah, that's where it really excels. Forget all that guff about going viral, or getting likes or views or followers. Really what it's good for is chatting to people you met, or share interests with, or are friends with.

And if you let an extrovert lift you over that first hurdle, you are suddenly flying.

I often feel like I have nothing to say, or that nobody would be interested in hearing it, or that I will 100% be misunderstood (yeah hello previously-undiagnosed autism)... And it's actually just not true. I'd just convinced myself that it was true because I'd been hurt, I was holding my cards too close to my chest, I wasn't neurotypical (hello also to previously-undiagnosed ADHD), I was any number of things that somehow made me less worth interacting with.

I still often think I have nothing to say, despite chatting to friends for hours about the things I have to say, and despite writing books that feature all the things I have to say. And I think often that ADHD makes me think I've already said a thing, who wants to hear it again, or rephrased, or in a different format?

So I let the extroverts who approach me peek at my cards. I allow them to do what comes naturally to them. And, wouldn't you know it, I get to talk to people on social media now. I've been introduced to fellow introverts who love the things I love. My extroverts take good care of me when I go to conventions. I am doing that thing which we all know is horribly hard: making new friends as an adult.

I think "I'm not good at social media" was both true and an artificial roadblock at the same time. It prevented me from accepting the help that was being freely and honestly offered, it held me back from reaching out and making meaningful connections, and it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If you're not good at social media, why not give "letting extroverts into your life" a go? Yes, scary! Yes, a lil bit invasive-feeling! But we do know the things we're good at, right? So we just need to take a breath, and let other people do the things they're good at, too. 'Cause 99% of the time, they really just want everyone to have a good time.

I love you all!

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I would like everyone who thinks Chuck isn't sincere read just one of his Tinglers. Just one! Pick one at random, though I thoroughly recommend Pounded by the Pound: Turned Gay by the Socioeconomic Implications of Britain Leaving the European Union.

Then read Camp Damascus, because it's SO EXCEEDINGLY GOOD!

Maybe go to an event Chuck is at, and interact with him, or see how he takes the time to talk with each and every person to speak with him - not a quick "hi, bye", but actual conversation.

He has so much time and energy, and he gives it freely. He has gone TO BAT for all of us - neurodivergent, queer, young, old, thin, fat, straight, disabled, abled, you name it. He has stood up to ACTUAL FASCISTS for each and every one of us, and he still has the strength and love to carry on.

Chuck is kind, thoughtful, intelligent, and a force for good in this world.

reverse call out post

i have noticed that SOMETIMES it really bothers folks to discover i am sincere and not playing a character. that tinglers are deep artistic expression. i think it  because these few buckaroos are often kind and even politically left but had problematic ways just a few years back

these buckaroos are forced to confront their previous assumptions about neurodivergence and queerness, which is bound to happen as time trots on and cultural landscape evolves. but this sudden realization they have about themselves apparently MUST be ignored and pushed away

theres BIG TIME buckaroos on this very platform who publicly made fun of and gatekept my autism. these posts are STILL THERE. folks questioning my bisexuality. and these are buds who at one time worked with chuck and were pretending to ‘like me’ in way that i now see was irony

these are a previous generation of liberal ‘comedy forum’ buds who laugh and laugh at ‘ridiculous bad erotica’ and wrote as a money scheme. those who would later say with concern ‘chuck tingle is homophobic for making fun of queer erotica’. the same THEY might gleefully write

and i think their reaction is a way to deal with truth that THEY were doing these things ironically and have ABSOLUTELY NO CONCEPT that someone else couldve been creating joyful queer neurodivergent art during the same timeline with sincerity instead of irony.

so now as chuck gets taken more seriously they have to confront something. question of ‘wait, was i laughing at a real person the whole time? was i calling someone homophobic when in reality it is much more homophobic to MAKE that accusation, because queerness is not a monolith?’

old posts calling out chuck as fake, dehumanizing me, gatekeeping my place on spectrum of autism AND sexuality are still up. they wont be addressed because these folks cannot ever acknowledge they treated someones very existence as a joke. they will not admit THEY needed to grow

and honestly buckaroos, I FORGIVE THEM. nobody is dang perfect and the internet is swirling with irony poisoning. those folks on old forums were BATHING IN IT DAILY. it does not bother me because it is the past, but pondering on it during moments like this i am compelled to write

i do not bring this up to punish for past, but to hope buckaroos remember lesson in the future: you do not need to gatekeep. you do not need to make yourself the arbiter of others lifestyle and identity. you do not need to score online points as a way of proving your goodness.

proving love is complicated sometimes, and a big part or that complicated journey is accepting there are some unique buckaroos out there, buds who actually ENJOY making neurodivergent art and expressing their queerness in unique ways. who need time to learn THEMSELVES through art

it is my belief and suggestion that buds allow others this space. to accept them as they come. to TROT WITH THEM INTO THE FUTURE. thats a heck of a way to prove love is real. i think we can make this trot of sincerity together and DANG am i looking forward to it. LOVE IS REAL

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This is fucking excellent analysis, 13/10.

the thing i love about the alien movies is how blunt and honest they are about how like. rape is terrifying and traumatic, and unwanted pregnancy is terrifying and traumatic

and bc it's explored under a layer of allegory, it's not gendered in the same way

like these are films that are very explicitly about like. what if a thing wanted to penetrate and rape you, and use you to breed things, and it was terrifying to escape? and institutions and businesses didn't take it seriously? and what if it traumatised you deeply?

just the thought and the threat of it made it impossible for you to work, because it's inherently terrifying, and your thoughts are dismissed, your need for safety and assurance are dismissed, bc this monster, representing sexual violence, is a constant undercurrent?

a lot of horror movies are about how rape is scary but they're always like. made up with straight people's obsessive bullshit and they're all WEIRD about it. like it's about women's purity or the Gift or Miracle of childbirth and what if that was corrupted

whereas alien doesn't truck with that. outright, any unwanted pregnancy is monstrous and evil and violent and scary and it will kill you. it's intrinsically violent and terrifying, there's no way to pretend it's nice or miraculous or feminine or blah blah

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FlameCon 2023

Holy shit I had such an awesome time at FlameCon. This was my first, and I really hope it won't be my last!

I would've loved to be able to attend panels that I wasn't on, but I was also trying to staff my own table as much as I could, so the majority of my con experience was people coming to me one way or another, but it was such a great vibe. Queer spaces are so fucking wholesome.

Now I need to figure out how to get out of bed. I think my body might be broken lololol

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Ty!! Can u make new lists plz? I'm on my goal to support indie writers more now due to the strike, plus I'm tired of the same bestselling authors getting so much hype for crap when indie is so much more interesting

oh, dang, half of the writeblrs i follow are writing for leisure purposes only.

however, i know some but i don't follow them: @ashen-crest, @reeseweston, @radley-writes. (sorry for tagging) they have published books already as far as i know. to ppl who see this. . . feel free to mention published indie writers.^^

edit: i accidentally deleted the reblog to a response. . . and radley-writes is trad-pub, not indie. sorry for teh faux pas!

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I'm Chester Prior! I'm a Trans Author from the UK. My first book 'An End's Beginning' was published 26th of January 2023 and I still can't believe it! Follow along to see what else I write next 😆

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ARGH IT'S FLAMECON NEXT WEEK!!! Come see me, say hi! I'll be at table PR.5 all weekend, except when I'm in Panel Rooms!

Saturday: Panel Room C, 1PM: Finding the queer fiction you want to read.

Join us as we talk about all the places you can find those queer stories you're desperate to get your hands on!

Featuring: Chris Ceary, TJ Finecey, AK Faulkner, Greg Lockhard, SW Sondheimer, and David R. Slayton.

Sunday: Panel Room D, 2PM: Story Structure for Creators.

An introduction to the basics of story structure, regardless of medium. Featuring: me, hurrh!