#I'm so tired y'all

[yamisnuffles]

Every day I feel more of an urge to say I'm not taking sides in the divorce. They were both right about things and both wrong about others. Neither was trying to be malicious but they both hurt each other. It was never going to end well when they gave 6000 years of hiding and talking in code to overcome and just a few years to do it.

They both love each other. They both want what's best. And that's why it's beautiful and painful all at once.

[goldenamaranthe-blog]

This is what I picture Lucifer running around the hotel/hospital looks like when Charlie's going into labor.

[aihoshiino]

every single person completely ignoring Ai and Hikaru and hijacking the content of OnK 153 to use as propaganda for their preferred Aqua ship is obligated to provide me with financial compensation

[scales-n-art]

It's so sad when you try to explain to another member of the LGBTQ+ community what Asexuality really is (after they make a wrong statement assuming that it is just a lack of sexual desire), and then they dismiss you with a "You're not making any sense".

No honey, it's not making sense in your head, because you refuse to accept that the asexual experience is much more complex and diverse than "no want sexy times ever".

[gl1tt3r-gutz-and-r0b0tz-sl]

I love unisex shirts

MY HANDS ARE SO FUCKING TINY ISTG😭😭😭

[lamardeuse]

that happy feeling when you realize someone has recced a fic of yours and gotten it all kinds of nice new kudos and comments -

- which is seriously dampened when you find out the rec came from an account you blocked on twatter for amplifying death threats against a writer for...*checks notes*...not tagging the right ships in their fic

[duckprintspress]

I feel like I need to start talking more about how one of the big things that Duck Prints Press does is open the door to people who could never even get a foot in with traditional publishing or even most medium/"small" presses (we're a small press, but we're really more of a micro-press, I see places calling themselves small presses that are fucktons bigger than we are).

I've got some anecdotal evidence that people avoid the publications of Presses like this one because they think our writing and editing standards are lower - that we're the people who failed to make it in bigger presses because we weren't good enough - and that, consciously and unconsciously, gatekeeping biases on who is and isn't qualified to write lead people to support small presses less than they might support a more established organization.

So...y'all realize that there are a lot of reasons people wouldn't pursue working with trad pub, right? and I don't even mean ethical doubts, and I don't even mean "trad pub doesn't want to publish certain kinds of stories," though those are definitely factors - we're able to give more space to play with themes and genres because we don't focus solely on "is this marketable" as a sales rubric.

But that's not what I consider the biggest difference.

Hi, I'm Claire, and I own Duck Prints Press, and I have a massive history of clinical depression, including being suicidal in the past. I'm a great writer, and I'm not just tooting my own horn, I've got almost 150,000 kudos on AO3 that suggest that just maybe, I know wtf I'm doing stringing words into sentences. I don't need a big press to tell me I'm competent, I already know that. What I do need is to not end up suicidal again. If I face the gauntlet of rejections that's supposedly "required" as part of gatekeeping trad pub, it will do severe damage to my mental health, and probably destroy my ability to write as depression-induced self-deception eats through what I know to be true.

THAT'S what's different about a micropress like ours. Yes, our founding vision was to work with fans, but the vast majority of the people who work with us have mental illnesses, physical disabilities, neurodivergence issues, and/or other "meatsuits are terrible actually" issues that strict publishing environments can't or, really, won't accommodate. We say "fuck that noise" and go out of our way to accommodate people, granting extensions and ensuring everyone can work on their own schedule. We're able to be very flexible, which means we bring in a lot of people whose incredible skills are overlooked, ignored, looked down on, kept out of, more mainstream publishing options.

If someone has trouble with deadlines? We still work with them.

If someone has an illness that flares irregularly and unpredictably? We still work with them.

If someone needs frequent reminders? We still work with them.

If someone works slowly because they can only do a little at a time? We still work with them.

If someone needs extra time, additional support, special software...we have thus far been able to accommodate literally everyone who has come to us.

As long as the creators who work with us keep communicating and keep showing at least a little progress, we will find a way to make things work, because we want to be as inclusive as possible, and because we know that most people with these challenges, no matter how good they are at writing or art or whatever it is they do with us, would face many more hardships to have these opportunities with a larger, more strict organization.

Just, every time I see indications that people think we're "less" because we're not HarperCollins or Penguin or Tor or something, I get so angry, because it shows so little understanding of how gatekeepy and especially how ableist trad pub is, and I wish more of the people who are thinking things like that would recognize that their behavior is, essentially, snobbery.

And to be clear I'm not saying "people with these challenges never get trad pubbed," that's clearly ridiculous and untrue, but I am saying, people with these challenges shouldn't have to be The Most Exceptional just to have a chance, and we deserve to have a place that will accommodate us instead of having to perform health, perform neurotypicalness, etc. just to succeed. We deserve to not have one flare-up potentially ruin our careers, and we deserve the same opportunities and respect as people who choose other directions.

Between trad pub, small press, and self-publishing, no one route is inherently "superior." Backing one over another doesn't guarantee you're only going to get good stories, or good editing. Trad pub publishes utter schlock sometimes, and self-publishing is fantastic sometimes, and some small presses do have lax standards, and some small presses are exceptional, and I feel like maybe people just really don't understand why places like Duck Prints Press try to exist - it's because we're trying to create spaces that meet us where we are, instead of focusing on rigid conformity, marketability, hard rules, etc.

The only way we'll get a diversity of voices in publishing is by supporting a diversity of publishers. The only way we'll be able to make space for everyone is by supporting the places that carve out new spaces to fit those who didn't fit elsewhere.

I wish more people would understand what we do and why we're here, and that folks would at least try our publications before assuming that we're "like big press but worse at writing/arting/editing."

Idk. I'm just tired, and sick, and still working even tho I'm sick, and frustrated with how hard it is to get anywhere, so here, have a rant I probably shouldn't post.

(this post brought to you by me seeing Chuck Tingle - entirely reasonably, to be clear, Chuck Tingle is awesome and I support him entirely! - celebrating the Camp Damascus release to thousands of notes, and Tor posting a poll about some Locked Tomb short story and getting 1300+ votes, and how I have to claw our way out of the background tumblr noise to get 100+ notes even on our biggest releases)

[sconnie-doesnt-know]

Friends

My life has become such a mess in nearly every aspect. I'm not in dangerous or dire situations, but my gods have things taken a turn. To summarize - marriage is hard, divorce is hard, raising special needs kids is hard, living away from family is hard, working in a school is hard, taking care of a house is hard, etc.

All that to say, i don't even feel like I've got energy for scrolling. So, I'm taking a little break. I still try to pop in and queue a couple simple things, but I'm in no place to read or write anything. I miss it all already and have seen so many lovely posts that I just don't have the energy to interact with.

I'll be back in a few weeks with a long queue of responses and reactions to all your wonderful things. ❤️

[pkrosche]

Major first world problem vibes, but why is it whenever I've got the time and energy to be creative (reading, writing, arithmetic, fiber crafts) I just...don't want to.

BUT

When I'm super busy with work or condo shit I've got all the ideas and all the excitement to just fucking ✨️make things✨️ and it's a struggle to get my actual work™️ done.

[Insert the "I'm tired of this grandpa" gif from the cinematic masterpiece Holes]

[piedoesnotequalpi]

I have more followers than I did this time last year, so a seasonal reminder from your slightly curmudgeonly neighborhood Jew that Christian "seders" are cultural appropriation and entirely inappropriate to put on

(if you're not Jewish and your Jewish friend invites you to their seder, that's fine and I hope you have a good time! Fresh fruit is usually a safe bet re: contributing food)

[newbabyfly]

Hi, I'm just going to be posting random whatever here now because the social media wars are wearing me out. I just wanna share art, chat and meet with people and have a good time. Yet:

Twitter keeps finding new lows to sink to. Reddit I only lurk even when it's not sabotaging itself. Hive exploded figuratively and then literally. People are SO resistant to joining mastodon for some reason despite all its good things. Insta has always been a cess pool of tag spammers, influencer culture and art theft. Some of that is spilling over into Threads plus their atrocious decision about how you can't curate your timeline. And blue sky is Blockchain based, no thanks.

But Tumblr? Tumblr gives no shits Keep being classy, ilu!

[dadrielle]

What is the harm Imogen does with her powers? Show it to me, beyond the bounds of regular dnd combat and the moment of blowing up the block in Bassuras, which was an outside forcing pushing her to the extreme, show it to me, without making assumptions that aren't supported by the text of the show, show it to me.

Show me how she's more a weapon and deserves to be treated as such more than any other dnd PC. Show me where she acts entitled to peoples' thoughts, show me where she is this selfish manipulative hypocrite that doesn't think about how she affects others.

[iguessyouregonnamissthepantyraid]

hoo man i'm feeling very "and it's only fucking tuesday" today

[tiefighter]

able bodied people do not understand that chronic pain is still there even when you have to do something difficult or even just get up and go to the bathroom and the fact is, honestly, that you have to get up and do things anyway even though it hurts like a bitch because the alternative is laying down and dying which would make everyone sad.

[discluded]

.

[aparticularbandit]

finished the second write of the chapter i was on and then got two more done, so i've got two more left in the sigh rewrite.

taking a break for digimon emerald.