#but ill try to upload here a bit more regularly now^^

[vampireantihero]

It's May Day. (Newsletter)

This year feels like it’s flying by. Buckle up, y’all; this is going to be a slightly longer newsletter, so I hope you all stick with me.

It’s May 1st; and it’s snowing here in Wisconsin. To be honest, that feels like the perfect metaphor of this year for me. Winter has been hanging on to the year like a heavy weight; far past its time, and bad for the things that are trying to grow, bitter and cold, and refusing to die. Spring is trying to establish itself hard, and the flowers are in bloom despite the snow. This year has been a lot of shakeups, stepping back, and reassessing for me. Most of the first quarter of the year was spent caring for my mental health, and now I am working hard on putting together a new portfolio in a different facet of my art career. I’d love to do illustrative work for companies and not just private sector commission-based work. I’d also love to work on videogames, or maybe films or television as a concept artist (I like creatures and environments best). So, since the beginning of April, I’ve been revamping old stories and rebuilding the worlds in order to be clearer, and drawing concept art for the environments and characters.

I’ve been working quite a lot, and have forced myself to reassess that too. I think now I’ve found a bit better of a balance and better know my limits, so I can stop myself from doing too much at once. If I connect back to the metaphor I started this newsletter with regarding the weather, the “winter” would be my unhealthy work ethic and tendency to try to please everyone and be totally available despite my own energy levels. For the past few months, I have been giving myself time to breathe and being less available in online spaces, because I’ve been extremely tired. I’ve lost friends and connections because of this, and I do feel guilty for being less around, but also I recognize that if I keep going at the pace I was, I’ll make myself ill the way I did in college and I don’t want to do that again. It would also (and has in the past) make my content suffer, and you all deserve quality from me.

Plans Going Forward

As it stands, I’m distancing myself from streaming because I just do not have the time to give to it. I may still pop up from time to time for art streams, but I am focusing on my art and career change this year. You can still see my art in the discord, in social media spaces, and on youtube. I’ll also still be keeping up with this newsletter, social media, and the Youtube uploads. I’ll likely also start working on story-based content to upload to Youtube, though I don’t know how far down the line that’s going to be. And I’ll still have commissions open, and I’m working to get myself organized enough to offer my services over on Fiverr and Upwork.

Once my portfolio is completed, I think I may give creating the comics one more try. I feel like I’m on stronger footing with some of them now that I’m establishing the visual assets a bit better for my portfolio. Though this time, I won’t start publishing it (or even announce it) before I have a significant amount of the pages done, and am far enough into the story that I have quite a decent buildup of content so that I can post regularly. I’m also going to be revisiting the tarot concept I started creating back in 2021; redraw the two cards I’ve got done and go back to concepting the rest of the cards.

Portfolio

The first portfolio piece I finished went well! It’s also been added to a concept art contest in one of the art discords I’m in. Here is the drawing, as well as some backstory on some of the characters:

Setting: This story is a historical fiction, in which the humans are in a religious monarchy called the Abbey. Inhuman and humanoid creatures need to hide at night in order to avoid being captured and either used for their powers or murdered by the Abbey and the human settlements surrounding them. In this world, spirits exist, but they have to be bound to something in order to inhabit the physical plane.

Characters (and backstory):

1. Ghost. Our protagonist, a reluctant hero. Previously human, but has been dead so long that he has long forgotten his original name. He was sickly as a human, and learned how to project his spirit from his body as a child in order to escape the constant pain he was in. One day as he was astral projecting, his body died. Desperate to find a way back to life, he contacted his family; only to be betrayed by them as they tried to capture him and sell him to a High Warlock within the Abbey. Ever since, he has been looking for a way to bring the Abbey down. His tether is the clay pot he carries, faithfully made for him and repaired by his friend, Hyacinth.

2. Hyacinth. Our Tinkerer/Support character. Hyacinth is also a spirit, though she died way more recently than Ghost-- having been murdered whilst praying in front of an Abbey altar. When she died, her spirit was so terrified to disappear that she inhabited a nearby gargoyle. In life, she was a tinkerer, and in death, she was is much the same -- she spends her time looking for ways to enhance her party's gear, and to strengthen both her and Ghost's tethers to their physical objects. She is the only one in the party that cannot participate in combat-- because of the nature to her tether to her gargoyle and her death circumstances, if she takes a significant amount of damage, her soul will disconnect from her body.

3. Silas. Our Mage/Necromancer. Not much is known about Silas. He doesn't speak much, and chooses to help because he likes the spirits of the group. At first glance, he looks like a human in a plague doctor costume, but if it's too light or you look a little too long, his mask starts to look a little too real...

4. Vesper. Our Tank/Heavy Hitter. She's a vampire type creature from a long line of reclusive vampires. Though, her species is fruititarian like many natural bat species. Because of the expansion of humans into her family's forested spaces, her family was hunted and killed for their pelts. Devastated at their loss, she traveled to find a master who would teach her to fight and learned how to wield a scythe really effectively. She joined our squad when Hyacinth found her, injured, in the forest, and nursed her back to health. She heard what Ghost was planning, and decided to help them with their journey.

They are from one of the three projects I’m developing for my portfolio; they may be popping up from time to time as I go through and create more of these worlds. If you’re interested, they’re a set of characters that shows up in one of my vampire stories that the actual main character of the comic spends a good deal of time with.

Theatre (And Other Life Updates)

As you all know if you’ve been keeping up with the newsletters, the past month or so has been extremely busy both on weekends and week days. The theatre I’m a part of has been working hard on painting our more permanent space for the theatre. We’re working in conjunction with a local-to-us church in order to have this performance space. Me, my husband, and another member of the theatre have spent the last month between rehearsals and after work painting this room, and it’s finally done. And it looks so good!

We’re really excited to have this space. And, I’m really happy to no longer be painting, though I’m proud of us for putting in the work in this room. We’ll be announcing our next play very soon. I’ve been making props for the last few weeks (in fact, you can kind of see one in the bottom of the 3rd picture — a chunk of styrofoam I’m painting to look like a busted piece of concrete) and, have quite a few more things to create. One of the coolest aspects of this play is that we’ll be performing it in pride month, and it has a lot to do with LGBTQIA+ history; some of the props I’ve been creating have been exploring the culture surrounding these topics and it’s been a lot of fun! But, some of it is also very heavy. I’m also assistant directing this show, and it’s been interesting to learn how directing works.

All in all, I’m almost caught up with the stuff that I’m behind on, such as the commission terms switching over into the shop, and I should have more to share with you all soon. I’m hoping to have Youtube stuff done earlier as well, so that I can give earlier access than a single day for Ko-Fi members. I’m sorry for the delay on these things, but with the painting done in the theatre room and most of the props we need finished, I should be a bit more productive during my week day, and a bit less busy on the weekends.

Lastly, I want to take a moment to mention the Discord. Today the newsletter is a bit late because I took a little bit of time to rearrange the Discord and make it less Twitch-oriented. Now, it’s much more art and content creation centric, so if you want a place to talk about art, content creation, or just hang out with our growing community, check out the discord here. I also ask for feedback here, and you can sometimes see things earlier than they’re released there as well. If you’re a Ko-Fi member or subbed in some way, then that’s also where a lot of the rewards get put as well. If you join, just make sure that you let us know why you’re there (Check the #start-here channel.)

So, even though this was a large update, a lot of it is positive. If I’m going back to the metaphor at the beginning of this email, then I can confidently say that I’m shaking off the winter of bad habits, self-doubt, and overworking to burnout. Now, I’m doing my best to let the spring take over and let me grow; as a person, as an artist, and as a worker. And with that, I’m signing off. I hope that you all have a fantastic week. Remember to take care of yourselves, drink your water, and do what you can. I love you all.

(Friendly reminder: You can sign up to get this newsletter directly to your mailbox by subscribing here.)

[cactuskhee]

pursuit

[avaantares]

Obligatory Vacation Roundup

Unless you follow me on Twitter, where I was posting Broadway photos and videos pretty steadily, you probably couldn't tell (I had 300 posts in my Tumblr queue; who even posts in real time here?) but I've spent the past week in NYC, taking my FIRST VACATION IN ALMOST TWO YEARS! This is the first time I'd been out of the state since I slid in just under the lockdown wire returning from Egypt/Jordan in February 2020.

Normally I try to spend a few days in New York every year or so, picking up the latest Broadway shows, but the pandemic kind of put the kibosh on that, along with all other travel. And this trip was not without its difficulties: Due to the bad storms and gale-force winds blanketing New England last Saturday, JFK was temporarily shut down when we were supposed to be flying in. Our plane got diverted twice, sat on the tarmac in Boston for three hours, and ended up landing more than four hours late. Consequently, we missed part of the first act of the first play we had tickets for. Fortunately I'd seen that show a couple of times before, so I knew how it started, but it was still frustrating. We also lost one member of our party, who came down seriously ill two days into the trip and couldn't leave her hotel room.

We originally had tickets to six shows for this year's Broadway blitz, but one production had to close abruptly because of a COVID infection in the cast (RIP, Chicken & Biscuits). I did get to see the other five: I watched my high school friend in the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular (she's been a Rockette for over a decade, but I'd only gotten to see her perform once before), saw (most of) The Play That Goes Wrong for a third time, saw Freestyle Love Supreme's show for the second time, and picked up Moulin Rouge (absolutely stunning production!) and A Sherlock Carol (an off-Broadway Arthur Conan Doyle/Charles Dickens mashup that runs exactly as you'd expect from the title). I have a few (sanctioned) videos that I might post, if I can get them to upload. (Photos above were taken/shared with permission.)

I also spent a day at the Met (always worth it!), enjoyed some spectacular autumn colors in Central Park, and for the first time ever, actually went to Liberty and Ellis Islands. I've been traveling to NYC semi-regularly for more than 20 years and I'd never gone out to the statue, but now I've done the Official Tourist Thing. Took photos from the pedestal, which is as high as you can go now that they've closed the crown.

I also hit Nintendo New York for some shopping, consumed approximately my own body weight in delicious food at the Bryant Park Winter Village, and -- most surreal of all -- WALKED IN for immediate seating at Ellen's Stardust Diner during their grand reopening. I've never been in Manhattan when there was less than a two-hour wait for a table there!

I completely neglected NaNoWriMo the entire time I was traveling, but I made up for it with a multi-hour stint last night. At least I'm back up to par, though I've lost a bit of my lead. Thank goodness I decided to be a rebel this year, and wasn't trying to come up with completely new material.

Anyway, I'm back home now (much to my dog's delight), and will resume adding posts to my way-too-long queue for the next few days before I take off again for Chicago TARDIS, which is next week.

Phew!

[halalhyungwon]

check-in tag ♡ @okaysign 💕

1. why did you choose your url?

bc hyungwon <3

2. any side blogs? if you have them name them and why you have them.

i have a handful but I don't use all of them that much

@jaeyooniverse - sf9, created mostly bc i wanted a place to spam jaeyoon LMAO other the main im on this one the most

@dawonlog - dawon update blog, i fell off a bit bc I got busy and also just don't like trying to keep up with everything, but I missed it so im kinda back to using it now

@pynkwonu - pink/aes blog. used to also post/reblog fics there but haven't really done that in a long while

@daze-like-this - another aes blog. still not entirely sure how to describe it but I think it's nice lol

@svnshine - another main, an aes blog & also a space for more Islamic posts. I tend to go on there when I get tired of this one or just need a clearer headspace but still wanna mindlessly scroll thru tumblr? lol honestly I think it's been almost a year since I when on this one tho

@4-matcha - ..for matcha 💀 idk I just wanted to make a matcha blog. I used to post/upload regularly but now it's a miracle if I reblog anything there once a month

@wonufleur - for art/gfx, resources/references,,, never used it regularly tho

@wordshenanigans - langblr, language learning resources, don't really use this anymore esp since i dont follow a lot of active langblogs but on occasion I come across a post that id like to save for reference so I put it here

@lqvav for vav screencaps and occasionally updates,, dead tho;-;

@jihoonloveblog for jihoon 🥰 unofficially closed, we haven't posted in forever lol

@smilesf9 for smiley sf9 content,, look i really wish I could've actually kept up with this i kinda wanna try to bring it back 😭

@sanqyeonn officially closed lol my tbz blog which I used to be on as much as my sf9 blog sdkhdjdh

@hotdog-guy i made this mostly as a joke but for my little brother bc he used to really like the hotdog guy meme so I'd keep posts there to share with him

i also admin and am a member for some nets idk if that counts for this and ive already said so much so ill stop there lmao

3. how long have you been on tumblr?

I made my blog in 2014 but didn't really start using it til 2015

4. do you have a queue tag?

I dont really queue on here and when I do im not consistent I don't always tag. when I do tag I just put #queue or #(this is a queue)

my tbz blog had such cute queue tags🥺 and my sf9 blog has a good handful of tags too

5. why did you start your blog in the first place?

it was a joke lol I told my friend we should make a blog together and my first url was actually a mashup of our names

6. why did you choose your icon/pfp?

bc hyungwon <3

7. why did you choose your header?

bc hyungwon <3

8. what’s your post with the most notes?

probably that clip of vernon going YES

9. how many mutuals do you have?

I've never counted lol but last time I did a follow forever thing I think there was over 30 and that was a few years ago so I guess it's more now ?

10. how many followers do you have?

800 something

11. how many people do you follow?

1070 i think

12. have you ever made a shitpost?

lmao probably

13. how often do you use tumblr each day?

too much lmao i should uninstall the app again

14. did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? who won?

i don't think so? I remember someone started arguing with me/complaining on one of my posts but I ignored them lmaoo

15. how do you feel about ‘you need to reblog this’ posts?

I usually end up scrolling if a post says that unless I think the info actually is something to be shared. but then I usually try to look for a post that presents the info in a way I actually like lol

16. do you like tag games?

yes !

17. do you like ask games?

yes !

18. which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

kkkkkk @fanaas is the first that comes to mind but yeah like you said there's a diff btwn popular/famous. i think a handful of my moots are popular at least within their fandoms

19. do you have a crush on a mutual?

same liz, a friend crush !

20. tags?

ummm no I don't think I'll tag anyone. but thank you for tagging me !!! 🥰❤❤

[spenciebabie]

Your blog is really inspiring me to start writing again, but I'm not sure how to get started. Do you have any tips for sharing my work or becoming more successful in general?

i answered something like this a while ago on my main so ill pop that advice here too 🥰:

honestly it takes a bit of time, not that im even there! some of the things that ive found helpful are:

- tags: lots of them, i try not to mislead i.e. not tagging any other characters from cm in a solely spencer fic, or not tagging smut where there is none etc. (take a look at the tags I use on my one-shots over on my main for an idea, or just copy a bunch of em)

- time of day: im in the GMT time zone so things i post quite late at night in the 1am-4am bracket to hit the majority american people on here in the evening

- consistency: this is a bit rich coming from me who uploads when i wanna, but posting regularly really helps, if people see your stuff often they’re more likely to read it, or at least i would be

- formatting: i know i always prefer to read things that are well formatted, i.e. proper title, summary, warnings, etc. along with a ‘read more’ break. if you don’t have one and it’s longer than even a few hundred words, no one will want to reblog that, even if they like it, they won’t want to put it on everyone’s dashboards if it’s a mile long!

- links: having a decent navigation system on your blog and on each fic post (especially if it’s a series) makes it so much easier for someone to find more of your work if they stumble across something of yours that they like!

i can’t think of much else right now, but i hope this helped, this fandom always needs new and exciting writers and there’ll never be a shortage of people to read your work, especially if you’re excited about it!

and i didn’t mention it before but obviously good writing helps, like proper grammar and punctuation. as well as splitting it up into paragraphs! (i’ve stopped reading things because they were just one big wall of text, it becomes so difficult to read so quickly).

and if english isn’t your native language, or you’re not confident in your spelling/grammar abilities then you can always reach out to another reader or writer for help and get it beta’d.  

i hope this helped, i’m so glad you’re excited to write again! that’s amazing, i can’t wait to read whatever you come up with ❤️

[danidoesathing]

ok! i’ve got the beginning and end written, it’s the middle that i need to write still, and it’s disgustingly sweet (i’ll post it to ao3 when i’ve got it finished bc i refuse to upload an unfinished work). also lemme know if you wanna read the ending as well, i wasn’t sure (it, too, is fluffy to hell and back)

Chapter 1:

Tim hated this. He hated it all. He’d rather be anywhere else in the world if he could, he could’ve been at home in his room with his laptop and Jay to talk to, but instead he was here with his mom who thought that she had any right to his life after leaving it for good (when he was twelve years old in a mental hospital too, who did that to their child?) and apparently forgot why she did, since she wouldn’t shut up. He’d had enough by the third hour of the “vacation” she took him to, and maybe if he hadn’t hated pity as much as he did, especially from the one that caused him to be pitied, he would have enjoyed the five-star hotel stay more, rather than feel like he was stuck in one long panic attack. He had managed to get away, though. He excused himself to the bathroom and felt grateful she had allowed him that much. He didn’t pay too much attention to the walk to the bathroom - he was trying to breathe in and out regularly and count to ten and pay attention to what he felt and all the other coping methods they taught him in the ten years he spent in the psych ward. He only realized there was someone else in the bathroom when the person (Tim assumed they were male, this was the men’s bathroom) sighed and firmly said, “I need more time, you can’t just ruin my entire life to gain a few weeks.” 

Brian had really been looking forward to the week he’d spend on his own - privacy and being alone weren’t really concepts that his family understood, and it had only gotten worse when the marriage proposal came. He’d tried to explain countless times that he was gay and that he would rather marry a frog than the fake, manipulative, entitled, rude, homophobic, racist, bitchy, but most importantly rich girl his parents had chosen for him to marry. As if he’d spend more than a minute within a five-mile radius of the piece of shit who wanted his money and his name, nothing else. When the call from his mother (Brian had stopped calling Carol Thomas his mom years ago, when she first started denying his issues and instead punished him for things he couldn’t control) came, he escaped to the bathroom since it was closer than his room, even though it was a lot less private. He didn’t think anything would go wrong, it wasn’t busy at the restaurant and even if someone entered, they would probably leave him alone to suffer in his misery. 

Brian hadn’t noticed the tired man who slunk into the bathroom at first, but when he saw the defeated slump of his shoulders and how utterly exhausted his eyes looked, his mother demanded that he come home the next day. He was pretty sure that everyone within the state could hear his sigh, and he thought about how he had gotten so sick of his own family that this was the case with every conversation he had with them. After his final compromise, he hung up without saying goodbye or waiting for Carol to respond. He knew what she would have said anyway, was far too familiar with the same conversation.

Tim hesitated, trying to figure out what to do - he couldn’t just leave and pretend he’d heard nothing, but he didn’t know this man, like, at all, so he also couldn’t try to comfort him or ask him what was wrong, because something clearly was. 

“Family problems,” Brian said into the silence, which was probably just a few seconds long but to Tim’s anxiety-ridden mind it was a lifetime of waiting. 

Tim smiled slightly. “I’m familiar.” 

Brian made an interested noise.  “You tell me about your life, and I tell you ‘bout mine, alright?” 

He understood what sort of deal this was, he was used to therapists and doctors and psychiatrists trying to take his brain apart and figure out what was wrong with him, to try to fix him (or that’s what they said, but he wasn’t sure there weren’t any other reasons behind their words). He despised being treated like a wild animal who could lose his mind and attack at any moment, with a single wrong move. They had treated him like he was dangerous and they pitied him for it, but Brian, he hadn’t looked scared of Tim. He hadn’t acted like he was trying to play it safe - rather, he had tried to make Tim feel comfortable by making himself as vulnerable as Tim was. He realized that he didn’t want to strangle Brian. I’ve spent so much time with psychologists that I’ve started acting like one, analyzing everything and everyone’s actions. Tim laughed internally at the thought. 

“Sure. I don’t have anything else to do anyway,” He responded, and told Brian about his current predicament with his mother, leaving out the parts in which he was at the hospital - he just said that he had a chronic illness and his mom had left him at 12 when he had been in the hospital for four years. 

“Shit, dude, that really sucks. She doesn’t have any right to your life now, you know that right?” Brian said at the end of Tim’s story, after a short pause to take it all in. “I’m going to sound like a whiny white asshole with my story now,” he added. Tim shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. After all, my life doesn’t invalidate yours,” he said, and the corners of Brian’s mouth twitched up. “I guess you’re right,” he said, and started explaining how his parents wanted him to marry a rich woman high up the ladder of status in the elite community he was born into, and Tim could feel himself tensing up and his mind starting to buzz. 

Brian noticed that the man in front of him was looking a little off, and stopped midway through describing that he only had the next week or so to find his soulmate, otherwise he’d be stuck with someone he hated for the rest of his life. “Hey, are you okay?” He asked softly, and the other man (Brian only just realized that he knew this man’s life story but not his name, and mentally reprimanded himself for not introducing himself and asking his name) took a shuddering breath. 

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said, and Brian didn’t call him out on his bullshit. “Please continue, I’m way too invested in your life now.” He smiled, and Brian laughed. 

“Alright, but first, you have to tell me your name because I’ve realized we haven’t introduced ourselves and it’s killing me,” Brian said.

“My name’s Tim Wright.”

“Brian Thomas. Nice to meet you, I guess,” Tim rolled his eyes at Brian’s antics, but Brian knew he was amused, as evidenced by Tim’s light snort. Tim told him to get on with the story, (a bit like a whining child, but in a good way, Brian thought) and he responded with, “Okay, okay, I’ll get to it then.”

“There isn’t much left,” Brian warned. When Tim nodded his understanding, he continued from where he had stopped, and when he had finished talking about his current fucked-up situation, the other man had been shocked into silence. 

“You have to be kidding me,” he finally said. “There’s no way that that shit’s real and actually happening to you.” 

Brian shook his head and sighed. “I wish I was, but nope! My parents are just assholes who are outta their minds.” 

Tim thought for a second - he had to do something, but he didn’t know what he could to be able to help. He chewed on his lip, and after a minute or so, had an idea that he thought could possibly work. 

“How about we pretend that we’re soulmates?” he asked Brian, who looked taken aback but also as if he was considering Tim’s proposition. Tim was about to backtrack and apologize, maybe say something along the lines of or we can just not do that if you don’t want to I’m sorry for bringing it up you must think I’m so creepy and weird and can we just ignore this ever happened?  

But then Brian nodded thoughtfully, and said, “Actually, I can imagine how that would work. I’d call my parents and tell them that I’ve already found my soulmate and that I want to spend more time with you, and you’d talk to them in order to convince them further if they don’t believe me. I already know I’m gay, so my soulmate is definitely a man, so your voice being a guy’s wouldn’t be a problem and when I find my actual soulmate, if they sound different to you, we could just blame it on the phone being weird through the call. We could say that we wanna spend a few weeks getting to know each other before I leave, and during that time I could find my real soulmate. If I can’t, then we can come up with scenarios in which I’d need to stay longer until I do. Yeah, actually, this is a really good idea, Tim.” 

“Uh, really? I mean, thanks,” Tim said, still reeling from Brian’s rambling. “How are we going to do this? Do you like, I don’t know, wanna call your parents and I can talk to them?”

“Yeah, sure, give me a sec,” Brian fished in his pocket for his phone and Tim internally panicked while Brian called his mother. He would have had a panic attack, but before he could truly get worked up, Brian was already talking. 

“Hey mother, guess what happened - no, you’ll never guess - I found my soulmate! And he’s a guy like I said he would be! Oh, you don’t want my soulmate to be a man? Well, unfortunately, apparently the universe doesn’t share your homophobic views - oh come on, would I lie about this? You don’t believe me? Fine, I guess I’ll have to prove it. Mother, meet Tim.”

“Hello Mrs. Thomas, it’s nice to meet you,” Tim said, and Brian couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen, and he didn’t want Tim to be there for it. He hated his parents, and the thought of them hurting Tim in any way was unbearable. Wait, what? I met him like 15 minutes ago, why do I care so much about him? He was going to figure out his feelings regarding Tim, but then he saw how he was getting anxious, so he decided to intervene now and unpack his shit later. 

Grabbing the phone from Tim, he told his parents that he and Tim wanted to get to know each other by staying at the hotel for longer, and when they objected, he simply reminded them that he was his own person and as an adult, he could do whatever the fuck he wanted to do, slowly getting more pissed off with every word that his parents said. Knowing that he would snap if he listened to more of their bullshit, he hung up after letting them know he would stay for a few more weeks in Ohio, though probably in a motel (he wasn’t rich enough to spend weeks at a five-star hotel). He looked at Tim. “Are you okay? You looked pretty freaked out there, and I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have put that much pressure on-”

“No, no, you’re fine. I guess I just felt overwhelmed, sort of? I don’t really know why I felt so anxious, but I’ve been dealing with anxiety for, like, 16 years. I should be used to it by now,“ Tim assured Brian. "Plus, it worked, didn’t it? they weren’t happy, but they seem to have believed us, so you can stay for a few more weeks and try to find your soulmate. Actually, why are you searching in Ohio and not Alabama anyway? Aside from the obvious reason, of course.” he added. 

Brian frowned. “I don’t really know, I guess this just felt closer to my soulmate. You know how your mark is supposed to like, tingle and shit?” Tim nodded, and Brian continued. “Yeah, I guess that’s why - Ohio feels like I’m closer to finding them than in Alabama." 

"Yeah, I think I get it. It feels the same for me too, if I think about it - my mark feels weird and that’s never happened before, so I must be doing something right,” Tim said after thinking for a while, and Brian laughed.

“Hey, who knows, maybe we’ll find our soulmates in here, and maybe we’ll find them at around the same time - that would be so cool! You know, I think I rather like you, Tim. I’d like to be friends - if you wanna, of course,” Brian said, and Tim answered with an affirmative. 

“Well, you’re pretty cool yourself Brian Thomas, and I would indeed like to be friends, but I really gotta go. Emily’s probably going out of her mind, wondering where her son she found after 12 years went to,” Tim joked, and they exchanged numbers. 

“ So, I still have a week or so left, which means I’ll probably see you around the hotel and shit. Bye Tim,” Brian called as he left the bathroom, and Tim waved back before following.

  Chapter 2:

Brian walked back to his room, since he had already finished his dinner, and contemplated the last hour. He had gone from having to fight his parents for less than a week to find his soulmate to being given permission (well, sort of. Brian thought it counted if they had always encouraged him to do something until it actually got to the point in which said thing would be applicable - they couldn’t just change their minds because they were homophobic assholes) for almost a month doing whatever he wanted wherever he wanted to. 

Of course, there was also Tim. He didn’t quite understand why he liked Tim already, or why Tim had helped him, but he knew that he didn’t regret it at all. Plus, they were friends now, and he felt that they would only get closer with time. He’d arrived at his room by this point, and after entering, he decided that he wouldn’t get anything else done today. Within minutes he was in bed - no point pretending to be functional when there was nobody around to see it, and plus, he was very sleep-deprived and he should probably go to sleep to fix that. 

Since he’d been lying still with his eyes closed for over an hour, Brian believed that he was justified in going on his phone. However, once he opened his phone, he realized that he didn’t really have anything to do, and in a moment of boredom and apathy for his future, he decided to text Tim.

  savingprivatebrian [23:42]: Hey tim

  savingprivatebrian [23:42]: it’s me brian

  savingprivatebrian [23:42]: if you couldn’t tell

  He was surprised to see that Tim was online, and soon enough, he saw Tim’s typing bubble pop up.

  Tim [23:44]: yeah 

Tim [23:44]: i saved your number

  Tim [23:44]: anyway whats up

  Brian smiled because of course Tim was awake, he totally seemed like the type of person who’s constantly tired and sleep-deprived.

  savingprivatebrian [23:44]: nothing

  savingprivatebrian [23:45]: i just couldnt sleep

  Tim [23:45]: i get that

Tim [23:46]: insomnias a bitch

  savingprivatebrian [23:46]: yep

savingprivatebrian [23:47]: so do you wanna just talk until we can sleep

  Tim [23:47]: please

He laughed at Tim’s response, and settled comfortably into his nest of pillows (perks of five-star hotels) to talk to Tim.

In the end, they both agreed to go to sleep at around 3:30 in the morning, after having texted for almost four hours. If he wasn’t so sleepy, he might’ve wondered why conversation was so easy when he was talking to Tim when he normally wouldn’t be able to even form sentences with people he knew as little as he knew Tim. Instead, though, he placed his phone on the bedside drawer, rolled over, and fell asleep within minutes, still with a little smile playing on his lips.

  Chapter 3:

  A week later, Tim’s mother left to go back to work, and Tim promised her that he’d come to visit every now and then. He was surprised to find that he was planning to keep that promise - after his mom explained her reasons, he learned that she hadn’t left because she wanted to, only because she had to. Her life had been easier without him, and that realization hurt. He had held her back her entire life, and he really couldn’t blame her for having done whatever she could to get rid of the reason she couldn’t be happy. He was over it, though. He had had more than a decade to come to terms with the fact that everyone he cared about would leave him eventually, when they realized that he would always be problematic, that he would never get better, and that he would always drag them down. Why would anyone stay with that?

Then came was Brian. Tim knew that he was falling, falling hard, but he also knew that Brian didn’t feel the same - they both wanted to find their soulmates, and even if Brian did like someone as fucked up as Tim, when he found his soulmate, he’d just leave. 

He had told Brian about his mom and how he felt, as well as why he was in a hospital for 10 years, and Brian’s only reaction was to hug him (they didn’t notice that no parts of their skin had made contact, Tim would later realize) and telling him that he’d never leave. That was a bigger deal than Brian realized, and he had broken down crying, which caused Brian to start crying too. They had spent about 2 hours talking about their problems, and Tim left Brian’s room feeling better than he had for over a month. They had only been friends for a few days at that point, but there was no denying that they had a connection - they were already so, so close (and if Tim wanted them to be even closer, well, no-one had to know). 

Jay had called, on the second day. He had asked what was going on and why the hell Tim hadn’t texted or called him - rightfully so, since they usually talked daily and it had been more than 2 days with nothing. Tim had ranted about Brian and his mom, but it had taken Jay about ten minutes into Tim’s monologue to point out that he was totally crushing on Brian, and Tim had found himself unable to argue. After talking for over an hour, Jay had hung up with a threat to Tim if he didn’t text him everything that happened. 

Tim thought back to that conversation many times over the following days - he could trust Jay to call him out on his bullshit and help him work through it, and he knew Jay could do the same. Whenever his anxiety convinced him that they simply tolerated his presence and actually hated him, Tim would text Jay (and now Brian) and Jay would not stop texting him until Tim had no doubt left about their friendship.

On his last day in the hotel, a week after he arrived and met Brian, he had breakfast with Brian to talk about what they were going to do, since this was Brian’s last day too. 

“Over here,” Brian called out as Tim walked into the restaurant in the hotel, from which they got free breakfast. 

“Hey,” Tim said when he sat down. “You wanna go get some food? I’m starving.”

“Yeah, sure. Just a second,” Brian put his stuff on the extra chair, and connected his phone to a charger. “My battery’s at 12 percent,” he explained at Tim’s questioning look.

“Alright, let’s go. What do you wanna get?” Brian asked when they entered the self-service area.

“Eggs and bacon first, so they cook, but I’ll look around anyway to see what’s there,” Tim answered while grabbing a plate.

“Why didn’t you get a fork and knife too?”

“Because I’ll drop them, Brian.” 

“Ha, weak.”

“Do you really want to try me?” 

“Geez, you’re just so scary.”

“I know.” 

They had reached the omelette station, and they waited for their orders to be cooked in comfortable silence, which was new to both of them. Shaking his head, Tim decided to ignore his lack of friends while he was so happy and had the chance to spend time with someone who not only could tolerate him, but also wanted to befriend him. 

He was brought back to reality by Brian nudging him, and snapped his eyes onto Brian in alarm, quickly realizing there was no threat, there was just his food (paranoia had become a reflex at this point, and he wasn’t sure whether he was supposed to laugh or cry because of it). 

Throughout breakfast, Tim found his eyes lingering more and more on Brian’s lips when all social and conversational norms stated that his gaze should be on his eyes or overall figure to watch his body language and hand gestures, so like everyone else who’s ever been in this situation, he decided, okay, we’re going to put these feelings of attraction in a box, now close it, and yep! Push it as far away from coherent thought as you can, right up against the childhood trauma, self-hatred, insecurity, and look! It’s the box of fear of abandonment. Now, we don’t think about these, so surely this’ll be safe here. After cataloging everything into the dark basement of his mind, buried deep under everything else and covered in the mental equivalent of cobwebs and a layer of dust over everything, he simply looked away from Brian’s mouth and focused on literally any other part of his body, like, like- his eyes! That would surely work, wouldn’t it? You can’t possibly mess eye contact up, even though you’re, well, you, Tim. Don’t fuck this up with your social incompetence.

Yeah, no. After only a few minutes of trying to draw his attention away from what Brian would taste like, he found out that eyes are just as dangerous as lips, since he found that it was easier than it should be to get lost in Brian’s warm hazel eyes. He never realized that there were rings of different colours, and with the light framing his face, he looked otherworldly, like he didn’t belong to planet Earth or at least had some kind of magic coursing through his veins, just like warmth was coursing through Tim’s as he drowned in the ocean of brown and green filling Brian’s eye sockets. Because he was drowning, drowning, drowning as he forgot to breathe, move, do anything at all in the haze that came over him.

-------------------------------

[comicteaparty]

March 7th-March 13th, 2020 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from March 7th, 2020 to March 13th, 2020.  The chat focused on the following question:

What is your overall marketing/promotion strategy for your webcomic?

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I don't know if this counts as a strategy, but these are some of the things I do to promote my comic or my work in general. 1. Most important from what I've noticed (which I have been failing at due to stress and self-doubt lately) is to post updates to your comic frequently and consistently. It seems somewhat silly that simply putting your work out there is the best way to grow an audience, but it really is. Newly posted chapters frequently get shown on more pages and thus detected by the algorithms and potential readers. It also helps to establish trust with current and returning readers. 2. Participating in art/comic events, forums, and other comicking communities (such as this one). In a way, this isn't really marketing directly, but it is good to build connections with other creators! 3. Conventions! I actually have gotten a several new readers/followers from attending cons. It's also nice just to talk to people, get your name out there locally, and to make a little bit of money while at it. 4. Social media promotion. Tbh, this hasn't been super helpful to me, but more eyes is always a win in my book. I try to post almost every day, even if it isn't art or comic related. Having some kind of social media presence at all, even if it's small, shows people that you are working hard to connect to others. Also finding the right hashtags definitely helps with visibility.

kayotics

Overall, my strategy for marketing is to be authentic and just keep plugging my stuff. People will come if they like it. I work as a marketer for my day job, so I know what I COULD do, but I really don’t do that much since a whole marketing plan would take a lot more time than I have available to me. Some of the stuff I do otherwise: - regular updates. This ones pretty important for retaining viewers I already have. Any good marketing strategy is thinking about retaining people, not just getting new ones - self promo: this usually is on top webcomics or on social media. I get a LOT of traffic from top webcomics, and I get a good handful of people from social media. - conventions, like mentioned before, can be a great way to get people’s eyes on your stuff. I have a postcard that I hand out to people if they come by or they purchase something. - the thing I don’t do enough is post more art outside of the comic, or even just little previews. If I were dedicated to marketing, I’d be sharing sketches or illustrations on social media to grow my audience.

DanitheCarutor

Ah you know, I don't really have much of a strategy. At some point I promoted as much as I could on Twitter, adding my comic to those share/promo thread, getting in on relevant hashtag events, participating on WebComic Chat (whenever I remembered to). I've done a little promotion on forums, but there is really only so much you can do since only so many people hang out there and if your work is super niche like mine, they will pretty much avoid your promos at all cost. Lmao Other than those I don't really do much, at some point I attempted to use Instagram but the site/app is very stingy about offsite links. I also started a Facebook page, although if you don't have the money to boost your promos and don't usually have a lot going on with your comic outside of weekly updates, it won't get a whole lot of attention. I've also tried to be more active, but I'm not a good conversationalist, and I tend to be kind of a thread/conversation/mood killer so I try to avoid talking outside of Q&A prompts like this.

eli [a winged tale]

Same Dani, I used Instagram for a while too and I just don’t think the platform is a good fit for my vertical scroll comic (see exhibit 1) Twitter is a mixed bag as well and I think unless you have a solid following already, it’s hard to gain traction. What really helped was being on Webtoon’s staff pick for a couple days. I’m not sure how Tapas picked up but it’s reassuring that there’s a couple of followers gained every week when I posted regularly. So it really does sound like the first step is to have a steady update schedule (working on the buffer! Got a month’s work down today). It’s just challenging because while I could upload one page a week but on the vertical scroll sites it seems like a longer episode (6-7 pages) is valued more as a solid update. Love hearing everyone’s thoughts and hope to learn from y’all! (edited)

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Consistency and con attendance were big ones for me, but something I learned worked well (and was really fun to do) was creating really fun, really dumb, non-canon bits of art every now and then. Following meme prompts or funny ideas from other people. If your comic can afford some humor being thrown its way, making people laugh is a great way to get some attention. No one needs to know the details of your story - they just need to relate to the characters/humor somehow. I had more than one person come across my dumb, meme-y ancillary art and go “Welp, I want to read your comic now.”

eli [a winged tale]

Memes to the rescue! What has been your favourite to do? And which one has surprised you in its relatability/popularity?

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Two shots of vodka.

Also that terrible sweater meme. Everyone is required to do the terrible sweater meme. People eat it up.

eli [a winged tale]

Too good

Ahh I can’t wait till I can actually write silly adult characters

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Now that you mention it, the nice thing about the terrible sweater meme is it works with a WIDE variety of comics.

eli [a winged tale]

I would love to do a meme with y’all

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

"Came for the story, staying for the sick memes"

Spring-heeled Jack

I try to post updates every friday when my new pages go up on Patreon. And then I make my big post when my tapas and website update at the end of the month. Between all that, I have little flyers that I carry with me and if I'm ever in a shop that has a little self promotion section, I plan on tacking up a flyer. I do conventions, and this will be my first convention season while actively making a comic, so flyers will be handed out then as well.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

My comic isnt very comedy-heavy, and even for the funny scenes, my sense of humor isn't compatible with most people's. So a lot of the memes out there just don't work. But terrible sweater meme doesn't have to be hilarious. It can be just cute, or even weird.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

For me, uh lmao. I sometimes make some funny strip panels and it was received well even though it's not polished for my liking lmao

Spring-heeled Jack

Keii, I feel you. I'm not good with comedy and my comic isn't meant to be funny, either, so I don't know how well a comedy meme will help me.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

overall, I try to be honest with just self promo and asking when I have a chance "Hey pls check out my comic lol"

eli [a winged tale]

Or maybe just something relatable? Seen a couple caption this on tumblr

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I think instead of memes, what I'm gonna do is my characters cosplaying more well known characters from works that have some tonal similarities with my own. This isn't just for advertising purposes; it's something I've been wanting to do for a long time for myself. But I'm realizing it can serve some of the same purposes that memes do.

Spring-heeled Jack

That's extremely cute!

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Keyword being "SOME" Tonal similarities... Some of them aren't very similar but have a couple of parallels, etc.

Spring-heeled Jack

Oh for sure. Even if you could find that 'perfect match', it might not be a great cosplay for them, and give too much away

Are "draw the squad" prompts still a thing? I love those

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

The One White Dude and the Tiger Dude in my comic will definitely cosplay Calvin and Hobbes at some point.

Spring-heeled Jack

LOL

omg please, Keii

eli [a winged tale]

YES

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Yeah, not every comic will have super memeable humor - but whatever you can do to break down that wall between you and a potential reader and go “Hey! Look at this. Is this relatable? Do you get the reference? Etc” Is a very good bet

Also yes squad memes are PERFECT

You can boil down your comic’s relationships so simply.

Spring-heeled Jack

I have four couples in my comic so those "ship dynamic" posts might be fun

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

What are squad memes?

eli [a winged tale]

I also need to be educated about squad I mean all the memes

Spring-heeled Jack

OH MAN!! They are fun as heck. You can find templates and it's a very simple character design in the template, but the poses are super silly. And then you just draw your characters in place of those simple figures(edited)

If you google "Draw the squad" you will find a bunch

renieplayerone

Oh! Ill have to try that! These squad bases look fun!

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I still have one of those I need to finish Back when I first started sharing my work, I was surprised and delighted at how quickly people shoved it through a meme filter.

Maybe that’s another thing! If marketing opportunities present themselves as a surprise, try running with them and see where they take you Within reason, of course. Never feel forced to follow anything that people respond to in a particular way. Just take it into account and see how you feel about it.

renieplayerone

(Im here to lurk on this week's question, i have no strategy and need ideas haha)

eli [a winged tale]

Omg draw the squad looks

too many to choose

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I love draw the squad poses so much TuT I wish I had more time to draw within more of them. I think I always get a little dishearten about making memes because I feel like I need to make my jokes full illustrations but I never have time for much extra content beyond ballpoint pen sketches :T

Mei

Honestly I don't have a marketing or promotion strategy for my webcomic. I make updates every week, and I post it on my twitter and kinda plug it there. I'm actually god awful at trying to make people read my comic because I'm a little bit nervous about it, to be honest. So I just sort of leave it there and see if people find it, half the time. That being said, I tried to promote it pretty hard at conventions last year. But that didn't go as well as I'd hoped. I'm hoping to make flyers with QR codes so that people can scan it, and it'll take them to the landing page/tapas for the comic. That might be a bit easier than getting them to just search the title, plus having a flyer is a nice bit of promotion if I get the opportunity?! Making memes and drawing characters in different clothes or in squad things sounds like super fun tho and I might look into that in the future

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

It's nice to hear everyone talk about this topic. TBH I had completely stopped promoting my comic because I got too scared of backlash, being a disappointment, etc. (Initially I'd attracted a number of people who weren't actually my target audience, and that led to some less than ideal results.) But some time last year, it occurred to me that 1) I'm making this comic for my reader self (or my "hypothetical taste twin" as I like to call it)... which means 2) I only have to appeal to people like me. So I started asking myself, "What would I have to say/do to get me to read this comic?" and that made it significantly less intimidating. I haven't actually started doing self promo (though I did start plugging my updates on Twitter at least). But most future self promo I do will be based on that ^ question.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

(oh god, I was just checking out the latest update for one of the Korean webcomics I read, and the new episode is about a hikikomori... who says "I want to change, but I can't step outside because... maybe there isn't a single person out there who will understand me." THAT WAS ME but with comic promo. Well, I'm getting better and I also hope this character will, too, though knowing this comic his chances aren't so great lol...)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I hope that wasn't too awkward to share! Tl;dr I really think the "what would I have to say/do to get ME to check out my comic" is a good approach for anyone else feeling intimidated about doing self promos.

In the same vein, but on the opposite side of the coin: I'm curious to know, what were some things that got YOU to read someone else's comic?

Some of my own answers to that aren't very relevant to what we can do for our own comics: e.g. I'm Korean and when Naver has a new comic in their pro comic lineup, I may check it out. I'm also a member of SpiderForest and I check out the applicants' comics during the app season. Stuff like that aren't really good promo options that we can take. But things that may be relevant: - 'Evocative scenery shot that doesn't show the face/ doesn't focus on the face.' MY WEAKNESS. That kinda pictures feel subtle and kind of lonely to me, even if it's a group shot. And I like stories with those vibes. -Promo includes an evocative quote. Could be from the comic itself, or from something else like a classical literature or whatever. The creator of Ark (https://www.arkcomic.com/) does this sometimes and even though I'm already following Ark, those promos get my attention.

eli [a winged tale]

Definitely the art promo now that I think of it! Merch, posters, banners etc. If the art intrigues me, I definitely take a look at the site/blurb/first chapter

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I wonder if we can semi-workshop promo art at some point? Not really intensive like "change xyz" because that's not always feasible with art, but just impression feedback like, "this pictures gives me these vibes, and makes me expect this kinda story"

I would be curious to see everyone's even if we don't workshop

eli [a winged tale]

YES

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

Yesssss

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Yes please. I don‘t promo besides update notices simply because I have no clue to start.

Mei

Sometimes I get really attracted by the style of the story? I immediately started reading Wolfsbane because the art was cool and different from a lot of whta I'd seen on Webtoon up until that point. And then the story was perfect for me. What keii said about writing for yourself is right. Patrick Ness once said you should write the stories your younger self would have loved to pick up on a shelf

and I think that's a pretty evocative thing. At the end of the day, you should be enjoying what you're writing (hopefully). And if you enjoy it and you're having fun making it, that can rub off on the people reading it, or you find the people who like that similar vein of story?

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

(It's also 100% legit to write stories for your current self )

Mei

(oh yes 100% that's what i'm doing HEHE)

Tolkein wrote LOTR because he was like

in love with worldbuilding

was there a market for such a strange type of novel at the time? No. Definitely not. Did he write it anyway? YEAH HE DID

Deo101 [Millennium]

I really wanna do an art workshop yes.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Aight, anyone who wants an impression feedback from me, post your promo art in #art_help

Warning, my impressions may be totally off lol

Deo101 [Millennium]

Also I don't do much marketing. Mostly I try to get in with communities and learn about making comics, I just want to improve my craft. All I really do is make my updated every week, and share whatever art Ive made on my Twitter or whatever

Okay! I think I only have my cover on my phone, but on my computer I also have my banners and icon. So I'll share all those in a bit when I'm at my computer

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

(off topic but I'm sick, and when I'm sick or very tired I constantly misread words. I read "my banners" as "my bananas" and I was very confused for a couple seconds.)

Deo101 [Millennium]

My bananers

Feather J. Fern

I am terrible at marketing my own work, but I am very good at marketing other people's work. I use the "you would like it for this reason" to grab people. Unfortunately I can't do it for my comic because I am bad at seeing the good in my own work oof. I am getting better at it though.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

That's a really good way to do it!

And I can relate. My own hangup is a little different, but it can be extremely difficult to be brave for sure, whether in front of other people, or just in front of your own brain that constantly judges you.

Feather J. Fern

Yeah I was talking about a friend's comic and then the person I was talking to was like "Don't you write comics" and I was like "ahfoofjw yeah but don't look at them"

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I was thinking a lot about the whole "it's like [well known work] meets [another well known work]" approach that was discussed earlier. And I think that could be relevant here. Like, think of something that has either influenced your comic significantly, or just happens to have some core similarities. How would you market that thing? Could you market your own thing using a similar approach -- since there are similarities?

I'd thought of a really good example to compare HoK to. Then I got sad because the said example is extremely obscure outside of Korea. But now I'm like, hey, people don't have to KNOW that work. I can do this differently. I can talk about HoK the way I could talk about it.

('it' as in the other work that's obscure outside of Korea)

Feather J. Fern

I do think that's a good fast shortcut but I don't like using it becuase the shortcut sometimes makes people angry when they don't get what they like out of those two things

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

That's why I said to NOT actually bring up the comparison work

Don't name it

Just list the traits that are shared in common

Feather J. Fern

Oh sorry

I miss read

(And my name changed colours all the sudden?)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

It's a confusing topic, so no worries

It means you leveled up

Feather J. Fern

OWO!

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Say you want to compare your work to... I dunno, DBZ, because it's got super strong aliens duking it out barehanded, blasting ki-like energy attacks, etc. Don't name DBZ. Talk about your work the way you'd talk about your favorite aspects of DBZ. "My comic has super strong aliens duking it out hand-to-hand! YEEEAH!"

OH MY GOD I NEED TO DO THIS NOW.

Feather J. Fern

Yeah! That's what I would do. (But it also helps for me that my comic has no hard reference points) but for my new comic, people are gonna compare it to Zach Bell, and Angelic Layer i think

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I'm gonna write up some drafts that I will revise and tweet at a later time

Feather J. Fern

So I jsut got to you know, not promo it as such XD

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I want to do this too for a quick pitch

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Do it (shop talk or story help maybe?)

I'm writing a vomit draft for mine

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Yee

Feather J. Fern

I think I will do it for Story help

(Also so I can help flesh out my new project lol lol)

eli [a winged tale]

Kei I might be suuuuper off since I read only the beginning but I sort of thought inuyasha but Korea and handsome boys

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Sometimes you don't even realize your story can be marketed as "blah meets blah" until much later down the line - I've only started realizing the number of existing properties I've absorbed unintentionally into my comic. It's not how I'd market it on a serious front, but to a friend for story help, heck yes.

But a lot of people on Twitter seem to do that strategy for PitMAD and it works great for them, so... shrug

I guess it still belongs in a "pitch arsenal," as it were

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah, the one "blah" I just thought of is something I hadn't realized for all these years. But it makes so much sense now that I look at it.

eli [a winged tale]

See that’s where I got confused but I think this is what I’m gonna aim to do: - pitch to readers: inspiration but this awesome unique thing in the comic - pitch to other comic makers: the Logline - pitch to agents: comparison works if requested and longer pitch depending on their format - pitch to family: just read it plzthanksbye

renieplayerone

or alternative pitch to family: Please dear god never read this

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

That's me

Oof... Writing the 'promote your comic by talking about the traits it shares with Another Person's Work,' I made myself cry, and that is definitely a sign I'm on the right track.

eli [a winged tale]

Right track is good!

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

It took me years to even think of an 'other more popular work' comparison for Children of Shadow. XD But at the same time, it's really different from the works I compare it to, so it's hard to say 'Read this if you like X or X because it has a few similarities in theme and tone, but is still very much its own thing'.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah which is why I'm not even gonna namedrop my X.

I'm just straight up gonna talk about 'My comic has [this trait]' (and X shares that trait, but no one needs to know for the purpose of that pitch)

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

To answer the weekly question... I really don't have a marketing strategy. Marketing is my achilles heel, so I generally just throw pages up and hope someone sees them. I don't really understand social media nor do I have the energy to sink tonnes of time into it, which seems to be one of the biggest requirements for being picked up by algorithms. So my marketing strategy is just.., keep making comics and talking to other creators and hope for the best

eli [a winged tale]

I think that’s still solid Capn

Ultimately you need a product to promote

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

It's something that helps me, because while I can talk about my favorite works done by others, I feel stuck when trying to do the same with my own. So it's basically telling my brain, 'hey, you already know how to do it with other stories. Do the same thing with your own.'

eli [a winged tale]

So true Kei

renieplayerone

thats my strategy too. best case you market it great, worst case you've made a new friend so win win :3

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

My incredibly low numbers after 14 years of making webcomics beg to differ but... maybe someday I can hire someone to help me market.

eli [a winged tale]

I’m using the comic platforms rather than my own site so... sort of relying on their algorithms. I imagine it can be harder if you just post on your own website?

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Sometimes the platforms don't help much if their audience isn't into the type of comics you make

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I post on both my own website and on platforms, but the algorithms for WT and Tapas don’t seem to like me, haha.(edited)

renieplayerone

yeah same

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

One of my top favorite webcomics got a front page feature on Tapas once, but it wasn't the kind of a story that gets a lot of traction there, so it still didn't get very popular. And that was in no way a measure of its quality. It is an excellent comic, just not a good fit for that particular place.

renieplayerone

I get far more views on my site, but I get way more engagement on Tapas and WT

I actually treat those two mirrors AS marketing for the main site(edited)

eli [a winged tale]

Exactly renie! Good perspective!

I never know what different platforms tailor to...

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Yeah, what Keiiii said. I make dark fantasy comics and both WT and Tapas favour romance, especially comics geared towards a female audience and drawn anime style. My comics aren’t particularly feminine and romance isn’t much of a focus, so they’re just not what that demographic is into.

eli [a winged tale]

I’ve been trying to remember how I came across my favourite comics and usually it’s through the art (interesting characters, unique dynamic style that I enjoy) and the first chapter holding promise (able to see what the character wants/will have to change into)

Romance has always been the best seller in the story world I think

Oh and most recently hiveworks and other web publishers have great recommendations too per genre

And comic conventions are always fun to meet creators. Sometimes If I feel I jive with someone I’m an instant fan

renieplayerone

I absolutely need to get better at having confidence enough to make friends at conventions x_x

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I have noticed my audience grow a bit since joining Spiderforest. They’ve helped me get a bit better at promotion, though marketing just isn’t my talent, lol.

renieplayerone

im always terrified haha

eli [a winged tale]

It’s a big step for sure renie! It took me like... three years going to VanCAF as an attendee before actually exhibiting and making friends(edited)

Mei

I know i'm late but i personally detest the 'this book is X meets Y!!', even though I get why people do it. I just wish they'd describe it to me like what if I'd never read either of those books......

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I would really love to get out to cons, they sound like a great opportunity for connecting with other creators. One of these years I’ll be able to get to one!(edited)

Deo101 [Millennium]

yeah im usually kinda like "okay, well are you doing anything new or are you just doing those things :/"

renieplayerone

I exhibit with the Boston Comics Roundtable and I still havent gotten the courage XD

Mei

yeah, cons are really fun even to attend or to make friends! I find it really tough though, I'm so intimidated;;

yeah Deo... same... it's like

sure, I could pitch a story as two things. Like I don't know "The Walking Dead meets Shaun of the Dead" which is semi redundant anyway

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I only use it to give people a framework for the kinds of tones and themes they can expect from my work when I have to keep my explanation short and sweet.

renieplayerone

they should have badges that say "Hi i want to make friends but you are all so awesome its intimidating be kind"

Mei

or you know... use those words to just describe the story? It may be a personal preference, some agents LOVE comparisons

Yes renie, yes!

i'd love a badge like that like

pls talk to me i'm scare

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Sometimes a few words can’t fully describe a story as well as saying: ‘It’s a little bit like X meets X but if you add [insert unique thing your story does]’

Mei

I personally find that it depends a bit too much on people having read those books or stories before. BUT if you're pitching to an agent, they've usually read those books

so then they get a sense or vibe of like, what the genre is

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

It’s all down to preference, really. Your own and the person you’re pitching to. If you don’t want to use comparisons to describe your own work, that’s valid, but try not to dismiss people who do.

Mei

so I get it, I just don't like it personally xD I think a lot of the times it takes away from your own voice and story

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

That too is part of the reason why I'm not namedropping the works

Just having my self-promo self learn from my 'promo other people's stuff' self

Mei

yeah for sure, it adds that level of excitement to your own work that you'd give to others?

eli [a winged tale]

I think a cool exercise might be to check out someone’s work here and see how you would promote it

It’s always good to see from someone else’s perspective

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

yessssss, all of my friends have been much better at promoting than I am

mostly because they have no shame regarding it but they also just... know what sounds cool

Mei

Oh i'm very good at promoting my friends' work

I sold his DnD book to a kpop stan who doesn't like DnD and doesn't play, and it was a crowning achievement

eli [a winged tale]

Like for yours I’d probably say... Manta Ray princess finds herself very much dead but is given a second chance to revive her friends and save her kingdom... just need to find someone very much living and very much not afraid of the seaghosts they have become

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

SOLID

though now I imagine Phaedra as a Manta Ray in a dress which is... not entirely untrue

eli [a winged tale]

LOL omg I haven’t even thought of that! Just thought manta Princess is a hook

Mei

Me, pointing at Cheth "I mean look at him, LOOK AT HIM and tell me you don't want to read this"

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I guess for my work I market it from four potential angles: 1) The princess is cool and has a sword, 2) The villain is the best character, 3) The environments ain't bad, and 4) THERE'S A DOG

again, you gotta know who you're talking to and what they already like

eli [a winged tale]

In a world where a fallen god became trapped in the sea, a dead princess is given a second chance to fight for her life with a mysterious sea-bitten boy and undo the sea ghost curse that plagues the world.

Dammit I repeated world

Mei

hey... the environments are GREAT

eli [a winged tale]

Yeah Lady your environment shots are

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

ok I do try BUT BACK TO MARKETING

The number of times I see someone marketing their comic with very epic-sounding descriptors or broad generalizations... then that one day where they're finally like "oh, I have a character who turns into a hamster at nighttime" and people are like 'I'M SOLD'

And then they go ".... THAT'S WHAT YOU ALL WANTED???"

often it's those little weird details that get people interested

Deo101 [Millennium]

I wanna read about the were hamster please

Mei

sometimes I think the simplest and maybe slightly silly lines are what grabs people?

when things sound TOO epic i feel a bit intimidated

eli [a winged tale]

takes notes

Mei

but if someone were to sell me a big adventure epic as "it's hamsters and they fight the forces of evil" i'd read it

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

god yes

"Four small creatures band together to defeat a great darkness overwhelming their homeland."

No.

"Hamsters fight evil."

YES

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I.... I have no idea how to snappily describe my comics. XD

eli [a winged tale]

Same... I got to kids with wings for hair then my brain short circuits

Mei

i'd say it's the way you'd tell the story to a close friend

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

The best I came up with was 'Teenagers with supernatural powers team up with woodland critters to defeat monsters' but it sounds more adventure-y and doesn't really get at the fact that it's a dark story with horror elements and everyone's mentally ill.

Mei

like they come up to you and go "what's your comic about" "oh you know, my stupid comic's about mutant hamsters that take over the world" or something

(don't call your comics stupid none of your comics are stupid they are great)

Deo101 [Millennium]

"plant man and his goth boyfriend babysitting a ton of bozos" would probably be mine then

Mei

BEAUTIFUL

i'm sold

Deo101 [Millennium]

ghsakgjhgkhkgahgk my target audience...

Mei

i do think tho like this form of comedic one-lining may not work for something dark?

Unless you go "Spooky horror about cats that become humans at night!"

would need experimentation

eli [a winged tale]

It’s a balance I think.

Kids stranded on an island with weapons explore the darkness in human nature - Lord of the Flies

Mei

ooh yeah that's a good one!

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

A space explorer stranded on a foreign planet must join forces with the indigenous population and save his ship before his life support runs out.

Alternately

Small man goes to war with small carrot people

Pikmin

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

@Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios) I wonder if one could describe CoS the way how people might describe Evangelion, but with magical powers instead of mechs.

Teens, monsters, mental illnesses

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Probably. Though I've never seen Evangelion, but those three words work very well.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

The relationship dynamics are way different, but yeah, those three things...

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Also add trauma and cute lil animals and you have Children of Shadow. XD

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Evangelion also has trauma (though I don't know if you'd like it; this isn't a rec, just a promo discussion!) and it was refreshing to see at the time

A teen trying to fight huge monsters, even if he was doing it inside an equally huge mech, could lead to traumatizing experiences, and it was the first time I saw that seriously explored

Hmm, so I guess "teens, talking animals, monsters, mental illnesses feat. trauma" ?

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I don't know if it's similar at all, but that description reminds me strongly of Eureka 7. Wow, was that series intense,

🌈ERROR404 🌈

I really liked how the end happened - it was a nice solution to the lack of budget issue and told the story of his psyche reall well

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Though Eureka 7 was intense in a good way. I found the ending kind of unsatisfying, but admittedly I find the endings of 90% of animes unsatisfying (probably a cultural clash). But I enjoy them for the journey more than the ending.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I haven't watched Eureka 7, but the storyboard artist (one of the storyboard artists maybe?) for that anime is one of my favorite artists.

DanitheCarutor

Ah, a little late, but regarding the snappy promos I'm in the same boat as Cap'n with not knowing how to make one. At least one that would be ridiculous and totally not fitting the darker themes. I agree with all the people who have a generally hard time coming up with a pitch for their work, while having an easier time promoting other people's comics. Honestly my comic can be super boring to people who don't like pretentious, non-fantastical, angsty, character study types of stories. So it's really hard to think of a way to make it sound interesting without spoiling anything. Man! That thing when people come up to you, asking what your comic is about! Me: "Oh! Ah, it's uh, kinda sad and it has uh mental illness" -trails off with uncomfortable laughter- Them: Oh cool. -has a look of complete disinterest- Someone was actually extremely enthusiastic about the vague description of my comic, which somehow made me a mix of uncomfortable and excited.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I saw the conversation about blurbs and I just thought of one for a comic I'm working on! "An ecologist and a bird have a conversation about ethics"

I haven't started the comic yet so please send your critiques(edited)

and first impressions

(of the blurb)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

"Angsty character study with a heavy dose of mental illness" <--- Could this descriptor work? @DanitheCarutor

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

kei said exactly what I was just typing

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Great minds

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

oh, i just realized i've read dani's comic

I think your description is fine?

The artsy, angsty comics I follow all have kind of short, tongue in cheek descriptions

it's hard to capture the tone of an emotional comic in one sentence so they either joke about it or make it intentionally misleading

for example Drop Out's description is something like "two friends go on a road trip" and Fritz Fargo's description is "a human dumpster fire in the 90s"

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

The dumpster fire one is insta-effective

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Dani, maybe make your description shorter if anything?

Something like, "An emotionally stunted alcoholic attempts to make amends"

and then follow it up with kei's line about it being an angsty character study

RebelVampire

Im not gonna stop the convo cause it is on topic. However, i do want to remind ppl these #creator_babble chats are permanently archived. So thats something to keep in mind if youre gonna workshop.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I asked before in this discord about making my own blurb better. The main critique I got was that I included too many things that I thought were interesting and unique that a new reader probably wouldn't care about. Like how the mc's powers work. But though it's unique and important to the story, it's not going to be a main reason someone reads the comic. I revised the blurb to remove extraneous info and make the tone of the comic more apparent, and I think now I didn't lose anything and made it more concise.

I think maybe agtahr could also be summarized a bit more succinctly

DanitheCarutor

Yup, you did once upon a time but said you stopped reading it a while ago. (which is totally fine, the reason is understandable.) The mix of yours and Keii's descriptions do sound a lot better than mine. Lol Thank you Fish and @keii’ii (Heart of Keol)! I've noticed people really like the word 'angst' when you describe heavy stuff. At least when I was a teenager everyone found it appealing. I'll tinker with it a bit and use Drop_Out and Fritz Fargo as a reference. Anyways, I'm going to stop talking now, don't want to bog down the main topic.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

That's a good point; 'the best things about this story' and 'things that should go in its blurb' have an overlap, but they aren't always the same.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Yeah, I did but I'll probably pick it up again eventually. I remember enjoying it. If you do want to keep talking, we can move to shop talk?

mirandalorian

babbling I have the first three episodes of my webtoon ready to post tomorrow and I’m really excited and feel kinda proud that I made it this far...even though it’s not very far. It’s far for me without posting immediately end babbling

Feather J. Fern

I forgot to ask, but if people are tabling at cons, do you guys have promo stuff at your con tables for your comics?

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Mostly a business card, but yes

carcarchu

i never did but my table partner one year had free postcards she gave out with purchase / to passerbys with her comic info and an illustration on it

kayotics

I always keep free postcards to advertise my comic on the table right next to my business cards.

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Yep, the free postcards did wonders for me last year. They disappeared quickly!

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

Buisness cards and postcards~

Feather J. Fern

Seems like Business and Postcards are the way to go.

Mei

business cards!!

i might be making flyers/postcards for my comic next time though! :D

sagaholmgaard

I haven't done much to promote my comic but I've gotten some good ideas reading through this, thanks! I currently plug my updates in twitter and instagram with a cool/fun panel from the new page. I do also share WIPS and try to engage through my instagram stories (Asking things like, 'what type of benders would the Reclaim squad be in an avatar au' and making doodles for the answers), but that only reaches those who follow my IG. its good fun tho. I've done memes with the characters a few times but I didn't get much attention, LOL. But it's fun so maybe worth trying again

Spring-heeled Jack

Today I went into a locally owned comic shop and went to the guy that owns it and said "I'm a local artist and I'm writing a comic. Could I give you some small flyers to let people take?" And he said yes, and then asked if I have any physical copies. I don't yet but told him I'll bring some by when I have them. He then let me know he carries other local artists! Something cool to think about if you have a local comic shop.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

ooo that's good to know

I droped off my zines at my local comic shop but maybe I'll drop flyers of my webcomic too lmaooo

Spring-heeled Jack

I also just ordered a business card carrier so I can tote some around with ease. I carry my flyers in my sketchbook. You should totally ask, it never hurts! Carry a few extra just in case you find yourself in a new area and find another cafe or comic shop.

I ran mine off on my at home printer on some nice quality but regular weight paper. I might need to get some more professionally done.

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

I keep a handful of business cards in my wallet -- that way, any time someone says "hey, that looks cool, what are you drawing?" they get a card with the title and URL. Slowly but steadily burns through the supply.

DanitheCarutor

Seeing if my local book shops will carry copies of my comic when I print them eventually is something I'm kind of excited about! My town is hardcore into supporting local artists and writers, so that'll be something neat to try out. Although I'm a little nervous that the rating might be a little too mature for what the vendors want on their shelves.

I know of using postcards to advertise, but never heard of fliers. Maybe I'll give that a try.(edited)

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I use double sided business cards, so on one side, it showcases some of my art, and the other side has contact info, a link to my comic website, and a QR code. It's been pretty helpful so far at conventions.

Nutty (Court of Roses)

You guys have all these sophisticated answers to this and my answer is just "scream on every social media platform I can reach and every person I meet about my comic."

Though I may not scream at people irl,,,

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Let's see... I have a twitter where I repost my comic pages, and a couple mirrors that help reach different audiences. I've also carried around business cards that have my comic's URL on it. One fun strategy I've used is doing review-exchange things, in an I-critique-your-comic-if-you-critique-mine way (with the assumption that most people who read all the way through Super Galaxy Knights end up liking it). Though, that isn't really viable anymore now that the comic is 600+ pages, cuz nobody would ever agree to that trade lol. And... that's pretty much it? Though, I should note that my goal with Super Galaxy Knights isn't to make the most popular comic I can so that I can make a living off ads or patreon or print sales or whatever. If I ever do manage to make money off the comic, it'll be in "spinoff tech" (basically, video games or other media based off it). (it's the reason why a bunch of early Starstuff Stories fleshed out the abilities of the characters they focused on) I would like people to read the story because I think people would like the story, but it's not like my future depends on its popularity.

Holmeaa - working on WAYFINDERS

We (me and Q) are gonna (hopefully) tabeling at cons this year! I thought about doing free non permenant tattoos with our comic things. Also we have beautiful zines of the first chapter to sell. but a free postcard is also good

Desnik

promotional strategies...ah...the biggest thing I did for my first webcomic, RAWR! Dinosaur Friends, was simply update on a general platform (tumblr), using a consistent schedule and the same tags every time. That allowed some of the bigger biology/humor/critter blogs on tumblr to find me and I got a lot of people reading from their generous reblogs. I found some more niche crossover from sci-comm blog comments and dinosaur toy collector forums, because sometimes I'd have a comic that would coincide with paleontology news. It was mainly about finding my niche and bringing my stuff to that niche. To those struggling with finding readers, I would recommend distilling the contents of your comic and then reaching out to people who buy/read things like your comic. I've definitely made friends from general 'webcomic' forums and discords, but in terms of building a readership it's all about finding the niche and catering to it in a human way

In general I highly recommend shopping around for stuff like hobby blogs/forums/groups/discords that have some relation to the content of your webcomic. Those people DO want new content related to their hobby, but they don't really deal well with salesy pitches. Just be human and also a nerd for that hobby, too (nerdy enough to make webcomics about it)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah, it's like fan comic for an existing IP with an existing fandom, except it's a fan comic of a 'thing' rather than an IP (e.g. you make a pirate comic? Great! Nobody owns pirates, but there are lots of pirate fans out there!).

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

The very first customer I had at the first con I tabled at, came over and said "I like ghosts! I like the ocean! I'll take it!" And wrote me later saying it was exactly what they were looking for.

And honestly it's all because I make sure every cover has something spooky and something watery, and the genres are in the title I make it very easy for people to understand what it might be like.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

omg the genres are in the title

that's genius

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Definitely not planned But it helps so much!

I think if authors have a rule on certain symbols/motifs they MUST make sure come across on covers/posters/etc, that can be a good marketing strategy. With some wiggle room, of course.

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I... I feel like I can barely even describe what my comic is, which makes it so hard to market. 'Do you like comics with cute animals and eldritch horrors and angsty teens that have superpowers and hidden religious symbolism everywhere?!? Then my comic is for you!' What even is that demographic, because I sure don't know.(edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

@Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios) If you take away the cute animals part, that actually sounds like stuff a lot of teens are into/ a lot of people were into when they were teens. And most people love cute animals, so adding that to the mix, in theory, shouldn't reduce the accessibility too much. Buuuuut CoS has its unique flavor that's decidedly different from all the "angsty teens, eldritch horrors, religious symbolism" stuff I consumed when I was younger. I don't know how to describe that flavor, nor how to utilize it for marketing. But yeah, maybe some food for thought?

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I've used short phrases that are sort of representative to describe my comic. Examples include "consensual mind control" "a guy whose ideal life is not being entirely alive" "friendship" and "anticlimactic conversations"

I have no idea how effective any of those are

someone tell me pls

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

As someone who just started reading your comic last night I think consensual mind control is a really cool descriptor. I haven't heard that too much before.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

!

that makes me happy

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

@keii’ii (Heart of Keol) Heh, I'm not sure what that unique flavour is, either, but it might have something to do with me avoiding the typical 'chosen one' structure that most teen fantasy literature has. The characters are all (except Fawna) a part of the hidden world already rather than discovering it, and everyone's pretty much running around like chickens with their heads cut off rather than having any power over their situation (which is kind of a huge part of the theme of the comic). It's definitely different than the typical urban fantasy, so it's been really hard to find which audience that appeals to. From what I've gathered based on the people who comment on my website, it's mostly academics in college or beyond, for whatever reason. XD

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Honestly I think for almost all comics their first pages were what convinced me to keep reading. Even with Phantomarine I was ambivalent about the description but then I saw the first page, and though, yeah, I'm into this.

Maybe my own comic can be the same way

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Exactly the same with me and your comic - I was also all about that first page It's a powerful thing! I think for anyone about to delve into a comic - which is, by nature, a very visual thing - it's going to be that visual that ultimately pushes them over the edge.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

maybe my description should just be ascii art of my main character O-O | -(edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

^ It's why I tinkered with the first page of HoK soooo many times even after it went live. But it wasn't enough; it still gave off the wrong impression as to what kind of a story one should expect. Finally, more than a year after I started posting it, I redid like 1/4 to 1/3 of chapter one from scratch. Even though it will never be perfect, I can live with it now. chapter 2 on the other hand... It's an imperfect intro to the right story, rather than an intro (good or not) to the wrong story.

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

To be honest, my intro probably doesn't hit the right notes to explain what my comic is about, which may be part of my problem. It starts out seeming more like an anthropomorphic fantasy than a dark urban fantasy / horror story. That's just something I think I'm going to have to live with, because I'm tired of reworking old pages (I already do it far too much). I think my best solution is drawing a new cover that showcases the tone and subject matter better than the one I'm using now.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

oh god, you reminded me of the 3 cover pages I spent hours on only to later scrap. Then my current cover page I did in one hour after it came to me at 4am(edited)

and it was perfect

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

XD

and my page redoings were after the reboot.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Cap, I don't know how representative it is of the story but I looked up the Ashes cover page and it's very impressive

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Yeah, I already redrew my intro once.... and this is the third iteration of this comic. And I'm currently redrawing the first two chapters of my other comic. I'm so sick to death of starting over. -_-

@Eightfish (Puppeteer) Oh, thank you!! I like to go all-out on covers, heh.

Kabocha

Promotion... ... is that a thing you can eat? ... A few things I've tried is business cards -- tweeting about it -- posting about it on dA... I try to stay away from services like Tapas and Webtoon because I'm not formatted for those sorts of things, and I fear I'll probably just frustrate myself. It's a delicate balance right now between remaining happy with my work and getting it seen, but overall, I guess I'm not too stressed about it since it's not a source of income for me... I just... like making comics. I've also done conventions -- Conventions are fun, don't get me wrong, but nowadays they're a really low return on interest for many shows for original stuff (except slice of life and "oh no I did a bad" types of zines -- people seem to really enjoy things like that since it's often pretty easy to relate to). They feel like they used to be easier for selling original work, but the market's gotten rougher because there's so much competition and only so many dollars. if I ever print, I'm probably going to have to lean on some marketing-savvy friends for help... Hopefully things haven't changed too much by then. I think the tool that's worked best for me in the past few years has been doing guest comics here and there, as well as using topwebcomics, oddly enough. TWC was pretty good for referrals when I started doing comics way back in 2006~2007...

sagaholmgaard

Since the topic is about promotion... Do yall know if there are any twitter hashtag events for webcomic creators? My friends in the indie game industry have certain hashtags that people can post in during specific times every week - do we have anything similar?

Kabocha

#Webcomicchat!

https://webcomicchat.com/for-creators You may also find this page helpful

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

#webcomicchat is great because you get to talk shop while talking about your own work! It's not just "look at my comic"

sagaholmgaard

Ahh!! Thank you!

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I know some people do #WebcomicWednesday - not sure how official it is, but it gets some attention!

sagaholmgaard

I'll check that one out as well!

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

There's also #comicartistsunite too

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

webcomicchat always looked like fun, but I definitively am on the wrong side of the globe for the times it's going on

mirandalorian

Promotion is difficult. I always feel like I'm being too pushy, even for something that's free. I also feel like I built up a following that had nothing to do with comics or art and so when I switched directions to head that way, i don't get the response I would like. Reading all the thoughts here has been really helpful tho. Just got to put them into practice

Feather J. Fern

I think my current attempt for promotion is at least being more willing to promote. I have to force my fear of "I shouldn't tell people because it's not as good as (blank)" and just shove my comic into a spotlight

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

If anyone is worried about bothering people, putting variety into your promotions will make things more palatable for people for sure. I have one person on my timeline spamming the same exact post over and over again, almost daily, and it doesn't seem to be doing them any favors There's no need for a promotion every day. The people I see that do a more-obvious promotion tweet, like, weekly, or every two weeks, seem to get good results from that Sometimes less is more

mirandalorian

I need to get to that point Feathery. And ya, daily is a bit extreme imo. But I have to figure out the good balance

Feather J. Fern

Even weekly I don't do it because I feel like I am spamming and I feel awkward

Oh! Speaking of promotions, one way I found I got my comic promoted was by doing guest comics for other people! I got lots of viewers after each guest comic I did

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah, for social media promo, e.g. on Twitter, you want to make your actual tweets have value -- not just things being linked off the tweets. (This is where gag-a-day kinda comics have an advantage, because each strip has entertainment value and you can just post the whole strip in a tweet.) Obviously this doesn't apply to every promo tweet; so like, weekly promo tweet that's solely about the links, as mentioned by others, is fine. But yeah, aside from those, you wanna make your promo tweets fun to read.

Feather J. Fern

Also cameos! Cameos are a great promo

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Not gonna lie, I am lowkey paranoid about doing cameos. Someone I know had to remove their cameo of someone else's character, because that other person objected to their character being in the print version of the comic.

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Uff

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

oh rip

Feather J. Fern

Oh man, that's rough.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I'll never even print HoK but I can still imagine someone being all "NOPE, I CHANGED MY MIND" at a later time

Feather J. Fern

I am planning to do some cameos for other people, not that Go Figure will ever be in print but I can see that problem. I think what I would say is that if you want a cameo you have to be 100% certain

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Might be a good idea to have a very simple agreement thing you can have them sign

Feather J. Fern

Yeah I was going to have a written consent form

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

"I agree to let you do a cameo of my character, and to not be a jerk about it at a later time. Signed"

Feather J. Fern

Signed and dated by both parties XD

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

There's also the broad hashtags like #webcomics and even things more geared to genres like #drama and #fantasy and so on. Doing art memes helps sometimes, too.

mirandalorian

What do you think the best hashtags to use are? Is webcomics too saturdated?

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I'm not sure about the best hashtags, but my biggest thing about hashtags on Twitter : don't use a bunch of hashtags in a single tweet!

For broad hashtags like #webcomics or #fantasy, I gotta wonder if anyone's actually checking those out...

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Yeah, I usually tag my update posts with #webcomic and my comic's name, but honestly I have no idea if #webcomic has ever helped out my post ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

mirandalorian

Ya, I typically keep it to two or less, but i always wonder if webcomic is actually useful lol

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

takes note to use something more specific than #webcomic in my next update tweet

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I think it may potentially be useful as a label for someone who's just found you on that platform, and is not sure what you're promoting. But beyond that...

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

I usually use #historicalfiction and #webcomic. Not sure which one helps more, but well, there it is.

mirandalorian

Ya, I should use the genre tag too.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Do people even search genre tags for that matter lol (a bit pessimistic, but still a genuine question)

like, I'll be the first to admit, I don't hashtag search to look for new comics to read. I don't think I ever hashtag search ANYTHING, unless it's like..... a very active trend that I am interested in (e.g. an upcoming video game that I'm looking forward to)

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

Well, the tags are popular enough to be suggested by twitter so I'd think some use them, probably likeminded folk.

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Same keii. I mostly use hashtags to look for fan art, exclusively on Instagram.

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

There's also a trend of "art sharing" tweets. I have found a couple of artists and webcomics through that kind of event, but again, the turnover isn't anything to write home about.

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I wonder if readers make use of the search more than us creators do?

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I doubt it, Lee

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

:/

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I never use it as a reader, at any rate, though I don't know if others are like that.

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Though, actually that's not true, I have used hashtags to look at more things being posted within art events. So inktober, mermay, hourly comic day, etc.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

But art event hashtags are useful, because -- like I mentioned before -- those tweets provide entertainment value without anyone having to click on offsite links. e.g. the #StartToFinish tag that's hot right now.

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I have followed new artists from those tags though and then checked out their off-site stuff. It's definitely a more round about way than someone specifically looking for comics to read via hashtag

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

From my limited observation, when people are looking for comics to read, they tend to ask for recs rather than do hashtag search?

"Anyone know of some good magical girl webcomics?" etc

which is a bit of a bummer for us creators, because that is completely outside of our control. Nothing we can do about it.

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

here's the popularity for the #webcomics tag

So SOME people use it.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

@Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight) I'm gonna guess it's mostly creators using them to promote, rather than readers using them to search.

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

Also it seems to be peak in popularity in the USA

@keii’ii (Heart of Keol) the graph implies interaction, really.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

What counts as interaction?

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

tweeting it and searching it

what I'm saying is we can't know.

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I don’t so much in Twitter, but I personally DO search hashtags on Insta to find new art.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

It's true, we can't know. I just personally can't imagine anyone searching for #webcomics to find stuff to read

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Insta is definitely hashtag game city.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah, IG is a different beast

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Comics don’t generally gel so well with Insta’s format, though, so I’m usually seeking art and not comics.

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

just to be safe, occasionally use it

To be honest, I'm probably more likely to find and become a fan of webcomics here on this server than any social media

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah, I wouldn't say "don't use #webcomics" -- use it if you have no other, more specific tags to put. But on Twitter, you don't want too many hashtags, so if you got more specific ones... use those instead!

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

I feel somewhat self conscious in getting an instagram. But I'll get one most likely.

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

It might be a good idea to switch up your tags regularly? Choose two or three from a relevant list each update and see if any of those tweets get a noticeable boost in engagement.

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

Yeah that sounds a good strategy

speaking of, any other creators into historical webcomics?

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I don't seek them out, but there's some that I read.

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

yours is touching upon the historical keii with the joseon-style elements.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

It's definitely not historical but yeah, got the aesthetics going for it!

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

Yeah!

I must admit, I'm a bit starved for like-minded creators. I mean people that create historical webcomics. I know and follow a few but that's not nearly enough.

(if I'm babbling too much for creator babble please tell me!)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Babbling is fine! But this might be better for #general or possibly shop talk as it's not related to this week's topic?

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

oh sorry, there's a specific topic here too?

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah, all the channels under CTP Activities have a... topic thingie that changes weekly

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

okay got it. I'll take it there. Sorry :/

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Don't be sorry, be glad to chat about this stuff in another channel

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

With insta please be mindful that if you‘ll always post with the same hashtags, their algorythmn likely will assume you‘re a bot.

mirandalorian

Oh really?

I definitely did not know that.

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Yup, it‘s a big annoyance. At least it was that way half a year ago, how is the algorythm now? Nobody knows.

I kinda hate insta, but it‘s the platform with the most interactions for me, although I don‘t know if it goes beyound liking my panel cutout.

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Instagram does it‘s darnest to lock the user into theor own ecosystem.

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Yeah, hard same. I definitely get the most likes there, but I get very few referrals from insta.

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Funnily, the only social media where I KNOW I got at least one reader from is pillowfort and their teeny-tiny webcomic comunity!

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I keep wanting to hop over there, but also starting a new social media sounds exhausting TuT one day.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I need to start using PF

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

It‘s pretty chill, reminds me of the hey-day of livejournal, with great filtering - more intended to create many small communities than one giant pot like twitter.

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I don’t think any platform’s algorithms like me. I get very low engagement no matter where I post. I’m just not good at figuring out what these platforms pick up.(edited)

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

I still have three invites left for this week.

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

Does cross promotion work for you guys at all?

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

A little bit? But I think my comics are a hard sell, so I generally don’t get a lot of referrals when I cross-promote with other creators.

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

It‘s how I found this community; but otherwise, nope.

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

Now I need to check out your comics Lee. I'm intrigued!

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Haha, if you want to! If they’re not your cup of tea that’s a-okay.

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I still have three invites left for this week.

@chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa] if you don't have plans for those invites, I would definitely take one and follow you first

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

About the hashtag thing on Twitter..... I have found the hashtags #webtoon #webtooncanvas and #celebrateCANVASday to be particularly useful for those of us publishing on Webtoon Canvas. I have gained a few new readers from this, and the official Webtoon Canvas page often retweets when these hashtags are used.

mariah (rainy day dreams)

That's good to know. I'm planning to start mirroring on Webtoon so I'll have to be sure to remember to use those tags.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I need to fix my series on WT first. But I'll give those hashtags a try once that's been done

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I tried using webtoon hashtags a few times, but their page never retweeted me. It seems either random, or there’s some hidden requirement for getting a rt.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

i use the tag sometimes but I found it more responsive if you have a vertical scrolling format comic

then they're more likely to respond to you

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Oh, yeah.... I use a traditional page format.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

same rip

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I do combine all my pages into long episodes at the ends of chapters, so it’s kinda scrolling, but they’re just traditional pages stacked on top of each other, lol. WT definitely doesn’t like that, but I don’t have the time to reformat hundreds of pages.

Feather J. Fern

Also promo thought, I randomly joined people's streams before and then got hooked on their comics after seeing them draw on twitch or something like that

Pistashi

I struggle a bit with promo stuff, because I get too self-conscious about self-promoting and I'm the type of person that ends up doing too much of it or none of it

at the moment I'm working on making a press kit and sharing it with some blogs and networks about comics

but still, what I usually do is join groups and try to talk with people that works with art and comics

this is kind of more inclined to networking and meeting new people to talk about what we like than promoting my work to potential readers

nothing wrong with that, but looking with a more critical eye I still have a lot to learn about building an audience and reaching people who could become future readers

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

I wonder HOW much a large social media following is worth. Insta‘s shown me that it isn‘t necessarily translating into readers.

carcarchu

in my experience followings on different platforms are non-transferable. same goes with having a large following on your comic itself, doesn't necessarily mean having a lot of followers on your art accounts. that's why they say "don't build your sandcastle in someone else's sandbox"

Pistashi

that makes a lot of sense

kayotics

If you’re building your following around your own content (original art, comic updates, etc) then the likelihood that the following is transferable is higher, but it’s still not 100%. You’re competing with everything else on their timeline too.

RebelVampire

i think a thing to consider with webcomics especially when it comes to social media is that a good portion of people who follow comic creators on social media are other comic creators, not people who are just readers. and the good majority of comic creators do not have a lot of time to read other webcomics. While there are certainly exceptions, I see those very few and far in between. So the conversion rates for social media right now are super low until the dynamic of the communities on the platforms changes.

kayotics

I’d agree with that, but also having a social media presence has definitely opened up some doors to being seen by other creators, many of whom are professionals. It’s good for networking, might not be the best for gaining and retaining readers.

RebelVampire

Oh yeah for sure. My point was about conversion factor

its factor in networking is a whole other matter entirely

and is indespensible

kayotics

One thing that I didn’t mention for myself is that networking has helped a LOT with getting new readers. Word of mouth, is always the best way to advertise, and other webcomic people giving you a plug can see some really strong results

[mischiefruled]

week #1 - organizing & outlining

So, just got through with my first week at uni. Only two lectures so far, both mostly full of introductions and occasional interruptions by a healthinspection team for corona. Honestly, didn’t learn anything I hadnt already in a levels, but thats ok. Introductory classes after all. I’m just hoping my one edge lasts when I’m in a class fullll of kids from families of law firms and politicians. 

Right now I have a few questions I need to answer.

What do I give priority to here at the start?

How should I divide my studies up? What types of notes should I make? How should I go about this?

What resources do I need to pick and look for?

What is the purpose of this blog?

ANSWER #1

I have a lot to improve on. But to look at each thing is so overwhelming that it leaves me in a state of paralyis. So for now, Im listing them out in order of importance to me

> Get my shit in order. Collect my books, get my new laptop, and set up a good study space

> Figure out my routine. I hate routine. But without any good transport methods it becomes necessary. Two issues with this, one that my mom is difficult and doesnt give me a lot of control on my own schedule. Second is that the library has the texts, but my home has the laptop. I suppose I’ll start taking my ext hard drive but it’ll still be a tad inconvenient

> Make friends and connections. I really need to set up a study system, I like stuydying with people. I also need people to fall back on in case I miss lectures and the like. As much as I hate interacting with people who I can’t be myself around, it will be a necessity. Tangentially related, I need to figure out how I want to appear to others + buy some new clothes for God’s sake.

> Learn TOUCH TYPING. This will be essential if our exams will be given online. Even now I’m typing with jsut two fingers. god. Need to get a speed of 80wpm by the end of this year. Please.

ANSWER #2

I’ve got 5 notebooks so far: class notes, personal notes, cases and summaries, general notebook? [not so sure about this one], and I plan on buying a binder with loose paper to organize final notes. Another thing I need to consider is using OneNote, but that’ll be easier when I finally get my own laptop.

I’ll divide by subject, subjects into chapters, then each chapter as a whole into different aspects to study with. 

Primary notes [study guide] + Extra material notes + core concepts and analysis. 

Furthermore, summarize each chapter in my own words in an essay form. A blog post from an old LLB UoL graduate recommedned something similar.

Finally, do the activities and tasks at the end of the module.

Now, further along the road, I should start looking up past papers and examiners reports. I should regularly consult my professors too, ask them on my methods and clear up any confusion I may have in my core concepts. Perhaps I’ll find a purpose for that general notebook after all in this regard lol

ANSWER #3

I dont quite know why I asked myself that on this blog post... I’m already looking through the study guide for stuff to refer to. Must remind myself to consult professors on what material is most necessary as well.

ANSWER #4

A few things come to mind. i want this blog to motivate me, first of all.

Collect tips, advice, and resources

Weekly summaries of what I’ve done and how uni went and general areas I need to improve upon

Perhaps I should upload chapter summary essays on here too. If I type out my notes on cases as well I will post them here.

Links and stuff I find interesting

Organize my reading list and how far I am with them. Include them in my weekly updates. Perhaps my weekly updates should also contain my goals for the week

┈ ┈ ┈ ⋞ 〈 ⏣ 〉 ⋟ ┈ ┈ ┈

WELL now that ive managed to spell all that out for myself, I think ill just talk about other stuff now.

the teachers seem nice. the criminal law prof does sound a bit intimidating but the lsm professor was very lax, and the contract law prof was very helpful in explanations and i had a talk with him about materials.

i met three people in class so far, janita, sofia, and zainab. i will try talking to them more, but theyre all rather shy in my opinion. i met an IR student called nawal, she was very sweet and likes makeup and fashion. we talked enthusiastically within moments of meeting one another, i cant even remember how many topics we bounced back and forth between. very easy to talk to, and she doesnt have an instagram so.. well not to be superficial , but that does my raise my opinion of her.

thats all for the personal section

┈ ┈ ┈ ⋞ 〈 ⏣ 〉 ⋟ ┈ ┈ ┈

WEEKS GOALS

get laptop 

make fee payment to uol

pester SWQ for study guide. i know he has some copies squirelled away i know it..!!!

ask about student gym + again pester SWQ abt the current library system cause.. wtf!

┈ ┈ ┈ ⋞ 〈 ⏣ 〉 ⋟ ┈ ┈ ┈

READING

In order of importance

LSM UoL study guide [5/7]

Criminal Law UoLstudy guide [3/15]

Public Law UoL study guide [0/20]

Contract Law UoL study guide [0/17]

Learning Legal Rules [0/12]

I made it through 5 chapters with notes within a week. Assuming I can up the pace to about 6, I can manage to get halfway through the rest of these study guides within 3 or 4 weeks.

 I only need to get halfway through, because I need to be slightly ahead of the class, not fully. Then I can focus on learning through textbooks, starting with LSM. It’s the most boring, so Id like it out of the way as soon as possible.

[aldefi1]

undefined

Very CIA NYPD 5256, again, 134 pm, a spy pedestrian trying to cause an accident, another one walking toward me, I usually ride slowly very conscious that this type of frame might happen at any moment. General statement: I say, the spy network, based on my experience, involve percentages of the population, impossible you say, that means millions. In WW II, five million were involved in the Manhattan project, in absolute secrecy, President Truman didn’t know until he was told about it, therefore, do not tell me, it is impossible. You reach secrecy with large number of spies, because they know very little, just enough for a specific task and swore to absolute secrecy, and heavy penalties in case their open their mouths, some legal and others not so much.

As always, most details in my videos are relevant, I can’t describe everything, it would take me much longer that is taking me now to describe all spies attempt to cause an incident or setup a frame. Reviewing the stores’ surveillance video recordings at least ten minutes prior to my arrival and after my departure, should help to understand the way the spies operate, also helps to put in context my videos. Ninety five percent of the time I visit a business, no matter the time of my arrival, there are individuals who start or are, unloading merchandise at that instant, the underlying idea is to cram my space. It appears, some of the stores’ surveillance videos are being collected, I’ve noticed, occasionally, a decrease in the number of spies either standing by in the stores, preceding me or exiting as I arrive, entering as I exit, following me, and gathering at the registers at the time of paying.

The videos and photos I am posting in the net, should be downloaded by the authorities, the spies could delete all my uploaded files with just one click, they know all my passwords. In fact, I do not know how many of my videos and photos are actually reaching others unaltered, or reaching the net at all. I video record as much as I can, because I feel I am alone on this, I cannot trust witnesses, they can easily be intimidated or worst, considering the size of the spy network. I do not understand why the anti-terror laws are not being applied to the spies stalking me. It is obvious, that a network of this size, acting in such illegal manner, can do anything it wants, against any person, institution or company, perhaps Guantanamo can be a destination for the members of this domestic spy network.

Exiting home has always been one the most dangerous instances when I go out, the spies prepare the ground by saturating my apartment with toxins from the moment I state I will be exiting. I’ve been assaulted at the exit, threatened, situations that can quickly escalate are regularly set up. It is not a coincidence that 95% of the time there is no one reliable present when I exit and return home. Objects are regularly left near my apartment’s door, as a way to make a bit more difficult to move my bike around, the spy who normally does it, is 2B, but can be 2C or any other spy from this building.

The authorities should be questioning the employees at the stores I have visited, by asking simple questions, such as: “if they work for any entity, public or private dealing with matters of intelligence or national security”, also, “if they have been instructed about my persona”. All individuals at the building where I live, specially at units: 1B, 2B, 4B, 5B, should be questioned along the same lines, I have the strong impression that no one is being questioned at all. At the building where I have to live, one person was murder at 1A, another one died in very suspicious circumstances at 1B, another one at 4C, a person at 3C, became insane and disappeared from here, two more, I’ve been told and I’ve observed, suffer of some serious mental illness, 2B and 5A. These are the things I know, there could be many more suspicious situations I simply do not know about it.

I avoid having a routine, that is the reason I go to as many stores as is feasible, in that way the spies are forced to spread across a larger area, otherwise, it would be easier for them to concentrate their forces. I keep my bike with me at all times, without chaining it outside, no only because it would be cumbersome to remove and replace my cameras, but because when I have done it, it has been vandalized, sabotage, break cable cut clean, or stolen. The bikes also provide a platform for the cameras, consequently the images are clearer, stable, I believe. I have a camera facing back, this camera dissuade, to a point, the spies, bikes and vehicles, from following me too closely. Before I setup this camera, spy bikers would followed me one feet or two feet away from my bike’s rear wheel.

The presence of ambulances, wherever I go, isn’t just about harassing me with their sirens, it is also about to be the first to pick me up in case of an “accident”, during my month trip trough Canada, in 2009, I could see, practically always, an ambulance behind me, at a subtle distance.

I think CitiBike rentals go up, at least one hour before I leave home and it decreases after I’ve returned home, the few honest authorities left, by checking if I am right, would have another evidence to realize how big is the hunting of my persona. Many of the spy bikers in order to cause an incident, ride in a collision course toward my persona. Also, I strongly believe, street lights, traffic ones, the famous red, yellow and green, are being manipulated, to get me into an accident, specially with pedestrians. Many spies of all ages and look place themselves at many, many corners trough Manhattan while I’m out.

These photos and videos shouldn’t be ignored; these individuals and vehicles are involved in dozens of, mostly, illegal activities. These activities are designed to manipulate the political development of the country, its direction, at a local, national and international level. You might be tempted to think how some of them can be spies at all, to build a credible scenario to put their victims out of circulation, specially trough frames, this diversity is crucial to the spy agencies. It will confirm my assertion when you check the background of these individuals, you will see, the majority of them are already either “victims” or “witnesses” of incidents, the spies always work in very well coordinated packs, these packs always include first respondents. I calculate that around twenty percent of the police force and other first respondents, trough out the country, works for the CIA, they are chosen with only one consideration, their loyalty to the CIA. Most of them, if not all of them, lack of the actual skills to be a good policeman, therefore, incidents, were people get arrested or shot, in many situations where a good policeman would have never arrested the person or diffused the situation without having to shoot, will keep happening.

The majority of the spies start their training very young, in fact, in their early years they are prepared by being subjects of abuses, of all sorts, then, they train by bullying, framing and conning other kids, gang rapes are standard to destroy psychologically their victims. In sum, spies are being manufactured. I believe three percent of the country is involved in domestic espionage activities, although, due that around me they concentrate, the numbers wherever I go, in the streets, might reach up to twenty five percent or more of those individuals you see in my videos, no matter how casual they might appear. In the stores themselves, the spies numbers can easily be one hundred percent.

As far as I can tell, everyone in my family is part of this spy network, I believe, they were incorporated as adults, therefore, their participation, I assume, is forced, trough blackmailing and fear, than professional training. When I discovered that, a very close surveillance was around me, back at the end of 2005, and I told my family about it, their answer was “do not tell anyone because people will think you are crazy” this attitude has not changed. It is very possible, they are telling others, specially authorities, that I am someone with mental troubles, in spite of all my recordings and other evidence. I believe, this spy network has been around me, since I was at least a teenager, therefore, many comments coming from “friends” might also align with the same line my relatives might be stating.

The use of, mainly, minorities, including LGBTQ people, old people, disabled, females, pregnant women, couples, minors, to harass me, is no casual. The idea is, in case I loose my patience, I fall into a trap, I could make comments that the spies would greatly exploit, at a subsequent trial, hence, I would look as bad as is possible. The CIA normally employs this scheme against its many targets. Before I started to upload videos to the net, spy couples, many of them kissing as I bike, would be used in large numbers at any day or hour when I was out, no matter the weather. Since I started to post these videos, the spies have been using them in large numbers and more subdue, mostly on weekends, to make it look more “natural”

Although, I start video recording as I exit from home, and I do not stop recording until I am safely back, I do not post every video in the net, as a way of keeping under my sleeves a few aces. Many spy vehicles keep their headlights on, regardless of time and weather, on most occasions when I go out. License plates from Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and DC, appear often when I am riding.

Corners where the spies normally set up frames when I go out: Every corner at 4th street from Broadway to my home; Houston and Avenue B; Houston and Broadway; 10, 11th streets and Avenue A; Avenue C, from 2nd Street to 11th St; Avenue B and 6 and 7 Streets; 6th St and 1st Avenue; Bowery and 3rd St; 23rd St 23rd and Third Avenue.

From March to September 2008, PS15 went trough renovations, with all the loudness made by the tools employed, many times you could see the workers playing with those tools just to make loud noises. From that period to now, the spies have used all sort of excuses to bring large loud machinery to the street where I live, many times next to my apartment. The spies have extended this excuse to do all kind of work, construction or maintenance, utilities, at buildings and streets, in the area that goes from 14th St, Houston, Broadway and Avenue D, to create situations were I can potentially be put out of circulation due to an “accident”.

[wallpaperpainter]

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[ylliasterphoenix]

Bit of a rant.

I currently live in South Hatfield, which to most is pretty much the middle of butt-fuck nowhere. This is primarily because of the fact that between my last place and here, there really weren’t any other options. Most people would assume living in Hatfield is not such an awful thing to happen to a person, and for the most part, I would agree with those who think that. The rent is good, and the size of the room is far greater than anywhere I’ve lived before.But that’s where the benefits end. This place, outside of my room, is a fucking shithole. I’ll now explain why:

The landlady is a 60+ with Rheumatoid Arthritis, which, fair enough is a moderately debilitating physical deformity, but she uses it as an attention seeking tool, using it to bother me all hours of the day and night with “can you go over the shops” or generic household duties, which is moderately fine, given that i’m not actually the most evil person you’ll ever meet, (or I might be, not sure yet) but here’s the issue. More often than not, likely due to the insane amount of codeine she ingests (whether or not this still has anything to do with the pain is beyond me, I’ll get back to this in a bit), she’s fully capable of using her big fucking hoover (a Dyson Animal, if you need a reference point) to do a shit job of cleaning, and any other tasks. Still on the subject of this abhorrent woman, she has 5 (maybe more) cats, that she definably, objectively is incapable of looking after, which is something that I feel I should contact the RSPCA about. There is one cat litter tray downstairs, by what was the actual front door, and one in her bedroom. That’s right people, she keeps a fucking cat litter tray, where she sleeps, and then wonders why she’s always ill. The cats are always fighting each other, which I have to assume is a territorial thing (fair play), but they also drag dead animals into the house into the myriad areas that cannot be readily noticed by the naked eye. The latest example of this was a dead squirrel, which I genuinely have no clue how long was there, but had begun to maggotize, (or whatever the correct word for that is) meaning I have to assume it was there for at least 4 days, given the state of it when I had to remove it (because no one else in the house was clearly willing to) the cats had obviously been chowing down on it, which likely allows me to assume the cats are all underfed. Okay, so that’s that out of the way, but is that all? Oh, no, not by a long fucking shot. Every now and again, when I get so fucked off at the fact that I’ve literally slept on park benches cleaner than the majority of this house, I’ll take the hoover around the downstairs area, and clean the surfaces in the kitchen, and when I have to do this, I do a good fucking job, literally spending many hours at a time just cleaning while these fuckers sleep. To this point, the next morning, the regular response is that I did a shit job of cleaning (taking into consideration that there is no fucking way the carpet had been cleaned in at least a decade before I moved in, and the carpet is most likely being held together by malted cat hair at this point), this, I ignore. But the job is significant enough that keeping it clean after the point should be a 5 minute job, assuming of course (which I have to) that she should just pick up after herself as she goes along. Before I continue, back to the aforementioned squirrel incident, I had a long argument with this woman about the shit state of her house, and she pretty much told me that “if some “yobbo” wants to complain about the state of her house, he can just fuck off”. The “yobbo” she was referring to was me in this case. Here’s the thing, I genuinely believe, from a psychological standpoint that either one of two things has happened here. Either she’s gotten so used to such a shit state of living that it’s now the norm for her and anything cleaner makes her ill (I’ve heard it can happen), or that she was one of those spoilt fucking kids who because she had a disability, no one ever said no to her, and tiptoed around her disabilities rather than being honest with her. This is the more likely. I don’t give a fuck about her deformity. She IS still capable of functioning, and she proves it on a regular basis. This has such a big section simply because for the last couple days, because she hasn’t had tobacco in her life, she’s been twitching, and vomiting, which has made the house fucking stink of not just the regular musty cat shit and human piss scent, as apparently, it’s considered rude to flush the toilet after you use it here (or some shit like that) but also the smell of vomit as well. Early on in the month, because she wouldn’t stop knocking on my door at 4 a.m., I gave her the remainder of a bag of Amber Leaf I had and wasn’t likely to use, she didn’t say thank you at all, which I didn’t care about, but now she seems to assume I’m some kind of tobacco vendor, and even if I had it, I wouldn’t be giving it to her at this point, because I still don’t believe addiction is a real thing (possibly because I don’t have any, it makes it harder to believe in them), but also, because the woman has likely never given a sincere gratuity in her pitiful existence.

Now for the other real problem, and that is the state of the house, I’ve uploaded a video of what it looked like at  some point of recording, trust me, it’s worse now, and it speaks for itself. Since she’s been “ill” for the last couple days, the kitchen has been full of baskets of washing, which DO include her bedding, and DO smell like piss, and when I accidentally stepped in some liquid on the floor in my path to the microwave literally just now, I moved one of these baskets over that, and then, in my second path the microwave, I stepped in another puddle of liquid. I have no doubt this was piss. BUT! Is this the worst thing about this house? No no no no no... No. When I first moved in, the bath tub was full of those little rubber things that I assume disabled people use to grip to the ceramic, which were coated with mold. How long had they been there? Fuck only knows. Within the first day I had removed them using medical grade protective gloves and thrown them away. Recently, she purchased a bath mat, which I regularly remove, as the underside is beginning to accrue the same black disgusting shit all over it. I sanitize the bath with serious shit before I even consider using it. The toilet, for my efforts is actually relatively clean. As with virtually every toilet I’ve ever used, I clean it before and after using it, and occasionally just when I’m on a cleaning binge anyway. More recently, there was what I have to assume as cat shit tracked into the toilet on the base of some bastards shoe (so either the landlady herself or the other tenant), which I did my best to clean out, and then sanitize, but it’s happened again and again, which I have to assume to mean someone is doing it on purpose, most recently, it has been covered with the toilet mat, which is also one of the most unsanitary toilet mats I’ve ever seen, and if it wasn’t currently covering the latest bout of cat shit being tracked in, I would throw it away completely.

Selclene agents have come on a semi-regular basis since I moved here to “clean” the property, and for... about the rest of the day after they’ve come along, the house looks... a bit more like a house. However, none have been more than once. The landlady “claims” that it’s because they’ve become ill and not returned, and then complains about that for about an hour, but through my investigation, it’s because even the people she pays to be here find her to be an intolerable old cunt who doesn’t have any manners, and is literally (and I quote here) a disgusting old hag.

Why  am I whinging to you malicious, schadenfreudic bastards on here? Because sometimes, I’m in a really fucking bad mood, and occasionally that will come out in conversation, or will result in some of the situations where I literally just don’t want to see people (which will be covered in another note), this is why. This is what I put up with. It’s not he-died-for-your-sins level of sacrifice, but please understand, that if I’m in a bad mood, or don’t want to go anywhere, it’s because this house is almost literally so unbearable that I’ve genuinely considered returning to being homeless as an alternative. And therefore spend a lot of time... For want of a better term... trying very hard to not inflict how pissed off I am on people who really, really don’t deserve it, but again, we’ll get to that in a later post.

[k-lara7]

The Bodyguard, chapter 5

Frantically, Jyn looked over at Cassian. Not wanting to wake him, she stepped out of the room. Wicket jogged around her legs to jump on Cassian’s bed. He instantly curled up next to the man. Shaking her head at her cat, Jyn closed the door. The voice on the other end of the phone snapped, “Answer me.” Jyn calmly answered, “My name is Jyn Erso, Your Highness.” What was the proper title for a diplomat? “Jyn Erso? You’re the tramp my brother is dating? Where is he? I want to talk to him, right now!” “He’s asleep, and I am not disturbing him. You can call back later and talk to him as long as you promise not to upset him. Cassian has been very ill,” she returned sharply. “Just who in the Hell do you think you are to tell me what to do? You put him on the phone, right now.” “I’m sorry Your Highness, but no one, not even God Himself, is waking Cassian. He needs his rest.” “How dare you? You put him on the phone right now. Do you have any idea who you are messing with? “Yes, ma’am. I know who you are. But the last time I checked, present fiance trumps absent sister.” “Is that your final answer?” the woman shot back. “Yes, it is,” Jyn replied, succinctly. “Good. We are going to get along just fine, Jyn,” Leia laughed. “Excuse me?”she asked, confused. “I know who you are, Jyn. And I know the truth about what you are doing there. Kay has been keeping me updated regularly. He knows that I would rip his arms off if he didn’t keep me in the loop. I’m sorry we have put you in this situation. I understand you prefer to meet all conflicts head-on and honestly. “I do agree with Kay on this though. If Cassian understood the true threat to his life, he would push all of us away to protect us from being collateral damage. He would also try to use himself as bait to draw the threat out.” Jyn didn’t want to argue with Cassian’s sister, but the man she described was quite different from the man in the tabloids. Leia continued, “For now, I need you to continue the pretense. No matter how dishonest you feel, you need to keep pretending to be his fiance. There is a lot more going on than even I know about right now. I have all my resources dedicated to finding this assassin and stopping him. At this point, I am sure that I know who wants my brother dead, and why. Whatever resources you need, ask. I will get them for you. Any expenses you have, Kay will take care of them. There are going to be a lot of public events. I am sending my personal assistant to help you prepare for those. He’ll help you with the necessary wardrobe. His name is Cedric Threepio. You’ll meet with him tomorrow.” Jyn’s mind was trying to process all this information. Cassian’s overprotective younger sister wanted her to keep lying to her brother to protect him. Damn. She had been half hoping Leia would force the truth to be told. And now she was going to have to dress the part of a celebrity’s girlfriend. Bye-bye combat boots. They better not try to force her into heels. Leia continued, “I have left a package with my secretary, Winter, at my office. It’s all the notes on the investigation I have so far. I think you should know just what is going on. Please, don’t tell my brother. He’ll probably blame himself and try to isolate himself to protect those he loves. It wouldn’t be the first time. And I know it goes against everything you believe, but you need to pretend to be a damsel-in-distress. Cassian will take foolish risks when it’s only his life on the line. If he thinks you're in danger too, he will be more careful.” Jyn stopped her for a moment. “I can’t do this alone. I’m going to need help.” “Who did you have in mind?” “My friend, Bodhi. I can trust him and he is trained for this, former military.” “Cassian’s going to need someone to drive him around. I’ll bring him on as his driver. Anyone else?” “Chirrut and Baze, my employers, would be a great resource. They already have access to the studio as stunt choreographers. Cassian may even know them.” “Kay has told me about them. That should be easy. Their cover is that they got you the job on the celebrity cruise where you met Cassian.” “That works,” Jyn agreed. “Bring Bodhi on today. He can stay with Cassian while you go pick up that package and read it. The faster you are in the loop, the better,” she ordered. “Yes, Your Highness.” “Knock that off. That’s not even the correct title. And my name is Leia. When Cassian wakes up, tell him you talked to me and I gave you Hell over the prenup.” “Prenup?” “Cassian is sure that I would be a dragon to any woman he was really serious about. He’d expect me to demand to know your intentions toward him and be out to protect his financial assets. He hates that discussion so it should get him to take your side over mine. “And, Jyn, thank you. I know the only reason Cassian called me is because you told him too. The stupid man wouldn’t want to worry me.” As soon as Jyn got off the phone with Leia, she called Bodhi, “Drop everything and get over here, now.” An hour later, Cassian awoke to voices in his livingroom. As he started to get out of bed he felt tiny claws dig into his leg. Looking down, he found Jyn’s cat laying over his leg. Carefully he pushed the animal aside and stood. He pushed through the wave of dizziness that washed over him. Jyn was sitting on the couch sideways, talking to a man he remembered meeting at the hospital. He couldn’t remember who he was though. She looked up at his entrance. Rushing over to him, she made sure he was stable and escorted him to the couch. As she seated him, she said, “Cassian, I’m not sure if you remember Bodhi. He came by the hospital with me.” “I remember a little, not much.” Bodhi smiled a little nervously. “That’s ok. I don’t think we said anything important.” “I have to go run a couple errands. Bodhi’s going to stay with you while I’m gone,” she said. “I don’t need anyone to stay with me,” Cassian said, frustrated because he probably did need someone to help him. “Well, it’s either Bodhi or Kay. And you need to call your sister back. She wasn’t in a good mood when I talked to her.” “When did you talk to her?” “She called back right after you fell asleep. She’s not happy with you. You should have called her.” “Is that it?” “No. Apparently you need to get your little sister’s approval of anyone you date. She doesn’t like me and told me to sign the prenup.” “What prenup?” he asked confused. “The one her team set up, I guess. And I get to meet with some assistant of hers and learn how to dress so I don’t embarrass you in the tabloids anymore,” Jyn said with a smirk. Sighing, Cassian closed his eyes. “I’m sorry. My sister is overprotective of me. It’s rather embarrassing since I’m six years older than she is. She just likes to boss everyone around.” “She must be very good at it if she is a diplomat.” “Oh, she’s the best. And she used to get me into so much trouble.” “I can’t wait to hear all about it, just as soon as I get back.” She leaned over to kiss his cheek and hit his lips when he turned his head. He put his arm around her and deepened the kiss. It took Bodhi clearing his throat to separate them. Jyn bit her lip nervously as she looked into Cassian’s searching eyes. “Later,” she promised, escaping out the door. As silence descended, Cassian felt like the light had just gone out of the room. Bodhi stuttered into the quiet, “Are you hungry? Dinner arrived a few moments ago.” Absently, Cassian nodded. It had just occurred to him, all of the rooms in his house had a touch of her in them, except his bedroom. He didn’t know what to make of that. *** Jyn rushed into the office of Organa Enterprises. The receptionist looked up at her entry and immediately called upstairs. As she hung up the phone, she directed Jyn to the top floor. “Go right up, Ms. Winter is expecting you.” Within moments she was being shown into a large open space in one of the tallest buildings in the city. A gorgeous young woman with stark white hair greeted her. “Please have a seat. Let me get the packet Leia sent for you. If you have any questions about the information, I will try to answer them.” She walked over to a bookshelf and grabbed a banker’s box. Bringing it over to the center of the room, she placed it next to her coffee table. It took just a few moments to spread out the documents on the table. Winter handed her two cellphones. “Leia wanted you to have all the necessary contacts. She figured it would be easier to upload them herself than to give them to you. One is for you, the other is for Mr. Rook.” “What’s all of this,” Jyn gestured at the mess in front of her. “This is all the research that the ambassador has done on a child slavery ring. Its very personal to her. And she thinks her research, and perhaps Cassian’s past is what motivates the person trying to kill him.” “And what do you think?” Jyn asked. “I think they are both at risk. Leia just has better guards. Until the threats started, no one realized Cassian might be in danger.” When Jyn tried to ask another question, Winter stopped her. “Read the file. If you have any questions at that point, then I will answer them. I’ll leave you alone for now. Just call me if you need anything.” Jyn nodded as she picked up the first article. It was about a car accident involving a young woman named Padme Amidala and her two children, twins. The mother died at the scene, the boy, age 2, survived and was sent to live with a paternal uncle. The girl had disappeared before emergency services were on scene. The next article was translated from a Mexican newspaper. It detailed the career of an up and coming child actor, Cassian Andor who was, tragically an orphan. His father had died before he was born, no details were given. His mother had died in a single car accident on her way to pick him up from daycare. He had just finished his second picture. The article noted that his mother had turned down several lucrative offers and planned to halt her son’s career to give him a normal childhood. After her death, Imperial Orphanage, headed by Director Orson Krennic, gained custody of the boy. From that moment on his career flourished. He was signed to a long term contract on Jedha City and several small, questionable movie parts that paid well. The article was ambiguous about where the money went. Setting that article aside, Jyn found the next one was also translated into English. This one detailed the rescue of a young girl found wondering alone on the streets, identified as Leia, by an eight year old Cassian Andor. The two children spent several months together becoming inseparable. Their story caught the attention of Bail and Breha Organa who decided to adopt them. Under the news articles were copies of legal documents. Leia, age 4, was formally adopted by the Organas. Physical custody of Cassian, age 10, was given to the Organas with the stipulation that his acting contracts had to be honored. There were more contracts detailing the disposition of the boy’s salary. Apparently he made Imperial Orphanage a lot of money and Krennic tried to set himself up as Cassian’s financial guardian. Bail was able to get the courts to agree to put all of the child’s money in a trust fund and seal it away until his 30th birthday. If the boy died before that date, the orphanage, and Director Krennic, would inherit the fortune. As a result, Bail Organa had set Cassian up with a significant trust from his own fortune as well as the penthouse he currently lived in. Leia was named executor in his absence to protect Cassian. Below these documents were more news articles. One detailed the fiery crash that killed Breha and Bail. Those events were listed as suspicious and unsolved. Jyn noted that was three car accidents. It seemed a little too coincidental. Leia must have made the connection since her research went further. There were other children from the orphanage who had become child stars and died before their 18th birthday. All of their fortunes reverted to the director. It was a lot of information to take in. If Leia was right, Krennic wanted Cassian dead to steal his fortune. That was not going to happen on her watch. http://archiveofourown.org/works/11237331

[cloudstorageboss]

11 Google File Sharing Facts That Are a Risk To Your Privacy

Just about everyone knows about Google’s file sharing options. Google Drive, Google Docs, and Gmail have become mainstays of the industry with millions of users across their sharing apps, and for a good reason. Google’s offerings are simple-to-use, reliable, and make getting your files to recipients for instant collaboration a breeze.

There may be a darker side to all this Google-related cheer, though. Google’s file sharing comes with its share of privacy concerns, and despite Google’s insistence that your information is stored in their “secure data centers” there’s no shortage of articles about the company leaking information or allegedly mining and marketing data to third parties to make a buck.

Here are some facts that might make you think twice about your privacy when making use of Google’s various platforms.

1) Google Has Some Sordid History with Their File Sharing

We mentioned one lawsuit Google found itself mired in at the onset, but that isn’t the first, last, or only time Google has found themselves in hot water. Look at Matera vs. Google if you’d like. Though they dodged any serious repercussions with a settlement, the fact that instances like this keep popping up doesn’t bode well for the company’s image.

In particular, it gives the impression that providing a quality service is more of a secondary concern and gobbling up as much information about users (and non-users) that they can use to turn a profit is their primary aim. They might claim otherwise, but then, why would they only address the issue after they found themselves in court?

While some protestation might seem like conspiracy theory, there’s definitely a pattern there that would suggest Google isn’t nearly as altruistic as it paints itself to be, and anyone using their services should think long and hard about giving such a gigantic company so much access to their personal data. That warning applies to every company, of course, but Google’s history with shenanigans makes it that much more apropos.

This warning is further compounded by incidents like this one, where Google was syncing user photos through Google Photos even after they deleted the app from their phone. Though they gave the usual corporate speech about how they were committed to making things “clearer” for users of their programs, one just can’t help but wonder, which leads to another interesting point.

2)The Terms of Service Aren’t the Most Reassuring

To be clear, Google is upfront about the fact that “You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours.” Good so far, but then there’s this bit:

When you upload, submit, store, send or receive content to or through our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services (for example, for a business listing you have added to Google Maps).”

Now, some rightly claim that this is just giving Google the permission to use your data for derivative uses like their Google Translate service, and that, as they state on the onset, your intellectual property remains yours. It’s not a “gotcha clause” right? True, but Google is still holding on to your data, even after you leave, and as we’ve determined, they’re none too shy about continuing to use that content to their own ends and continue to exert their dominance as global overlords of personal data.

Don’t forget about this either:

We may modify these terms or any additional terms that apply to a Service to, for example, reflect changes to the law or changes to our Services. You should look at the terms regularly. We’ll post notice of modifications to these terms on this page. We’ll post notice of modified additional terms in the applicable Service. Changes will not apply retroactively and will become effective no sooner than fourteen days after they are posted. However, changes addressing new functions for a Service or changes made for legal reasons will be effective immediately. If you do not agree to the modified terms for a Service, you should discontinue your use of that Service.”

So, they can “change the game” on you when they see fit, and conveniently claim that they’re just trying to comply with new laws. As you might have already guessed, this poses another interesting conundrum.

3) They Still Have to Comply With World Governments

Sometimes government intervention isn’t so bad. Other times, they’ll come up with any reason they like to snatch up private details for little to no reason at all. Remember the Patriot Act? PRISM? Expanding snooping on civilians that ballooned under President Obama and may well continue throughout the Presidency of Donald Trump?

At least Google is (supposedly) transparent about all those requests for user information that they receive from government entities, and, as they state they “aim to put users first” whenever they get such requests. Still, that wording is less-than-clear, and anyone planning on using Google file sharing for any reason should keep in mind that, if the government wants it, they can just ask Google for it.

4) Security Holes Do Pop Up from Time To Time

It’s the nature of just about any platform. Bugs will arise, and Google has had their share. There was the “anyone who has the link” fiasco, wherein the shareable link could enable crafty third parties to sneak a look at private data “without further authentication.” It was patched, but these sorts of issues aren’t uncommon.

More recently, Wired reported on the potential of shortened links being exploited to spy on people’s Google Maps information:

To fully illustrate the creepy potential of that publicly accessible mapping data, the researchers went so far as to identify one “young woman” who had shared directions to a Planned Parenthood facility. Starting with the Google Maps data from shortened URLs that pointed to her home, they were able to confirm her address, full name, and age—thankfully none of which they shared in the paper. “That’s a very substantial privacy leak,” Shmatikov says.”

The broader point? Yes, Google dedicates a substantial amount of time to identifying and plugging vulnerabilities, but no service is perfect. With a large network like Google that has so much information at its fingertips, the implications of even unintentional privacy violations are thoroughly chilling.

5) Your Google Account Poses A Liability

“One account. All of Google.” That little service that Google provides to make it easier to access all their various platforms is intended to help, and indeed, it does make it easier just remembering one password for all of your Google “stuff.” On the flipside, though, this poses a risk from a security and privacy standpoint.

If someone can get into one of your accounts surreptitiously, or, through negligence you forget to log out of an account and leave your device open, all your accounts then become vulnerable. What’s more, services like Google Drive don’t log you out automatically, meaning you’re particularly susceptible to less-than-scrupulous individuals with ill-intent.

6) Two-Factor Authentication Can Help…

Thankfully, to curtail this problem, Google allows you to enable two-factor authentication on your account to make it more secure. In short, 2FA requires that you provide two different means of proving yourself before you can access the account. In the case of Google, it’s “something you know (your password) and something you have (a code sent to your phone).”

You can read the steps for turning on Google’s 2FA here. It’s bolstered by the fact that you can use an email recovery option to get back into your account if you for some reason forget your password, and can also get a passcode sheet in case someone does manage to circumvent the security on your account and changes your normal password.

7) …But Mobile Access Presents A Concern

Unfortunately, not even this method is foolproof, and savvy tricksters continue to discover ways around the two-factor system, either through clever workarounds or skillful social engineering. To make matters worse, you can completely bypass 2FA on mobile devices for increased convenience and flexibility. Sounds good, until you lose a device that you forgot to lock, and someone else is rummaging around all your Google accounts with no restrictions.

8) Phishing Is Still an Issue

The above raises another issue. For all that Google does to make Drive and their other services secure, the human element is always open to manipulation. The tricks range from spoofing the Google login page (which was fixed) to taking advantage of human nature to get people to grant access to their accounts unknowingly.

To keep yourself safe, you should arm yourself with the knowledge you need to identify and avoid phishing attacks and social engineering. With some study, you can learn to spot the signs that you’re being targeted and keep your passwords and other sensitive authentication information close to the vest.

The rule of thumb is to watch out for spam emails, make good use of encryption and firewalls, don’t email passcodes or other similar data, don’t click on links from unknown senders, and avoid entering any information in random pop-up screens (among others).

9) You’ve Got To Know How To Work The Options

Within Google’s File sharing network, there are lots of options that affect who can access and edit the data you store. Unfortunately, not all of these are as intuitive as Google might hope, which can lead to confusion and the potential for you to accidentally make something accessible to all that you meant to keep private. The only way around this is to familiarize yourself with the options Google allows for deeply, and know what you’ve got your various files set to.

For example, the aforementioned link sharing. If you turn it off, only you or specific people you designate can see the file in question. If you turn it on for “anyone with the link,” then only people you’ve provided the link should be able to see it, if you turn it to “on for the public,” anyone across the web can access that file (even through search engines). Make sense?

Other things you should take the time to research are editing features, sending attachments, owner privileges, and other such options that determine what specific users can do with specific files. There’s a lot of information to take in, but knowing about it all will help you better protect your privacy when using Google file sharing platforms.

10) Google’s Got a Big Target On Its Back

As a repository of untold tons of personal data, Google has long worn a target on its back for cyber attackers. The trend shows no sign of slowing down, and there’s a hefty list of attempts taken throughout the years to cite. Like this one, where, apparently, government intelligence agencies were attempting to gain access to Gmail to snoop on individuals, or Operation Aurora, a coordinated effort to glean sensitive information from the tech giant.

One might say that it comes with the territory of being such a popular service, but it’s something to keep in mind before choosing to use Google for file sharing purposes. Convenience is great, but are you comfortable with the risks to privacy?

11) You Might Want to Look Into Encryption

Finally, you might want to take some additional steps of your own to enhance your privacy when using Google’s services, as Google doesn’t use client-side encryption for the data you upload (meaning they can access the files in your account when they choose). Pre-encryption is a popular option, for preventing this, and you can read more here about getting it done.

Like most cloud-based solutions, it all comes down to how you want to balance security and privacy. In the end, this decision falls on you, but you should make sure you’re well informed about all of Google’s practices and the ways you can further protect yourself before making your final call.

11 Google File Sharing Facts That Are a Risk To Your Privacy was first published at http://www.cloudstorageboss.com/11-google-file-sharing-facts-that-are-a-risk-to-your-privacy/

[goblindodie]

hiya

I’ve done some mental health updates (first / second)  a few times in the last few months so for all who are new here, this is a thing I do sometimes so that hopefully other people feel a bit more comfortable with talking about mental health! Feel free to comment on this with how you’re feeling, let’s start a conversation, you should never feel like you have to bottle all your feelings up. I’ve started back at uni, in my second year now. And tomorrow begins week 3. Only week 3. And I have never experienced so much stress and anxiety all at once. And I am so incredibly overwhelmed that I don’t know how to even function. Anytime I think about all the work I have to do I begin to stress, panic and shut down. I feel like I am physically unable to do anything. The stress has become so intense that I am having multiple days where the thought of eating something makes me feel so ill that I have to curl up in bed again. Then I grow stressed because I’m not doing any work, and the cycle repeats. As I am typing this my hands are shaking and my heart is beating so loud, I feel so lightheaded and like someone is stamping on my chest. On Thursday morning I was sitting in class. Everything was absolutely fine. The tutor is really lovely and everyone in class was having discussions about the readings from the previous week. And our tutor wanted to go around the room and ask people what they wanted to get out of this particular course. I spent my final year of high-school doing copious amounts of public speaking, I don’t often offer answers in class, but when asked a direct question I have no issue whatsoever with answering it. But within seconds of the tutor beginning to go around the class, my heart started beating in my ears, I couldn’t see, I couldn’t breathe and I was shaking. Every fibre of my being screamed “there’s no reason for you to be panicking” and yet... I was so incredibly thankful for dodie’s VEDIF “tips for when you’re panicking” because I watched that video so many times when it came out, and I heard her voice in my head telling me to breathe and remember that I was safe.  Before this event, I’d been feeling quite jittery and stressed for the last 3 weeks. We had some housemate issues, starting uni again, trying to be healthy and go to the gym but in a way that felt empowering rather than degrading (I feel like I need to make a whole separate post on this I have some body issuesssss yikes), I also decided that I should focus on being creative and uploading more often to my YouTube channel that I made last year (I’m a film student, I wanted to upload some work to it) and I made the stupid decision to make a video every day in March (so far I haven’t missed a day, yay! but also rip my mental stability). And I can’t really pinpoint what is directly to blame for me feeling so anxious and stressed. I’m exercising regularly, eating well, getting more than enough sleep, drinking lots of water. But nothing seems to be changing. I am currently in the process of switching therapists so there has been a rather long period of time where I haven’t been able to talk to anyone (I do want to thank @startleddeer @neonlester & @hearcomesthesunflower for being so kind and wonderful and brightening my days whenever I’m feeling particularly down).  I have come to the conclusion that when I do get to see my new therapist, that I will be asking to see a psychiatrist in order to begin taking some medication to alleviate how I’m feeling a little bit, as I am reaching desperation. I am having so many moments when I feel like I can’t breathe and I’m walking like I’m in some sort of dream where my heart is beating loudly in my ears and I can’t understand or remember what people are saying to me. I feel like I’m under such intense pressure to be okay and to get on with life that it is making it even more difficult. My housemate has been so incredibly kind and patient with me throughout this time, a true friend. I’ve really been seeing people’s true colours as my best friend continues to attack me and change the subject when I attempt to open up to her about how I’m feeling. And I am so angry and upset but I can’t tell her that the way she is treating me makes me feel this way because she is so co-dependent, insecure and possibly jealous of my new friends (we are long distance best friends because she stayed in our hometown but I had to move away for uni) and I can’t predict what harmful things she could do if I were to open up to her. She has had multiple suicide attempts in the past but is better now, she is getting really sad that everyone has left our hometown and after they’ve left they’ve changed. And no matter how many times I tell her that this is the way the world works when you move out of home, she just gets upset with me and has no way to try and fix it, she just complains about it and I can’t help her. She acts as if we’ve all changed and she hasn’t, which is not true. I hope we can work something out, but right at this second the thought of having to confront her and be honest about my feelings is making me feel sick. I feel the weight of people’s expectations on me, because I’m the friend who has always got their shit together, who is always okay, who makes sure everyone else is okay because I’m always fine. And lately I haven’t been able to do it, and I don’t feel comfortable opening up to people I’ve been friends with for ages simply because I don’t want them to feel like they have to watch what they say around me or treat me any differently. I just don’t want people to worry. I’ve spent so much of my life worrying about other people and fixing other people’s shit but I don’t want anyone to do the same for me because I hate asking for help. But the main person I’ve really tried to open up to has swiftly changed the subject every time. So that leads me to begin to feel like I’m doing something wrong. I just feel like I shouldn’t have these feelings and I am under so much pressure to just make them go away but that’s not going to happen.  My parents ring me everyday and ask me how my anxiety is going and if it’s fixed as if it’s an easily fixed issue. People trivialise mental health so much and make it out to be something that is fixable.  You cannot magically fix someone who is struggling with their mental health. It is a fluid process, all you can do is support them, don’t pressure them to feel better, be a shoulder to cry on and a hand to hold but don’t you dare make people feel bad for not feeling good about their brain and their life all the time.   tl:dr I’m struggling Thank you for reading this incredibly long brain vomit. I hope this makes you feel more comfortable with talking about your mental health. I will keep you updated on my therapist situation and if I can get some medication! I know it’s something a lot of people talk about, and I also know that a fair few of my followers are quite young, so if you are still in school, struggling and reading this, everything is going to be okay. Tumblr is such a wonderful community where you can find people to support you, I’ve made some incredibly important friends here who I love dearly. If you ever need help, feel free to reach out to me. Please note that I am really struggling at the moment and may be unable to actually help you, but I am here to listen if you need someone to listen to you. You are not alone.

[pressography-blog1]

Cruz: I negotiated fitness care at Mar-a-Lago

New Post has been published on https://pressography.org/cruz-i-negotiated-fitness-care-at-mar-a-lago/

Cruz: I negotiated fitness care at Mar-a-Lago

Sen. Ted Cruz said Sunday he spent three hours at the Mar-a-Lago property of his former rival on Saturday, negotiating with President Donald Trump’s crew on changes to the Republican fitness care invoice.

                                              Fitness Care

Fitness Workouts

The Texas Republican stated on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that he went to the Florida estate with Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) to talk with “the president’s group.”

“I have were given to tell you, I’m spending night and day meeting with Residence individuals, assembly with senators, assembly with the management,” Cruz stated. “Just the day prior to this, I spent three hours at Mar-a-Lago with … Mike Lee and Mark Meadows negotiating with the president’s team, trying to repair this invoice.”

Cruz failed to say what particularly he talked about with Trump’s staff, other than that they mentioned approaches to decrease prices for consumers E-Live Net.

“If we decrease charges — and, with any luck, decrease them plenty — it truly is a victory for the Yankee human beings,” Cruz said. “If rates keep going up, this is a victory for insurance organizations and lobbyists, but it’s a loss for the individuals who elected us.”

health Care Reform – Why Are people So Labored Up?

Why are People so Labored up about fitness care reform? Statements consisting of “don’t touch my Medicare” or “each person should have to get right to entry to country of the art health care no matter fee” are for my part uninformed and visceral responses that indicate a poor information of our fitness care system’s records, it’s current and future resources and the investment demanding situations that America faces going ahead. At the same time as we all marvel how the fitness care machine has reached what some confer with as a disaster level. Permit’s try to take some of the emotion out of the controversy by briefly analyzing how health care in this country emerged and how that has fashioned our questioning and culture approximately health care. With that as a basis Let’s examine the professionals and cons of the Obama management fitness care reform proposals and Allow’s study the ideas put forth by using the Republicans?

get admission to state of the art fitness care services is something we are able to all agree might be an awesome aspect for this u. S .. Experiencing a severe infection is certainly one of the lifestyles’ important challenges and to stand it without the manner to pay for it’s far definitely scary. but as we shall see, as soon as we recognize the data, we will locate that accomplishing this goal will now not be clean without our person contribution.

These are the topics I can touch on to try to make a few sense out of what’s happening to American health care and the steps we can, in my opinion, take to make matters better.

The latest records of American fitness care – what has pushed the charges so high? Key factors of the Obama fitness care plan The Republican view of fitness care – loose marketplace opposition Conventional get entry to nation of the artwork health care – a worthy goal however now not clean to obtain what are we able to do? First, Allow’s get a bit historic attitude on American health care. This isn’t intended to be an exhausted look into that history but it’s going to deliver us an appreciation of how the health care device and our expectations for it developed. What drove charges higher and higher?

To begin, Permit’s turn to the American civil battle. In that warfare, dated strategies and the carnage inflicted by using contemporary guns of the technology blended to reason ghastly outcomes. no longer usually recognized is that maximum of the deaths on each aspect of that battle have been no longer the end result of the real fight but to what occurred after a battlefield wound changed into inflicted. To begin with, evacuation of the wounded moved at a snail’s tempo and this brought on intense delays in treating the wounded. Secondly, many wounds had been subjected to wound care, associated surgeries and/or amputations of the affected limbs and this often resulted in the onset of massive infection. So you would possibly continue to exist a conflict wound simplest to die in the arms of hospital therapy providers who despite the fact that well-intentioned, their interventions were regularly pretty deadly. excessive dying tolls also can be ascribed to regular diseases and sicknesses in a time when no antibiotics existed. In total something like six hundred,000 deaths happened from all causes, over 2% of the U.S. population on the time!

Let’s pass to the primary 1/2 of the 20th century for a few additional perspective and to deliver us as much as greater present day times. After the civil struggle, there were constant enhancements in American medicine in both the understanding and remedy of sure diseases, new surgical strategies and in health practitioner training and education. however, for the maximum part, the satisfactory that doctors ought to provide their patients was a “be patient” technique. the medicinal drug should cope with bone fractures and more and more try unstable surgical procedures (now in large part accomplished in sterile surgical environments) however medicines had been no longer but available to handle serious illnesses. Most of the people of deaths remained the end result of untreatable situations along with tuberculosis, pneumonia, scarlet fever and measles and/or related headaches. medical doctors had been increasingly more privy to coronary heart and vascular conditions, and cancer but they’d nearly not anything with which to treat These conditions.

Obamacare

This very fundamental evaluation of yank scientific history allows us to take into account that until quite recently (around the 1950’s) we had sincerely no technology with which to treat serious or even minor ailments. Here’s a vital point we need to recognize; “nothing to treat you with means that visits the medical doctor if in any respect have been relegated to emergencies so in one of these scenario fees are curtailed. The easy truth is that there has been little for docs to offer and therefore virtually not anything to force fitness care spending. A 2d thing protecting down costs changed into that scientific remedies that were furnished have been paid for out-of-pocket, meaning by the manner of a people non-public sources. there was no such factor as medical insurance and without a doubt no longer medical health insurance paid with the aid of a business enterprise. Except for the very destitute who had been lucky to discover their manner right into a charity health facility, fitness care prices were the obligation of the man or woman.

What does fitness care insurance must do with health care fees? Its impact on fitness care costs has been and remains to at the moment, definitely widespread. while medical insurance for people and households emerged as a method for businesses to break out wage freezes and to attract and preserve personnel after World conflict II, almost in a single day an outstanding pool of cash became available to pay for fitness care. money, due to the availability of billions of dollars from medical health insurance swimming pools, endorsed a modern The use to increase medical research efforts. greater People became insured not simplest thru private, corporation subsidized health insurance however via extended government funding that created Medicare and Medicaid (1965). In addition, investment has become available for expanded veterans fitness care benefits. Locating a therapy for nearly whatever has, therefore, turn out to be very moneymaking. That is also the number one reason for the sizable array of treatments we’ve available these days.

I do no longer wish to deliver that clinical improvements are a terrible issue. Think of the tens of hundreds of thousands of lives which have been saved, prolonged, superior and made more efficient as an end result. however with a funding source grown to its current significance (hundreds of billions of dollars yearly) upward strain on health care charges are inevitable. health practitioners provide and maximum of us call for and get admission to the ultra-modern to be had health care era in the shape of pharmaceuticals, medical devices, diagnostic tools and surgical techniques. So the end result is that there’s extra fitness care to spend our money on and until very currently most people have been insured and the expenses were largely included by a third-birthday celebration (authorities, employers). Add an insatiable and unrealistic public demand for getting admission to and treatment and we have the “best typhoon” for higher and higher fitness care charges. And through and massive the typhoon is only intensifying.

At this point, Permit’s flip to the key questions with a view to lead us right into an evaluation and with a bit of luck a higher knowledge of the fitness care reform proposals in the information these days. Is the modern-day trajectory of U.S. fitness care spending sustainable? Can The united states keep its World competitiveness when sixteen%, heading for 20% of our gross countrywide product is being spent on health care? What are the opposite industrialized international locations spending on health care and is it even close to These numbers? whilst we Upload politics and an election 12 months to the debate, statistics to assist us solution These questions become vital. We want to spend a few attempt in knowledge fitness care and checking out how we think about it. Properly armed we can more intelligently decide whether or not certain health care proposals might resolve or worsen some of Those issues. What may be performed approximately the challenges? How can we as individuals make contributions to the solutions?

Lago Definition

The Obama fitness care plan is complex for certain – I’ve in no way seen a health care plan that isn’t always. however via a spread of packages his plan tries to cope with a) growing the variety of American which can be blanketed by means of adequate coverage (nearly 50 million aren’t), and b) handling fees in this type of manner that pleasant and our get right of entry to to health care isn’t always adversely affected. Republicans are searching for to acquire Those equal primary and broad desires, however their technique is proposed as being greater market pushed than government driven. Allow’s observe what the Obama plan does to perform the 2 objectives above. Consider, by the way, that his plan become handed via congress, and starts to noticeably kick-in starting in 2014. So This is the course we are presently taking as we attempt to reform fitness care.