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#i mean it eventually found it's audience after it got on Amazon
evocatiio · 1 year
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hey, just wanna tell you how cool it is you like willow and the expanse :))) never see any expanse fans on here
wish you all the best <3
Aww that's sweet thank you! and yeah expanse was great and deserved more mainstream hype and awards!
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granhairdo · 2 years
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A Comprehensive Review of A Little in Love by Susan Fletcher
Disclaimer: Everyone can interpret the original book however they want, this is just me comparing how I viewed the original book to this. You and the author of this novel might have interpreted Éponine quite differently than I did :)
Ever since I heard there was a novel from Éponine’s perspective, I’ve been very curious to read it. It took me a few months, but I eventually bought myself an eBook copy and read it. But to be quite honest, I didn’t really like it.
My problem with this novel isn’t necessarily an issue with the content, and more of an issue about what was promised from it, which led me to have issues with the content.
The Amazon description states that it stays true to Victor Hugo’s novel, which I find a lie. This could have just been the author’s interpretation of the character, but to me if feels more like fanfiction of the musical with some added novel characters than a full fledged published book based off the original novel.
Now, I can see why bits of the content was toned down a little bit. This was a novel intended for a young teenage audience (12-15) so some of the more adult themes needed to be cut, which is understandable as it’s for a younger age group. But it seemed like cutting wasn’t a problem with this, it really just got rid of mentions of sex or suicide, and that was about it. It even elaborated on the harsh realities of street life, which I did find enjoyable. 
I didn’t completely hate this novel, I did enjoy a bit of it. I really enjoyed the writing style, it felt as if Susan Fletcher was really experienced in writing these sorts of period novels (I’m not familiar with her so maybe she does focus on period pieces like this). I also really enjoyed how she took scenes that weren’t really shown in the novel and made them big moments in Éponine’s life. 
Now onto my issues. My biggest issue with this novel is how Éponine is portrayed. To me, in this she feels far too innocent and righteous. Don’t get me wrong, Éponine in the original book has a righteous and protective side to her, but it isn’t her entire personality.
At first, as this is in first person POV, I thought that that her righteous way of describing herself was just an act she was putting on in her own head, portraying herself as the hero in her own mind. Which that is a very interesting thought on its own, but that’s not what the deal was in this. She carries her righteous thoughts into her actions as well, not doing anything wrong, which to me turns her into more of a Mary Sue than a corrupt street girl.
They cut out the whole “Éponine leading Marius to the barricade” thing from the book, and turned it more into a “Im gonna follow Marius to the barricade to protect him” which is basically how it went in the musical, but the musical doesn’t promise to be brick-accurate.
I also just find the whole puberty side plot at the beginning of it kind of annoying. It just feels like super forced relatability. I mean maybe if I had this book as an angsty hormonal 13 year old, I might have found that nice and relatable. 
If you want to write a book about relatable teenhood… please write about Cosette. (It might be my ‘I love Cosette’ brain telling me this, though). But in the original novel, Cosette had such a relatable teenhood that can be applied in the modern era. Just give her her first period and some new boobs and throw that into a 300+ page book, now I’d read that.
This book feels like it’s targeted at a strangely specific audience. But the problem is that audience is 14 year old ‘Eppi-boppers’ from 2013, and honestly as a former Eppi-bopper, I would have loved this book. But the problem is that this was published far after the “Eppi-bopper era” from like 2012-2015, so it kind of missed its time. If this book were published like 4 years earlier it would have been a HUGE success.
Also, I nearly peed my pants in laughter at the end because the last line was “love never dies” and all my stupid brain could think of was the shitty phantom sequel.
But long story short, I wasn’t a big fan of this book, and I don’t really recommend it for someone who has a less romanticized view of Éponine. But, if you’ve never cared for the book and only like the musical, I think you may enjoy it! Go for it! 
If you’ve read this novel before, I’m curious to see if you liked it or not.
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Since we discussed it: RFA with American MC lol o/
Okay, lemme do this. I find 2nd person pretty cringy so I'll avoid using it if I can. Also, I'm not that knowledgeable about Korean culture, so I can't really go too in depth about possible culture clashes. It took me a while to try to think of everything I could for that.
RFA reactions to an MC who's American
~Yoosung~
That's definitely not what he expected at all! Admittedly, in retrospect some of Seven's comments were probably hinting at that. He's still taken aback when he first sees her though. He'd stopped thinking of her as Rika a while before seeing her, sure, but without any hints as to what she looked like other than that, he'd left it as 'vaguely Rika shaped'.
It's fine, because she thinks he's cute, but she's as tall as he is! He chooses not to acknowledge her being taller by half an inch, because he doesn't measure by those and therefore that makes it completely fair to ignore it when she points it out. They are the same height.
He's kind of out of his depth, even considering how out of his depth he would be anyway just having a girlfriend, but...his perfect world is LOLOL and everyone is equal in LOLOL! Therefore, even if his girlfriend is kind of weird, he's willing to make the effort to get through that! Plus, her accent (she can't even tell she has one) is cute. On the other hand, he's so bad at speaking English that he can only bring himself to mumble it. It's hard to believe she isn't teasing him about it when she calls it cute.
But he lives for compliments from his girlfriend, so she'd best believe he keeps on trying. They still mostly communicate in Korean, but he eventually gets a bit more confident about speaking in English to her. If only in private. At first he tries to use it to tell secret mushy things to her...but then like half of the RFA understood him when he tried it at one of the parties, so. uh. never again.
His taste in food is also atrocious, so honestly, he doesn't find her foreign tastes to be that weird. Together they even organize a raid on Seven's place to steal a box of HBC chips, and then they both pretend that Seven didn't just let them do it. (Why does she know how to say 'I want to be your cat' in Arabic? YOOSUNG HAS SO MANY QUESTIONS)
He's super interested in some of the imported stuff she brought with her when she moved, especially the video games. Most of them are already available in Korea, obviously, but a true gaming connoisseur like himself enjoys comparing the differences between releases! Plus, it's easier to play co-op games with her when she doesn't need to think about how to translate certain instructions or things like that.
Speaking of her things, one time he found a book by her bedside with an interesting looking cover. It seemed to be a sequel book and the writing was too complex for him to really follow along very well, though. He had a pretty good idea the handcuffs on the cover weren't because it was a detective novel judging by the reaction she had when she caught him reading it. He got too flustered to even try to read it after that.
They visit her family back home sometimes, and he's always super excited whenever they do. There's so much food! Why do they sell burgers this big?! Why is everything so big? He doesn't really travel much aside from those family trips, so it's a nice change of pace. Even if her brother-in-law is taller than him. damn it-
At one point, she suggests they cosplay Superman and Lois Lane, but it's so awkward for him to pick her up princess-style given their relative heights that he chickens out. She cosplays as Wonder Woman instead, and honestly he thinks her as an amazon tying him-tying bad guys up with a golden rope is hotter than her as a reporter anyway.
He doesn't really grasp that American isn't a 'race', and brags about her anyway, despite her laughing every time he does.
~Zen~
It's dumb, but his first thought on seeing she's foreign is a moment of panic that he won't fit her tastes after all (despite the fact that she's already seen his selfies).
That's complete nonsense, though, because his beauty shines through cultural barriers. Hers does, too, and while he was admittedly imagining something else, he's absolutely immediately enchanted with her anyway. She's cute and beautiful and different from anyone else around him, and honestly perfect. He hadn't actually noticed the accent before when they were on the phone, but it doesn't bother him now that it's a bit more obvious.
He can't speak English if his life depended on it, so he trusts whatever she mutters to herself when she rolls her eyes or looks way too amused about something is all flattering. It's definitely flattering, because obviously it is. She does suggest that he should learn it, though, just so he can potentially broaden his horizons and reach a broader audience. He doesn't need the confidence boost or anything, but it does feel good to see her swoon over his attempts.
When she said she could keep up with him drinking, he hadn't realized it was because she just happened to be much bigger than he expected, closer to his size. Actually, though, she can take her liquor like a champ, even more than he expected. She claims it's something about college, but won't tell any stories about it other than that 'it was a crazy time'. It's fair. He had a crazy time in his past, himself.
He doesn't really care for some of the food she likes, but then again he'd eat anything if it meant eating with her, so it's not really an issue.
It takes a long time to go visit her parents, since they live over in the US, but he can't say that he hates them being starstruck when he arrives. The only trouble is that they keep trying to speak Korean to him and are so bad at it he can't really tell what they're saying. Given his personal grasp on English, she ends up having to do most of the communication as the translator, but it's a pleasant visit anyway and it makes him all the more determined to get his parents to accept her.
Which isn't made any easier by the fact that she's not Korean. To say his mother is 'displeased' would be an understatement. But he's not really new to disappointing her, so he won't give up, not on his relationship with his true love and not on fixing his relationship with his parents.
Obviously gossip mags go crazy about it. Famous actor Zen dates a strange foreigner girl! Love that transcends the barriers of culture, or something more sinister?!
It's not so bad until certain catty fans get involved. The fact that she doesn't look 'beautiful' enough for the Gorgeous Zen eventually erupts through the fandom, with all sorts of nasty comments coming up because of her foreign appearance. She handles it well, but he loses it and almost makes a public scene the time someone called her a giant ugly ogre. In the end, he decides to make a point of informing interviewers how beautiful she is during all future interviews. It's petty, but that's him.
It actually boosts his popularity, being the Romantic Zen who's hopelessly in love with his girlfriend.
Her fashion taste is atrocious, though. He doesn't know how to break it to her. It's just bad! Even if it's trendy in the US...he just doesn't like it...
They might be a bad influence on each other, since their drinking competitions seem to get out of hand and sometimes lead to Jumin or 707 collecting them in a place neither of them even remember going to.
She eats like some kind of a gorilla without any concern for politeness, and apparently without even realizing that's what she's doing, but it's honestly so cute to him that he doesn't mind. That said, it's not the best thing for his heart when she accidentally disrespects one of his directors in front of the whole crew. He manages to recover, but that particular cultural difference catches him off guard.
For the most part, though, her little quirks and differences just enchant him more. After all, she's his perfect princess, and she already was before they'd ever even met.
~Jumin~
He admittedly had something of a suspicion that she might be foreign or mixed, as he heard the difference in her voice when on the phone with her. He's still a little surprised to open the door and see just what she looks like, though.
Of course his English is flawless, as he needs to be able to converse internationally for business, and Chinese and English are essentially a requirement for that. He can't say he isn't pleased when she determines his 'English voice' (whatever that's supposed to mean) is 'sexy'...but he's also pretty sure she's the first one to think that.
His experience overseas means that he immediately recognizes that her disrespect to his father when they meet is unintentional. It's still cute, to him. As is her obvious mortification when Jaehee pulls her aside to explain. His own insult, however, is entirely intentional when his father starts planning plastic surgery appointments to 'bring her appearance more in line'.
Her bluntness is something that he heartily appreciates, and it honestly makes him more comfortable to know that he needn't worry about avoiding offending her by being direct as he prefers to be. She's not technically part of the company, but the idea does amuse him to make her one and bring her along to negotiations. They could play good cop-bad cop. (That particular line of thought travels off into imagining her in a police woman's uniform, and then he loses the train of thought entirely)
He thinks her taste in food is quirky, but his palate is somewhat expansive when it comes to international cuisine, so it works out just fine with him. Any food that he eats alongside her is food that he enjoys, so the issue is moot.
Apparently, the rumor magazines go wild every time she appears with him somewhere, but he never bothers to read those, so he has no idea what they have to say about her. If it's anything damaging, he trusts Jaehee to deal with it. It's probably for the best, because if he did catch any of the rude things they say about the gold digging foreign wife of the director of C&R, his policy of ignoring hateful comments would not hold up long.
That said, really the biggest culture clashes and shock come not from her American raising, but from her being poor. Most of what she learned about Korean culture before moving over just didn't touch on what the very rich and famous would be like.
~Jaehee~
Of the many things she had considered about her fellow female member of the RFA, that she might be a foreigner isn't one of them. Maybe she should have noticed from the little quirks in chat...but...no, everyone in the RFA is bizarre and always has been.
It suddenly makes sense why MC couldn't really understand what Jaehee was going through at work, and why MC hadn't been familiar with Zen! But that's just fine, because it means Jaehee gets the opportunity to introduce MC to all the more Zen things together!
She's not sure if she should be offended when the woman compares her cafe to Starbucks....but if she's compared to anything, it may as well be Starbucks. And it does give her the idea to make Zen-themed drinks, which means basking in his beauty at work while also helping to contribute to his popularity. Although, admittedly, it did more for her cafe than him.
She's occasionally mortified by the MC's unintentional rudeness, but more often than not her greatest concern to unexpected rudeness is finding a way to stifle her amused laughter. The sheer confusion on her ex-boss's face the first time it happens to him gets her through some of the rough times trying to set up and keep the business afloat.
She's not particularly good at English, but she's a fast learner, and even though the MC can speak Korean reasonably well, she wants to be able to speak in English too, so that they can both speak in their native languages when they want to. It means their cafe is bilingual, which makes it a tourist spot, which means that Zen actually can get extra exposure from it! She's as excited about that as the MC is.
She's less excited when the MC finally makes she and Jumin sit across each other and "talk about your problems or else". That's an awkward conversation she really could have done without. But...well, it's only inevitable MC's special kind of bluntness would eventually lead to something like that.
It goes better than she expects, actually, and the tension that's been zapping around them since that party finally goes away.
It goes too well.
He starts suggesting that they convert it to a cat cafe.
Oh no.
~707~
He could tell immediately from the moment he looked at the camera footage, which admittedly made the background check a little harder. It's fine though, because he did it several times, and now knows her family tree, GPA, and what boat her family got off on some hundred years ago.
The jig is up immediately, because he's a huge nerd and just immediately spoke in English when he called. He's fluent, obviously, but he doesn't get enough opportunities to practice, so now he can try out the 'cool' phrases he's come up with, and try to get rid of the pesky accent that gets in the way of certain assignments.
He doesn't tell anyone because it's way funnier for everyone to be confused when they come to the party and see someone they don't expect. He even offers a cute looking model to use as a messenger icon just to throw people off more.
He is way too excited the first time she comes home and said "Lucy, I'm home~!" - the fact that she's not an old fossil and thus actually didn't ever watch it in her life doesn't seem to matter to him.
At one point he playfully suggests that USA sinks actually have PhD Pepper running through their pipes instead of water, but she gets him back by saying she prefers doh-ritos to honey buddha chips. He's horrified and declares her tastes are never to be trusted again.
In reality, though, their tastes align pretty closely. Heavily greasy and extra sweet food with zero nutritional value are his heaven (she insists there's plenty of nutritional value. He pretends he doesn't hear her.)
For the most part, it's no different for him where the MC is from, because he doesn't exactly fit in himself and he's been all over the place anyway. The only significant conflict between them due to cultural differences came from when he decided to show up at her place and then immediately turn the cold shoulder and try to push her away.
He almost died.
She's terrifying.
~V~
He can't see a difference
he's blind
im kidding, i just don’t know v enough to include him
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The Colorful Days
pairing: Amazon Eve/fem!reader
warnings: gay?? (none rlly, a bit of angst ig)
summary/request:  Hii! Could I request something with Amazon Eve from AHS freak show? I'm not too sure on plot, maybe something angsty that ends in a ton of fluff and maybe even a kiss? Thank you so much!! ♡ - @sexuallyconfusedspacedragon456
notes: i’d let amazon eve step on me and thats it
_________________________
To an outsider, life in a freak show seems exciting. It seems mystical and mysterious-- it seems like a life full of wonder and curiosity. Hell, there’s even the occasional audience member that tries to escape to the freak show in search of a new, more interesting life. No one ever stops to entertain the thought that maybe life as a freak isn’t mystical. No one stops to think that maybe, just maybe, life as a freak is dull and uninteresting and cruel.
Ever since the first day I joined Fraulein Elsa’s Cabinet of Curiosities, I learned more and more that being a freak show performer isn’t magical at all. Every day is the same: get up at dawn, eat breakfast, work around the camp, rehearse, eat dinner, sleep. The days eventually lost their color, each moment I spent at the freak show was a moment of my life that had no purpose… no meaning. 
That was, until she arrived.
Seven Years Earlier
“Ay Y/n!” Jimmy shouts, jogging over to me. He smiles, his curly hair falling in front of his shimmering eyes. Any other girl would swoon at the sight. Any other girl would see some gorgeous god and gladly fall to her knees for Jimmy. I don’t see a god, I just see my best friend. “Ya hear the news? Someone new is comin’ to join the show.”
“Poor soul,” I mutter, quickly bending down to tie Jimmy’s worn-down shoes. He has a nasty habit of leaving them untied. “I wouldn’t wish this life on my worst enemy. I just hope they’re interesting.” Jimmy gives me a sad look.
“Hey, it can’t be that bad.” He reaches out and touches my face. “You got me at least, right?” I give him a weak smile. I can’t help but feel… wrong. Jimmy had women falling at his feet, desperate for his touch, and yet those sparks that so many people talk about just… aren’t there. I love Jimmy, sure, but not in the way I’m supposed to. Come to think about it, I’ve never loved any man like that. I guess I really am a freak, huh?
“C’mon, Darlin’,” I say, standing up straight. “Lets go welcome our newest victim.” he smiles, gripping my hand in his. Jimmy’s hand is rough and large-- it almost hurts to touch his heavily calloused hands. 
“Y/n?” Jimmy asks timidly. The small feeling of worry grips my soul, the silent hope that Jimmy wasn’t going there surfacing in my mind. “Would you ever think of maybe… have you ever thought of how it would be if you and I were… a thing?”
Oh no. “A thing?”
“Uh, yeah, like,” Jimmy searched for the right words as I searched for an escape from this conversation. “I like you. A lot. Do you like me?” Fuck. 
“Jimmy,” I start, my voice soft and careful. The hopeful look on his face is fading, and I feel like shit. “You’re a great person. You’re incredibly kind and funny, you always look out for me-- and hey, you’re pretty hot, but I--”
“It’s okay, Y/n, you don’t have to make me feel better. You deserve someone better. You deserve your soulmate, whoever he may be” My muscles tense. Whoever he may be. 
“That’s the problem, Jimmy.” I say without thinking. I might as well say it now. “Jimmy I… I don’t think my soulmate is a man.”
Jimmy’s face goes from confusion, to realization, then to complete blankness. He just… looks at me. He doesn’t react, and the feeling of dread washes over me. I can’t lose Jimmy, he’s the only person that makes me feel in this damn camp. 
“I’m sorry, Jimmy.” I say, my voice breaking. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. If I could love you like that, I would.” Jimmy gently pulls me into a hug, his hand slowly stroking my hair.
“There’s nothing wrong with you, Y/n.” He says softy, and a wave of relief crashed over me. 
“No hard feelings, right?” I ask quietly. He nods slowly. 
It’s only then that we realize Elsa has returned, the new freak following closely behind her. Our eyes meet for a split second, and my entire body tenses. They disappear i
“She’s so…” Jimmy trails off.
“Tall.” 
Back to present
The tent was bursting with energy, music and laughter booming through the room. It was Halloween, and every freak was overjoyed by their day off. Jimmy was across the room playing with Pepper and Salty, leaving me alone to enjoy the sight of the joyous party from afar. Ever since Eve had arrived, the color that the days once held had returned. The feelings I was supposed to feel for Jimmy had surfaced, but I didn’t feel them around him. I felt them for Eve. 
“Hey, Y/n, where are you?” Eve calls, referring to the far-away place my mind had wandered to. 
“I’m here now.” I smile, laughing as Ma Petite makes funny faces at Meep, causing him to jump around. “I’m going for a walk. Feel free to join me.” I stand up, strutting out of the crowded tent, letting the warm summer-night air caress my skin. The sun was almost completely gone below the horizon, stars shining in the endless navy of the evening sky. It’s calm, the sound of a gentle summer breeze contrasting greatly against the roaring laughter in the tent. It’s only then that Eve makes her presence known.
“It’s nice out here, isn’t it?” She says, taking two long strides before she’s next to me. 
“Ya know, the papers said the Antinous constellation was supposed to be over tonight.” I say, gesturing at the stars. Eve snorts.
“I don’t see anything.”
 I shake my head. “Neither do I.”
Eve stands still next to me, her eye scanning the stars. My heart sped up at the sight of the shimmering look in her eyes. “Who is Antinous, anyway?” She asks.
“Antinous was actually a real person. He was the boyfriend of Roman Emperor Hadrian. Once he and the emperor met, they were inseparable, completely and totally in love. After a few years, Antinous went hunting for lions in the desert and they found out he had drowned in the Nile.” I explain.
“Jeez, I can’t imagine that the emperor guy reacted well.” Eve says humorously, turning to face me.
“That’s the thing, people believe that Hadrian received a prophecy saying that he’d be guaranteed future success if he sacrificed the thing he loved most in the world. That just happened to be Antinous.” Eve’s eyes widen.
“That’s horrible. If you love someone, you should never hurt them.” Eve says, shaking her head.
“A bunch of queer communities see him as a sort of symbol. People like me are sacrificed for the guarantee of… false success.” I shrug, not realizing my words until it was too late.
“People like you?” Eve inquires. She looks confused, but interested. 
“Uh, yeah,” I say, trying to phrase everything correctly. “I figured out a few years back that I”m just… not into guys. Trust me, I’ve checked, but not even our dear lobster boy can get me going.”
“So does that mean you’re into girls?” Eve asked as a small smile grew on her face. “‘Cuz I am.”
I smirk. “I’m into one girl in particular.” She smiles, and before I know it, her lips are on mine. For the first time in a long time, I feel exactly like I’m supposed to.
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moneysourceyt · 4 years
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My Personal Experience With John Crestani’s Super Affiliate System
How It All Started
It all started on one weekend when I was scrolling on my Twitter timeline. My attention was drawn to this one retweet from one of my friends on Twitter. He had retweeted a tweet by John Crestani. I don’t remember much about what exactly the tweet was all about but it was something in the line of “financial freedom” and “making passive income.” I guess I was a little too excited to pay attention to the details.
So, I clicked on the link provided and found myself on what looked like a well-crafted landing page. On this page, John shared lots of information regarding a system that he had discovered and one that he believed could empower beginner and intermediate affiliate marketers.
I wasn’t new to affiliate marketing at that time. The first time I heard of it was back in 2014 when I was doing some online research on how to make money online. After sifting through dozens of scams, I finally managed to sign up for the Amazon Associate program.
Once my account was approved, I simply went to my back-end, picked a few banner codes and pasted them on my blog. At that time, I didn’t know much about targeting the right audience and the need for being niche specific.
So, as fate would have it, my affiliate marketing dream hit a snag. My account was closed within 90 days and that’s because despite delivering some clicks, no one was buying through my affiliate links. To cut the long story short, I completely gave up on the idea of making money online by getting random strangers to make purchases through some goddamn links.
I chose to stick to my day job which to be honest I didn’t like that much. But as any other person looking to pay the bills would do, I had to keep going to the office, deal with numerous client calls and sit in a dimly lit cubicle all day.
So, when I came across John Crestani’s tweet and eventually the landing page, my dream of being independent once again came back to life.
Who Is John Crestani
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The reason John grabbed my attention is that he had a story that was almost similar to mine. He was once stuck in a boring day job but unfortunately, for him, he got fired without a clear exit strategy. I can only imagine if I was the one in such a situation. How would I pay my rent? How would I convince my daughter that there was no food in the house or money to keep the AC working?
But John somehow managed to go through it all, effectively building a $500k business from scratch. Having seen it all, John seeks to help you and me learn the tricks and techniques it took him years to master.
I really liked how genuine he sounded but, to be honest, I was still a bit skeptical. That’s because John kept talking about his current affluent life. I even peeped into his Instagram and Facebook pages and realized that he frequently posts photos of himself standing next to Lamborghini’s. Why do you need a Lambo to sell a $47 course?
I am not a fun of marketing tactics that involve showing off what one owns or drives. If anything, it’s always possible to rent a Lambo and fool people on social media that it’s all yours.
In my opinion, if John could spare us all the stuff about his personal life, he can be a bit more convincing and authoritative. Otherwise, one might mistake him for a scammer despite the fact that he’s selling a really good course.
How It Works
So, I started out by signing up for the Internet Jetset program. It’s a subscription-based service which goes for $47. This program comprises some awesome lessons for beginners. In particular, it walks you through some awesome ways to generate valuable traffic without spending a dime.
These are strategies that other marketers hardly talk about. And even if they talk about them, they hardly bother to get into the details as John does.
The lessons are presented in video format. John narrates everything using screen recordings. This makes his courses pretty easy to follow. In fact, you can do everything he says as he narrates to you and that’s because it’s possible to pause the videos and resume when necessary.
What I didn’t like, however, is that it’s not possible to “fast-forward” the videos. So, if you’re already familiar with whatever John is talking about at any given moment, you’d have no alternative than to still listen to it. This can be quite annoying and time wasting.
Also, I don’t know if it’s just me or that John talks really slowly. Some of the lessons could have been 30 minutes but he talks rather slowly and a good number of them go up to 45 minutes in length. The upside is that you get some highly detailed and in-depth training no matter your level of skills.
Also, the Internet Jetset courses are divided into tiny, little portions. Ideally, you should take 1 module per week meaning you’d need several weeks to finish the entire program. Fortunately, you don’t have to finish it for you to start making real cash. You can start using your skills to get the systems up and running. For instance, you can use the skills learned within the Google Free Traffic Module to tap into the power of SEO.
The Upsells
The Jetset is pretty affordable at $47 per month, so what’s the catch? Well, the catch is that you’ll constantly receive emails from John enticing you to buy one of the premium packages on offer. For instance, if you’re already enrolled in the Internet JetSet program, you’ll constantly be enticed to go for the Super Affiliate program which goes for close to $1,000.
There’s also the JetsetLIVE webinars package that goes for $97. You’ll also find the JetSet Xtreme Members course which goes for $187.
I accidentally subscribed to the JetSet Xtreme Members course when I clicked on the link out of curiosity. And instead of being taken to a check out page, I got a message reading “Thank you for purchasing the Jetset Xtreme Members” course.
My Thoughts on the JetSet Xtreme Members Course
This is a platform full of pre-recorded videos of other affiliate marketers who have used this system to successfully make money. The course also provides you with links to third-party tools that you can use to make purchases. At first, I thought these were free tools but upon clicking on them I realized they belonged to other companies and you had to pay up to use them.
So, in my opinion, while the JetSet Xtreme is full of value especially if you’re looking to learn from the experiences of other affiliate marketers, it doesn’t really provide you with free tools. Just a bunch of affiliate links to other services.
I did not find this part of the program to be worth the $187 they charge for it. And for that reason, I claimed my money back. Fortunately, John kept his word and I got back all the money I had accidentally spent on this upsell.
I really liked the fact that the company is made up of honest people. It’s rare to come across companies that are willing to refund money nowadays – so two thumbs up to the Super Affiliate System team.
My Thoughts on the $997 Super Affiliate System (SAS)
While the Internet Jetset program focuses on the free sources of traffic, the SAS shows you exactly what you need to do to leverage on paid traffic methods. In my opinion, the $997 you pay for this course is worth it but only if you’re willing to sit down and learn the tricks. It won’t work like magic.
You see, everyone can place an advert on Facebook, Instagram or even Google Adwords. But if you ask around, you’ll realize that most of those ads don’t convert. It doesn’t matter how much you invest in the course unless you really understand the psychology of the buyer, you’d end up making shots in the dark.
The good thing with paid traffic is that it works almost instantly. That’s unlike the free traffic methods which take months or even years to materialize. So, if you don’t have the time to build dozens of backlinks and implement other SEO tasks for your site to rank (which normally takes years), this strategy enables you to start making money immediately.
And the best part is that besides exposing you to the language of paid affiliate marketing, the SAS course also provides you with 3 core skills. These include:
Copywriting
Data analysis
Research
In general, the SAS is an 8-week course which comprises 50 hours’ worth of content. It also contains lots of additional resources that can help complement your unique strategy.
Week One – The System Setup
This section of the training mainly comprises stuff to do with creating a website, setting up a presell page and rolling out Facebook ads.
Week Two – Understanding the System
Introduces you to the core skills of online business. It also aims to help you unlock a super affiliate mindset so you can profit from different situations.
Week Three – Marketing Skills
How do you get people to click on your ads and convert? As we all know, it takes an expert to hack this. Luckily, those skills are provided within this section of the training.
Week Four – Facebook & Google Ads
Facebook and Google have more than 2 billion active users per month. So, if you were to get a piece of this pie, chances are that you’d make some pretty huge bucks as well. And that’s what John Crestani does in week 4 of his training.
Week Five – Native & YouTube Ads
Ever thought of leveraging the power of native ads? Basically, native ads are ones that are included within a media format. For instance, you can include such ads on your webpage content and so forth. Besides that, you’ll also get to learn how to do YouTube Ads and so forth.
Week Six – Scaling and Outsourcing
Once you have the skills needed to make the first dollars, you’ll need to find ways to grow and expand your trade. Using the tidbits shared in the 6-th week of this training, you’ll be able to outsource and automate quite a number of tasks so you can focus on growing your business.
Week Seven – More Ad Campaigns
Most people usually limit themselves to Google and Facebook. But did you know that there’s a lot of unused potential on platforms like LinkedIn and Bing? In this module, you’ll be able to learn about all that plus a lot more.
Week Eight – Implementing the System
If you’re wondering which ad network to join and which niche to embrace, this is the module you’ll need to take. It’s a highly advanced section of the training that helps you decide the direction you want your online business to follow.
My Results
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After going through this program, I’d like to admit that I learned quite a lot. Most importantly, I was able to re-apply for the Amazon Associates program and got accepted. I have been making quite some bucks over the last few years. One of my sites rakes in $1500 while the other one brings about $2000 per month.
My goal is to scale these two sites up – I know there’s potential to make $10,000 per site (per month) with more content and a stronger SEO presence. But that might take time. For now, I appreciate the fact that the investment I made in the Super Affiliate System is now paying back.
The Pros & Cons
Pros
Easy to use
Contains tons of useful advice
Relevant information provided
Well thought out curriculum
John is a good trainer and he takes time to explain different points
They offer a genuine money back guarantee
Pre-built templates for ads
Cons
Customer support only available via email
Quite a few optional upsells included
Frequent emails were sent to market their upsells
Final Thoughts
The Super Affiliate System by John Crestani is not without its flaws. But that doesn’t mean that it’s bad. In fact, as long as you’re willing to learn and implement its contents, you can truly benefit from it. I personally would recommend it to any person looking to make genuine cash in the vast online markets.
You can check it out here.
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aprilwritesabook · 5 years
Text
I appolgize in advance for this long ass post haha.
Alright, so here's the deal. This post is gonna be part rant, part confessional, and part inspirational speech. So if your following this blog purely for the updates on my books you can skip it haha.
I know a currently published author. I used to kinda be friends with them in highschool, but it was more like a friend of a friend type deal. But I digress. Point is. They recently released there second book on Amazon. And I really wanna be happy and proud of them, and to see it as an inspirational thing, buuuuut I'm almost 100 sure they are actually a fraud?
And that's not me being bitter. I really really really wish this wasn't the case. But I have the evidence to back this theory up.
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1- they claimed that there first book sold out multiple times. And to be fair this one might be at least partially true. Its rated pretty high on amazon, But then again they only have 4 people rate it and three of those people are the editor formattor and artist for the book. Soooo. Yeah I sure hope they rated it well.
2- they are constantly posting stories to there social media that are far fetched at best. They work in a bookstore. And almost every other week its a slightly diffrent story about a customer who "didn't even know" he was the author who would "burst into tears" the second he told them what the book was about because they were just Soooo touched by the message that they wept to a total stranger??? If that had happened even once it would have been an odd occurance. And this is something that apparently happens alllll the time to them. (I hate to drudge up old memes like this, but)
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3- this person has recently made a tick tock and a youtube channel. And like, the content isssss questionable? And that's not necessarily a crime or anything. But they give updates about it on social media as if they are speaking to a mass of adoring fans and like...you can see how many subs and views a person has. We know he dosn't have a big fan base. And I know that sounds harsh. But like, some more gullible people have asked him for advise on how to be "successful" and "gain a following", and he answers them with authority. Like he has the answers even though he clearly dosn't? And that feels really... disingenuous at best?
4- along the same vein as 3. They recently made a post on twitter about how they are "overwhelmed by the amount of love and support they have found on the site" and how they get "some many heartfelt messages." Annnd again. I clicked the account. They literally have 5 followers. And not a SINGLE person has EVER liked, retweeted, or commented on a SINGLE tweet of theirs. Not one. Soooo like not only are you pretending to have a huge fan base that dosn't exist your also making up there engagement with you? Which this alone I feel brings validate to my doubts about the other things. Clearly they arn't above blatant lying and extreme over exaggeration. And also they either don't realize we can all seeeee these facts. Or they don't think anyone will actually check and call them on it ?????
Now there's a lot of other examples I could give. But my point isn't to put this ONE person on blast. I'm not trying to start beef or cause damage to their reputation or anything. Which is why I won't say their name or what there books are. The only way you'd know who I'm talking is if you also knew them in real life. In which case you either already know all this, or you should, so you don't fall victim to their lies.
The reason I'm saying any of this at all is because I think I know why they are doing it. And why so many indie authors or would be media mogels feel the need to do this.
The issue with trying to "build an audience" and "self market" yourself, is that you really only have 2 ways of guaranteed sucess.
You either need to have a pre established audience based on success you've already had in the past. (IE youtubers and movie stars writing successful books cause there fans will buy anything of there's reguardless.)
Or you need to buy your way in. Be it by quitting your day job to make social media your full time job, buying ads, hiring a social media person,or hiring a team of people with their own audiences (audio book narrators, cover artists, managers, ect)
And if you don't ALREADY have an audience, and you don't have the funds to BUY your way in, then your just gonna have to get real lucky.
You can be lucky for knowing somebody with an "in". They work in publishing, or advertising, or they're your rich uncle. Just someone who you can go to to get that boost one way or another to get one of the first two methods going for you.
You can get lucky by commenting the right thing on the right post and gaining followers that way. Or by being in the right place at the right time to meet somebody important.
You can be lucky by having lots of supportive friends and family who will promote you and your work FOR you.
Or lastly (and this is in the realm of being a one in a million case here. So it basically never happens without one of the other things I mentioned also being true.)
You can be lucky by working REALLY hard, and being REALLY talented, and having the world actually NOTICE YOU somehow? Just one person with influence who can find you in your dark hole of insignificance and shine a light on you so now the world can actually seee you.
And that sucks.
You could write the greatest book in the whole world. Truly a masterpiece. But if nobody buys it or reads it because they don't know who you are??? Then it dosen't matter does it?
It sucks Soooo hard.
Because untill you get those people with influence to shine a light on you, theres nothing you can do. And the market is soooooo drenched in new indie authors that the odds of the right people finding and liking your book are slim to none.
Its super unfair.
The people who have the influence arn't gonna buy a book with 0 reviews and no social media following.
Why? Because THEIR brand depends on only recommending the good shit. And they need to find that good shit NOW. If they read every book written by nobody's online, they'd have to wade through ALOT of garbage. wasting all their valuable time and money till they found something worthy. And honestly, from a business stand point, you cant really fault them for that
This is where the lies come from.
So basically no matter how you look at it, or what your strategy is, In order to get fans, you need to ALREADY HAVE THEM.
When your just starting out. And I mean truly at square one. It really feels like the only way to "make it" is to "fake it"
If you PRETEND to have a big following. And you PRETEND your books are selling really well already. And you PRETEND that people care deeply about you and your work... Then there is a chance that nobody will do the homework to find out its all a lie.
And if they think your successful already, then it sends a message to the consumers brains of "well they must be good. Everybody loves it/them".
It sucks that so many people who have found real success did so with lies, cash, and being already well connected.
And then they buy it, and they follow you, and the confirmation bias sets in, and eventually you'll dupe enough people into liking you that you don't HAVE to lie anymore.
Those of us with no cash and too high a conscious to lie our way to the top are left with virtually no chance of succeeding no matter how hard we work or how good our content is.
And I'm not claiming to be "better than" or "more worthy" than anyone else. I wanna make it clear that of your in the portion of having it fake it so you can follow your dreams then more power to you. Its a valid strategy. I hate that it works and I hate that its the only option sometimes. But I don't hate the people as creators for "doing what it takes." I get it. Really I do.
And it suckks major ass that so many people feel like this is the only way.
My whole point here. Is that we have slowly built a system where this is our reality. And honestly? End of the day? There's not a damn thing we can do to change it at this point.
In a perfect world made of unicorns and puppies. I could say "hey lets all go ready books by completely unknown authors. Be the change you wanna see in the world." But at the end of the day, especially in the unfiltered world of self publishing, It would be a complete shot in the dark to spend your resources on something completely unknown. We rely on word of mouth, and "best sellers" and high following to do the work of filtering out the bad stuff for us and it would be unrealistic if not impossible to go back on it now. Even if we wanted to there algorithms and shit built into the code. You'll never find the books that Amazon dosnt want you to find unless you search for it directly.
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Now comes the confession/inspirational bit
I know all of the above to be true...But I'm choosing not to care
I'm not gonna lie my way to the top. I'm not gonna hide my struggles out of fear of seeming inferior. So here goes
I struggle a lot with depression and anxiety. I've been working on it, and I've gotten so much better in recent years. But there are always gonna be times when I slip up and my mental illnesses take over
When I was writing my first book I felt really empowered and good about myself for finally getting past all my own barriers and following my dreams.
And then once I was done writting and editing and I was ready to show the world and get feedback. I flopped.
I couldn't find anyone willing to beta read. Those who said they would do it (even people who claimed they "couldn't wait") ghosted me after I actually sent it to them
I was hoping to get 20 people. I really wanted it to be the best it could be. Only 11 actully signed up. Of that 11, 5 people actually read it: My spouse, my brother, my best friend, and 2 others. Those two others read the first bit I sent them, took a few weeks to get back to me, said they loved it, but then Neeeeeeeeever got back to me when I sent them the next chunk.
Now you can look at all that and come to the conclusion that it sucks. I know I sure did.
The struggles at each step made me doubt myself more and more to the point that I almost gave up writing all together.
And I didn't want to take about it or how it was making me feel, even though it was having a serious impact on me. I wanted to bottle it all up and let it consume me. Allllll because I didn't want people online to write me off as a failure before even giving me the chance.
I wasn't lying about being successful. I was just trying to hide the fact that I wasn't.
And that's almost as bad. Because then all the new authors just feel worse about themselves and their journey because they think they are the only ones.
Your not alone.
Everyone is struggling.
We just aren't talking about it.
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I haven't written a word in over a week because I've been so afraid my second book will be dead on arrival like my first.
And I KNOW somewhere out there is someone just like me whose thinking of giving up.
Don't.
Just keep going.
Do your best. And then come find another struggling writer and share with each other. The world outside might not understand your struggle. But another author might.
We can't change the market. We can't change the way social media works, or how people decide if they will buy things
But what we CAN change, is whether those of us within the community want to be honest about our struggles and frustrations. Or if we want to hide them away and lie about them for the sake of making more sales
I think by being honest with one another we can create a better network.
That way the next time you feel like garbage for not being an "instant celebrity" like everyone else. you can look at the community and realize that you were never the problem
If we just keep making new writing friends our collective reach will eventually take hold in the outside world. Don't wait for a random influencer to notice you. Just make one friend at a time. Be known amongst your peers and maybe the rest will follow
And if your a writer desperate for feedback, or just a friend to share your troubles with. Hit me up. My inbox is always open.
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fyeahwonderbat · 5 years
Text
Keywords #5
Theme: Intelligence
Rating: PG / T
Word Count: 2,057 words
Bruce had no clue what was going on around him. He heard Diana ask that the goddess of witchcraft send him away and that her request was obliged. The words he wanted to say in protest felt like they evaporated in his mouth as he traveled through space and time to some foreign location.
He landed on his knees, surrounded by a crowd.
“Warriors!” a chorus of angry voices shouted as Bruce tried to recalibrate himself after such a forced teleportation.
There was the distinct shifting of armour amplified by the thousands reverberating around him, like a shockwave that was meant to knock him to his feet. All it managed to do was seize his heart with panic as he lifted his head to stare down his foes.
It shocked him more than he’d care to admit when he came face to face with an army that was made up entirely of women. Donning leather armour with ancient designs and medieval weapons in their hands, the female cavalry that threatened to skewer him with spears and swords and arrows reminded him of the costume that his so-called partner wore…
“Intruder,” roared an authoritative voice from behind the readied warrior. “Identify yourself.”
With all due respect, Bruce kept quiet while her surveyed what little terrain he could make out from the gaps in their forces. He spotted grass that was the color similar to emeralds, and trees that sway in the seabreeze. There was the sound of the ocean somewhere close but he couldn’t make out the direction it was in, meaning he had no obvious means to escape the angry women’s wrath. Carefully, monitoring them to determine whether or not he was allowed to move, he took the chance to see if he was enclosed in a circle by their army or if he was his back against a wall of some kind.
No matter which direction he cast his gaze, there were hundreds of furious glares staring right back at him.
“I won’t ask you again!” Warned the assertive voice from before.
Bruce knew that he should not press his luck any further he wanted to make it out of such a sticky situation alive, so he turned back around and replied with just as firm a tone, “Am I on the private island of the Amazons?”
Meeting their demands with a question urged the arches to pull on their drawstrings and the spear-throwers to tug their arms back. Furious, the supposed commander howled at him, “You were warned. Atta--!”
“Heads up!” Cheered a familiar, cocky, unwanted voice the second before something sharp landed in front of Bruce. The way it embedded itself into the ground was so fierce, he took a step back for fear of being associated with the soaring trident.
“Dammit,” he hissed to himself as many of the warriors turned to face the direction from which the weapon was thrown. Thinking on his feet, Bruce blurted out the only thing he could think to say in order to diffuse the arising tension. “We mean you no harm! We must speak with your queen--”
“Silence, heathen!” Demanded a woman with long brown hair, sitting on horseback and armed with nothing more than her animosity.
Bruce met her hatred with his signature indifference when a gust of wind rushed by him. “Hey Batman,” said the Flash, as chipper as ever. “Glad we got here when we did.”
Bruce had so many things he wanted to say to that, such as an inquiry about how they got to the seemingly secret island, or why he let Arthur announce their arrival like that. However, he lost his chance to when Victor landed next to him and filled in the gaps faster than the speedster. “Your magician friend really saved your ass just now.”
“You really couldn’t have picked a worse time.” Bruce said, vehemently.
Ignoring his derision, Cyborg scanned the group and whispered to him nothing more than a number, “Five thousand.”
The army was larger than he first anticipated. Unwilling to participate in a standstill any longer, Bruce kicked Aquaman’s trident down from its upright position and stood over the holes in the ground that its prongs had made. Then, he made sure that his voice carried its signature boom when combined with the distortion application in his suit as he proclaimed, “We seek an audience with Queen Hippolyta, on behalf of her daughter Diana! There are demons being made in the Underworld that threaten all of mankind, and she is down there fending them off on her own! She needs your help, now!”
The lie he told was small, but it helped to sell the emergency he was presenting to the army and their commander. As Arthur was pushed through the crowd with his hands in the air, his shirtless body offending the women greatly, Batman stood tall at the front of the haphazard Justice League in the hopes that his stoic demeanour would prove to them that his claim was legitimate and worthy of their attention.
It took longer than he would have liked - with images of Diana battling those lava rock-made demons passing through his mind at lightning speed sending him into a spiraling state of concern - but eventually, the commander spoke over the silence and the chirping cicadas to decree, “Bring them to the queen’s palace.She will know if he speaks the truth.”
Not one to bask in the feeling of relief, Bruce released an involuntary sigh when his spontaneous scheming managed to keep him alive. Considering the chaos that his involuntary teleportation caused, any turn of events that didn’t end with him being sliced in two gave him a fighting chance.
And, as a result, Diana too.
__________________________________________
The great hall of the palace was shrouded in gold, almost as if every inch of the room had been bathed in the metal. Filled to the brim with what he assumed to be Amazonian council members, none of the other women had the same presence in Bruce’s eyes as the queen herself. Hippolyta stood in front of her circular throne, appearing domineering and spiteful as she glared at the gathered members of the League.
The gathered men.
“You four are quite brave,” remarked the queen with a false tone of admiration. “Traversing the Underworld, facing off against demons while some of you are nothing more than mere mortals, staring down one of my strongest fleets and commanding them to bring you to me.”
“If it makes you feel any better,” Arthur thought it was wise to chime in at that exact moment. “I’m not mortals like them.”
Hippolyta cracked a smile, Bruce noticed, but it most definitely stemmed from her righteous sense of hatred. “I know, Atlantean. You’re merely the one who threw his weapon at my warriors.”
No one in the room spoke, awaiting Arthur’s reply. Thankfully, the silence drew out over many beats, which was music to Bruce’s ears.
“Tell the queen what you told me, Bat-man.” Ordered the general from the field. Though he’s never told her his heroic moniker, he figured that it wasn’t that difficult to identify him in such a way given his costume.
“My name is Bruce Wayne. Your majesty, I didn’t mean to randomly appear on your island.” Bruce apologized in his own way.
“No? You materialized in the very spot where a raging purple fire spawned in our field.”
Bruce used her words against her, “You said it yourself - you know I’m mortal.”
Hippolyta’s eyes narrowed as she spat, “Then who sent you here?”
“Hecate.”
The mention of the goddess sent the Amazonian council into a frenzy after a collective gasp filled the space. For the first time since he met her, she reminded Bruce of Diana. When she was too distracted by his circumstances to present herself as the matriarch of the island, she had the same emotional pair of eyes as her daughter. Her shock, her cautious joy and her immediate curiosity all fought for dominance over her expression, painting a rather human depiction of the queen of the Amazons.
“What nonsense is this!?” Screamed the general.
“Menalippe!” Scolded the Queen, regaining her composure by the time she finished saying the woman’s name.
Menalippe was taken aback, but she refused to cease her inquiry. “He mentions a goddess from our history and expects us to believe him!? What, were his friends brought here by Poseidon!? Were they flown in on the back of Zeus’ eagle!? Our gods are not for you to speak of so lightly!”
Unaware of the fact that the Amazons thought of their gods as deceased, Victor raised his hand at Bruce’s side. “No, we were brought together by the magician Zatanna. She told us that Bruce needed us, and her portal brought us here.”
“Diana and I visited her—“
“Mentioning my daughter now too?” The wayHippolyta hissed at him made it easy to compare her to what he imagined Medusa would have sounded like.
If she was real.
But she wasn’t.
Bruce hoped, at the very least.
Unafraid by the growing animosity in the great hall, Bruce approached the bottom step of the staircase that led to the infuriated queen. There were whispers that also reminded him of snakes, but he persevered. “We know your daughter. She is a founding member of our team and all we want to do is to keep this world safe. She was with me while I investigated these strange stone-made creatures that were gathering… in the North, and it led us to ask a magician I know—a sorcerer who could help me locate the place where these monsters come from.”
He expected someone to interrupt him, to insult him or question his legitimacy. When no one made a sound within a millisecond after he said his last word, he decided to keep going.
“She sent us to the Underworld, and we met a woman in a cell. She said her name was Hecate. She had no idea just how long she had been trapped down there, but Diana realized that it had to be for thousands of years based on a story you told her about a battle between your gods.”
“And somehow, only you escaped?” Scoffed the general, all while the queen tried to hide her sparkling eyes by closing them tightly.
Bruce could tell that he was breaking through to Hippolyta. Her heart was drawn to his story and desperately wishing it were true. He couldn’t guess when she last saw Diana, but—
He knew when she had last seen Hecate.
He climbed a single step, much to the frustration of the Amazonian council. Menalippe even drew a dagger out of its hilt from her back and readied herself to strike. Bruce didn’t care for her threatening behaviour, not when he had a goal. Not when he knew he was so close.
“Your majesty,” he tried to coddle her before he would have to push her back into some of her deepest memories. “You didn’t know that Hecate was alive, and she didn’t know that the war with Ares ever happened. Her last happy memory is when you dressed her for her wedding to Hades. She was honoured to meet your daughter, and now they're fighting alongside each other against Hades’ demons in the Underworld.”
He knew that what he had said was a lot to digest, and it took the queen some time to fully comprehend what he was telling her. With her eyes still shut, Bruce could still make out the pride she felt given the way the corners of her mouth quivered as they fought off the desire to smile. Her expression was so telling, the typically combative Menalippe called to her with an uncharacteristic softness. “My queen?”
Bruce climbed another step and was immediately blocked by the general’s body. She leapt down to the stair right before his and leered at him. Unperturbed, he decided it was time to get to the point.
Bruce knew that the reason why Hecate sent him here was so he could ask the queen of the Amazon one thing. “So, your majesty, I have one request of you: please... take us to the gates of hell. The same one you took Hecate through all those years ago. Let us help your daughter. Let us defeat Hades.”
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almaasi · 5 years
Text
reaction post typed while watching Good Omens (ALL OF IT)
my favourite novel is now my favourite mini-series and IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL
under the cut: a very long, spoilery six-episode reaction to MY NEW FAVOURITE THING EVER
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may 31st 07:36pm nz
i posted my episode 1 reaction a couple hours ago but that got ZERO NOTES so i assume people are either avoiding spoilers or aren’t interested, which is fine, but i’m just gonna put all my reactions in one big post so anyone who IS interested doesn’t have to read 6 separate posts c:
edit june 1st 04:08am: btw i watched using a free trial on amazon prime, which i’m pretty sure is worldwide. soooo if yOU WANT TO WATCH THIS, YOU CAN, FOR FREE
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EPISODE 1: In the Beginning
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04:03pm
idk how much i’m gonna type, whether i’ll post a reaction to the entire thing in one post....... or how much i’ll end up watching right now
kinda want to spread it out and save it as a treat for after i’ve done some writing
but right now i wanna watch before writing
so maybe i’ll do one ep, write something, then return to this?
edit: aahhaha that didn’t happen
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04:04pm
I’M SO EXCITED
I’VE BEEN WAITING SO LONG
well... since 2011 when i first read the book
but regardless it’S BEEN 84 YEARS
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04:05
okay first off i did not know amazon prime did adverts at the start of their videos. so i was like SINCE WHEN WAS CHILDISH GAMBINO/DONALD GLOVER IN GOOD OMENS
and then
yeah
no
either way i thought it was a good opening
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W A R
NING
cool cool cool cool cool
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omg i’m used to where the netflix full-screen button is, and on amazon prime that’s the “next episode” button so i gotta be real careful
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dear god my video quality is TERRIBLE
i.......... i might torrent this show and watch it offline
this is horrendous i can’t see a damn thing
i have never seen pixels this big
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04:11
okay the quality calmed down after a minute
i loooove the intro, i love that it’s basically word for word from the book
i feel like i’d find it funnier if i hadn’t read the book 3 months ago
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also? god is a woman? yes
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04:13
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is it just me or does the snek have a slightly david tennant-esque quality about it
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i’m so happy adam and eve are black
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04:17
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omfg. aziraphale said “ineffable” and now CRAWLEY’S CHECKING HIM OUT TRYING TO SEE IF HE HAS ANY JUNK
WOW
...or y’know, looking for a flaming sword. SAME FUCKING THING.
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also i looove how FLUFFY azi is
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azi: “do hope i didn’t do the wrong thing”
i fucking love them both uhrgughhhuhuhughuhhh
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04:21
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small sob for cuteness
umbella wings
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04:23
in the opening titles, crowley just stopped a spaceship and aziraphale turned it into fish
i feel like that was a douglas adams reference and i’m on board
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04:25
the entire time i read the book, up until i saw video promos of this show, i thought “crowley” was said the same way as spn’s “crowley”, as in “crahwlee”
not “crOhwlee”
i definitely like that they’re different though
both probably named after aleister crowley tbh. all of whom are queer.
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THOSE SWAYING HIPS
i haven’t found david tennant attractive in about 9 years but WHOOOP HELLO AGAIN
somehow attractive for entirely different reasons than before. like. my taste changed but tHEN
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i’m on crowley’s side, taking down a cellphone network is VERY ANNOYING
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04:35
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crowley: shitshitshitshithsit
:D
i can’t wait for aziraphale’s big swear
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04:37
i miss eating sushi
sushi was great
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04:43
this baby delivery thing is sTRESSFUL
“aaaaurthurrrrr”
nooo
poor lady
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04:45
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“little toesie woesies”
where’s the sister mary loquacious fan club and where do i sign up
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i’m glad they colour-coded the babies and did the playing card explanation because this part of the book always tied my brain in knots
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05:00
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this is reminding me how utterly gross england is
-
“MY POINT IS............. DOLPHINS”
YES
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05:06
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see in the book
i never once realised that the nanny was crowley in disguise
-
05:11
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digging the snake tattoo sideburns
-
05:14
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and yeah the short hair looks good
-
05:15
fINALLY crowley called azi “angel”
-
05:17
crowley: “oh no no don’t do your magic act, pleeease”
the magic act scene is one of my fave parts of the book <3
-
05:20
aw man they cut out the best part
i mean i get why
the kids shouted a bunch of gay slurs at aziraphale
and there were no secret service people with guns
but aw mannn
AND THEY CUT OUT THE BIT WITH THE DEAD DOVE AND CROWLEY BRINGS IT BACK TO LIFE FOR AZIRAPHALE
THAT WAS MY SINGLE FAVOURITE BIT OF THE BOOK
AND IT’S GONE
;C
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OH WAIT
THERE’S THE DOVE
OH GOOD
-
aw man aziraphhale just brought it back himself
i liked it better in the book
they sat on the steps outside and crowley comforted azi and took the dove and fixed it for him, and then it flew off
idk i just had such a perfect image of that moment in my mind and this was..... good but not the same at all
could be gayer
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05:27
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good dog
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05:28
crowley: *snifsnif* something’s changed
aziraphale: “oh it’s a new cologne, my barber suggeste--”
crowley: “no no i know what you smell like”
gayyyyyyyyyy <3
-
05:31
okay that’s ep 1 watched!!! i’ll watch more maybe later tonight :D
ENJOYING THIS SO FAR
not as gay as expected ........YET
needs 400% more “angel” and “dear”
--
EPISODE 2: The Book
07:42pm
pillar of salt guy: “something smells evil”
the fact crowley smells evil and yet aziraphale likes his company regardless says a lot
-
07:49
fully expected crowley to say “i didn’t fall, i sauntered vaguely downwards”
-
07:50
iiiii’m finding the narrator a little annoying
maybe it’s because i read the book so i know what’s going on
but saying “he has four items to deliver in his van. he works for this postage company and he’s making his first delivery in a formal warzone”.... idk i feel like all of those things could be shown visually? saying it rather than showing it probably saved seven seconds of airtime, but damn
-
07:56
i wonder if the narrator was a later addition to this, for new audience clarity? the script for god just seems a little stilted, idk
edit: i kind of got used to it, but it was still jarring, which i’m sure was the opposite of the intended effect
-
08:09
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the saddest newt
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08:13
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she’s kind of exactly how i imagined her in the book
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and definitely my fave next to aziraphale and crowley
-
08:17
i feel so bad for crowley’s plants
poor babies
-
08:19
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for some reason i imagined her as a redhead. kind of more like mrs weasley
-
08:33
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these wee children......... so soft.......... so smol
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08:25
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v happy with the casting for pepper
tiny downside is that we lose another redhead
-
08:29
i find the kids’ conversations hilarious because they’re the same age as harry potter when he goes to hogwarts the first time
idk if this is what eleven year olds are like in real life, but when i read the book i did feel distinctly like they spoke like eight year olds
-
08:35
crowley: “i like spooky. big spooky fan, me”
he just sounds like the tenth doctor
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08:36
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YEEE FINALLY CROWLeY DOING NICE THINGS FOR AZIRAPHALE
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08:48
"you know, crowley, i’ve always said that deep down you really are a--”
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“SHUT IT”
DON’T YOU CALL HIM NICE YOU PRETTY BASTARD
-
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loquacious: “sorry to break up an intimate moment”
-
08:45
i imagined anathema’s tripod thing to be about 5 feet tall, not a cute little knee-high thing
-
08:48
freddie mercury: BIIIII CYCLE
BIIIIIIII CYCLE
yeah i was waiting for that
-
crowley: “get in, angel”
HE MURMURED
DON’T MURMUR YOUR TERMS OF ENDEARMENT noo
-
09:00
end of episode 2!!! i freaking loved aziraphale vs the book <3
-
the credits for this ep credit konnie huq as someone named pam but idk who that is? i had a crush on konnie huq as a kid when she was a presenter on “blue peter”
OH WAIT RIGHT the lady on the breakfast show on crowley’s tv. aw such a small part. hoping we’ll see her again later
edit: nope. might rewatch that part to pay more attention. obviously i didn’t even recognise her after like.. 15 years
--
EPISODE 3: Hard Times
09:05pm
brb gotta get some food
-
09:14
and now i wait for food
EPISODE THREE LET’S GO
is this the one that’s just crowley and azi’s backstory?
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09:16
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i can’t even put my finger on why but he’s getting more attractive
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09:21
ah yes
aziraphale is eating shellfish and trying to tempt crowley
“oh... that’s your job”
i love this part of their dynamic
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09:29
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i adore when crowley makes aziraphale smile <3
-
09:43
SAUNTERED VAGUELY DOWNWARDS
YEE
-
i like seeing how crowley’s sunglasses differ throughout history
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09:36
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“if they knew i’d been... fraternising”
this is such a forbidden romance i love ittttt
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09:49
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CROWLEY SAVED THE BOOKS
and SOFT VIOLIN PLAYS
THIS IS A FUCKING LOVE STORY
k this is my favourite part of the show so far <3
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09:50
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this angel just fell in love
right in that moment
i see cartoon hearts around him
-
09:54
just had to pause for a second bc there was some broccoli in my tea :c
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09:56
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awwwwwwwwwwwwww 
he got him holy waterrrrrrr
-
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UNIVERSAL ANGLE OF HETEROSEXUAL LONGING
-
definitely feeling a lot of “NOW KISS” right about now
-
09:59
LAUGHING BECAUSE THE OPENING CREDITS ARE LITERALLY HALFWAY INTO THE EPISODE
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10:03
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throughout the entire book azi just came across as the kind of person who wore glasses even though glasses were never once mentioned
I AM GLAD TO SEE GLASSES
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10:12
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i like this colour palette and the gold in their makeup
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10:27
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“we can go off together”
omg the world’s ending and crowley’s all RUN AWAY WITH MEEE
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10:31
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okay then
good eyelashes
edit: i also like how their relationship was explained with a simple tap on the wrist: hurry up, you’re on the clock, i’m a sex worker, finish your call because i’m leaving
-
10:32
episode three DONE
these eps don’t feel long enough
maybe that means the pacing is just right? who knows
i feel like i should be doing something other than watching this but..... why
--
EPISODE 4: Saturday Morning Funtime
10:48pm
aziraphale is SOFT and he’s perfect like that <3
fuck u gabriel and your body shaming
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10:53
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i want delivery guy to be okay BUT I READ THE BOOK
so............... i know he will be...... eventually
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10:55
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how did they get photographs taken in the 1600s
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oh gabriel’s eyes ARE purple, i thought i was seeing them wrong
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11:02
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“maud i love you”
noo ho hoooo
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11:09
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a little douglas adams, definitely
BUT NO PEPPER POT DALEK
AWW
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11:10
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the season is very much jumping between summer and autumn
though i suppose that’s the point, tadfield is just perfect
-
11:12
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“which the internet has begun to refer to as the kracken”
i wonder if good omens inadvertently inspired me to write The Wireless a couple of years back. wouldn’t be surprising
edit: no, couldn’t have, because the internet wasn’t much of a thing (or a thing at all?) in the book, given its publish date
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11:20
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that’s a v nice dress/top combo
gosh she’s so pretty
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11:30
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crowley: “we can run away together!!! alpha centauri!!!”
aw baby
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crowley: “i’m going home, angel! i’m getting my stuff, and i am leaving. and when i am up in the stars, i won’t even think about you!!”
THAT WAS A V SAD BREAKUP NOOOOO
why has there not been a single “dear” yet :c
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11:37
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oh no, this part
i loved this in the book but i am NOT READY for maggots
damn you gaiman
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11:39
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he’s so cute
and so gay
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11:42
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uriel: “don’t think your boyfriend in the dark glasses will get you special treatment in hell”
he looks kinda delighted uriel called crowley his boyfriend
i would say he looks worried but this shot was used without context in the trailer and it came across as genuine joy, i actually thought he was looking at crowley
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11:46
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i thought it was a strange throne before
a spider at the centre of a web
dark halo
yeah
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11:51
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oh now she’s a redhead???
-
also i’m glad they implied newt and anathema just kissed because the sex thing was weird in the book
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okay never mind
hmm
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12:05
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aziraphale: “oh.................ffffUCK.”
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH
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12:07
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oh no
it’s happening
oh no
i hate this part but i love what happens because of it
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12:29am
i have eaten and now i have tea and i am back from MORE BOOKSHOP FIRE
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EPISODE 5: The Doomsday Option
12:31
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nuuuuuuuuuu
and “you’re my best friend” playing while crowley’s tryna call azi
nuuuuuu
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“somebody killed my best friend”
jfhsdfjsdj
/sobs
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12:36
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freddie mercury: “somebody find me somebody tooo ooo looove”
edit: the narration WRECKED this. it was so dramatic and visually emotional but the voiceover completely screwed with it and it was SO UNNECESSARY.
-
12:46
crowley: “i lost my best friend”
he says, while crying, while talking to that friend
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THE ONE BOOK HE WANTS IS THE ONE CROWLEY SAVED
THEY’RE SO FUCKING BEAUTIFUL TOGETHER
-
azi wanted to share crowley’s body
and then said they had to get a wiggle on
-
12:52
they cut out the hell’s angels / lesser horsemen
i figured they would, but still a shame
-
1:54
in the book tracy’s “spirit guide” was native american but daaaaaamn that part really needed to go
now she’s irish which is... better, probably
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01:01
ron: “SHUT. UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP”
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this guy’s having the time of his life
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01:03
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he wave
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01:05
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1926 bentley; sexiest car right next to the ‘67 chevy impala
-
01:08
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omg gotta translate and explain the road
-
01:13
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OH NO the maggots are about to happen
they changed the placement of this but it worked for the pacing
-
OH NO
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k well the maggots were gross but not as bad as i imagined
-
01:31
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omg the dog turned upside down rather than be picked up
i wonder if that was intentional
dog: I DO NOT WANT UP
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01:34
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pfff he’s reading “american gods” by neil gaiman
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01:44am
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10/10 flaming car
-
EPISODE 6: The Very Last Day of the Rest of Their Lives
01:51am
here we go...
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01:55
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azi so happy that crowley said the dress suits him <3
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01:57
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rip bentley
-
01:59
aziraphale: “we are here to lick some serious butt!!”
crowley: “kick!! kick, aziraphale, for heaven’s sake”
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02:06
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i freaking love the parallel between the Them and the horsemen in the book
and i love that they did face shots to show the parallel
pepper = war
wensleydale = famine
brian = pollution
adam = death
the parallel is less clear for brian and wensleydale, at least in the show. was more obvious in the book. but at the same time i kind of got confused between them a lot, brian was always eating, but wensleydale was named after cheese
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02:14
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pepper: “i do not endorse everyday sexism”
/STOMPS ON WAR’S FOOT
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
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02:25
shadwell: “anyone who wants ta get ta the hoore of babylon will have to get past me”
earlier anathema said “boyfriend”
may i point out that all the adults are paired up
shadwell & madame tracy
newt & anathema
......and....
aziraphale and crowley
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0:28
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crowley: “we are FUCKED”
these two need a holiday
-
azi: “come up with something... or.... or i’ll never talk to you again”
he knows crowley loves him aww
perfect blackmail material
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02:32
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they went from trying to kill him to being his gay angel parents real quick
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02:35
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thought they were holding hands for a second there
edit: regardless, a whole damn airfield and they’re 2cm apart
-
02:39
happy ending for the postman, hooray~
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crowley about the bookshop, softly: “it burned down. remember? you can stay at my place”
awwWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
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02:42
CROWLEY GOT HIS CAR BACK AND YET HE TOOK A TAXI
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02:45
anathema: “why is your car called dick turpin?”
newt: “dick turpin is a famous highwayman. it’s called dick turpin because everywhere it goes, it holds up traffic”
i laughed
this wasn’t in the book and i always wondered
-
02:51
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i wonder if holy water wouldn’t burn him because he’s too good
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03:00
gabriel: “don’t talk to me about the greater good, sunshine, i’m the angel fucking gabriel”
really enjoying these swears
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03:03
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i thought so
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03:30am
paused for a bit to get ready for bed
i thought it was after 4am but nope
-
“there would be other summers, but not one like this. not ever again”
that genuinely makes me emotional
i think that’s why it’s my favourite book, i can relive that summer with them
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03:35
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omg
-
OH MY GOD
WAIT
THEY
OH MY GOD
THEY WEREN’T IMMUNE, THEY JUST SWAPPED PLACES
HOLY SHIT
edit: THIS WAS NOT IN THE BOOK AND IT’S BRILLIANT AND I’M GLAD IT’S HERE
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crowley: “let me tempt you to a spot of lunch?
azi: “~temptation accomplished~!”
THEY’RE SO STINKING CUTE
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“just enough of a bastard to be worth knowing”
perfect
STILL NO USE OF “DEAR” THOUGH AND IT’S KILLING ME
-
that ending with the bird made me teary-eyed
-
credits: BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH AS SATAN
WOW
OKAY
AKSFJDSF /snorts
-
the end credits and the song i just wanna bawl my eyes out
i loved this so much and i’m so glad it was GOOD
i loved that they added so many people of colour. in the book i imagined crowley played by alexander siddig (star trek: deep space 9 era) but i guess david tennant makes a pretty good crowley too
i’m trying not to be upset that my favourite scene with the dove and aziraphale’s affectionate use of “dear” was taken out
but 
this was damn good regardless. even gayer in places than in the book
-
this nightingale song is my new favourite song
i never got the reference before
“and as we kissed and said goodnight, an nightingale sang in berkeley square:
GAY
SO GAY
i love
-
the end of the credits “For Terry”
ACTUAL OUT LOUD SOBBING
TERRY YOU WOULD’VE LOVED THIS
NEIL DID YOU PROUD
-
oh this was so beautiful
i’m gonna watch it again with my family probably within the week. i’m so emotionally tender now
azIRAPHALE WAS SO FLUFFY AND CROWLEY WAS SO NICE ABOUT THE BOOKS
ugh i love them more than ever
anathema...... i don’t know if i relate to her, want to be her, look up to her, want her to mentor me, live with her, or find her attractive. maybe all of the above. but she was freaking PERFECT. PE R F E CT 
the casting was so... just right. thank you casting people for anathema.
like... i also didn’t mind the newt/anathema thing so much now. it was hard to tell in the book how much of a relationship they had after, but that smile she gave while lying in bed the morning after, that worked, it said a lot. and i like that it was her choice to burn the prophecy sequel rather than newt’s suggestion
gabriel was amusing. like.. i’m glad he wasn’t in the book. but he was great here. also really like michael and uriel. uriel was so damn beautiful.
i also would really have liked to see a mention of the fact crowley and aziraphale are both agender and potentially asexual. not even a hint of it here. buuuuuut it guess i know from the book. so.
my favourite episode was of course episode 3 with crowley and aziraphale’s 6000 year backstory. especially the 1940s bit where crowley saved the books <3
this show was was less confusing than the book too. ugh it was done so well
OH
we didn’t see where the soldier guy went when aziraphale zapped him away!!! in the book he reappeared safely back home and went out to see his family. to be fair i don’t know whether he died and went to heaven, but it was a nice thing to happen
and they took out the Them’s bully/rival gang, who was led by the third baby from the baby swap, and who won awards for his tropical fish. at least that’s what i remember. which meant the parallel about heaven/hell being rival gangs was lost here. but the parallel between the horsemen and the them was stronger than ever and i loved that.
look, i mean, 10 out of 10, EASY.
favourite thing? yes. yes, absolutely.
--
shoutout to the one time i wrote a Good Omens/Destiel crossover fic The Angel Cake Challenge
IT’S 04:02am THIS TOOK ME 12 HOURS
04:40am AND FORTY MINUTES TO EDIT
congrats if you made it to the end of this!!! thank you for reading <3 AND GO WATCH THE SHOW IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY
54 notes · View notes
qqueenofhades · 5 years
Note
hello! i have a half formed idea for a book (based off of a really shitty fic i wrote oops gonna delete that and scrap the good parts into something new) but i was wondering if you had any advice for actually writing a book? i know you've written a couple books, and your fics tend to be multiple chapters, and i can't seem to stay inspired beyond a couple chapters! thank you so much :D
Oh dear. I have done various writing advice asks in the past, but who knows what they were tagged. I suppose you could search in the stygian depths of my blog if you really wanted, and see if anything you found there was useful?
As far as advice, I feel like I’m a shitty person to ask in this department because my own process is so unhelpful. I have idea, I start writing idea, I think about idea obsessively, realise I have a problem, work problem out, eventually book is done, ta-da. I then edit and tinker with things, but the first draft is still pretty close in shape/structure to the final version. Some people write different scenes and then place them in the correct order, but I can’t think of a time I’ve really written anything out of order/non-sequentially. I feel like I can’t write a scene without having already written what comes before, and while I can change details and edit sentences and so forth, I don’t normally change major plot beats/emotional reactions/twists/etc. I also don’t outline things or make any exterior diagrams or so forth, although some people find this helpful. If you’re the kind of person who likes to map your story out on paper beforehand (or think that it might help you to stay motivated if you can see it/have a checklist), then give this a try.
Once again, I feel like I’m being stupendously unhelpful, but my advice when anyone asks how to write a book is “well, write a book then.” I tend to think in long-form projects (as evidenced by my many fics) and the nice thing about fic is that you have as much space/word count as you need to tell the story in as much detail as you want. If you’re thinking about this actually being a book, you may have to be more ruthless, but you can also use e-publishing platforms like Amazon or Smashwords and so forth, and still have it as long as you like.
On that note, you’ll have to find someone to read over your work/edit it, especially if it’s something you’re not confident in doing yourself. I proofread and edit all my own stuff, but then, I’ve been doing this for many years and am an academic and used to catching small and fussy details. Even then, it can look different when I see it on a page/read it in hard copy with a pen in hand, and I see things that I don’t see on the screen because it has gotten so very familiar to me. Asking a friend to edit your stuff can be dicey, and I don’t recommend it unless you know this is someone who can definitely make your work better and knows what to look for and will be kind about feeding it back to you. 
As someone who has sat through many ego-shredding rounds of more or less constructive criticism on many things, I can sympathise about it not being fun at all (but at least I know how to take it). You can share your stuff with someone beforehand if you want, but you don’t have to. Once you have something that is some kind of coherent draft, however, it does benefit to have a second pair of eyes on it somehow. Even if it’s a “can you read this and tell me what you think” kind of way, and again with someone who fairly represents a general reader and can give you their take on what they got out of the story, if the plot was satisfying, if the character arcs resolved, etc. I know the most terrifying thought about writing is always the thought of being Known/showing it to someone else, but really, there is no way around it in the professional creative process. Write something that you yourself want to read, but that does imply readers.
If you’re writing about sensitive subjects or things that could upset people, by all means, do your homework . Google is free and easily available, there are plenty of resources to be sure that you’re doing a good job. Obviously you do have some degree of artistic license, but that involves you doing your due diligence and understanding that people will react to it in a certain way if it hasn’t been. I am (big surprise, as an academic) a fan of research in general. I think it helps to set the scene and to evoke details and to immerse the audience in what they are supposed to be tasting/seeing/smelling/feeling/etc. The fun of well-written fiction, in my mind, is to escape to somewhere comprehensively and to know what the characters are experiencing and to be able to picture it vividly. 
That is why I tend to be a ho for detail and description in my own stuff, because I am always extremely curious about it. I always do a lot of world-building just because I like to do it, and because if you have plot points/developments/etc that might seem a little far-fetched, it’s easier for your audience to buy it if you look like you know what you’re doing and have thought of loopholes/objections/etc, and that this is taking place in a fully realised and objectively consistent universe that exists outside the basic demands of plot (and don’t change the rules to get your characters out of trouble). If you have to change the characters’ personalities/artificially put things off/your whole plot could be solved in five minutes if they talked to each other, you probably need to do a little more work. Audiences will be patient, but they will also figure things out, and if there is an obvious solution that you’re just not addressing, they’ll get frustrated. But yes.
Also: humor. I can’t read books or stories that take themselves TOO seriously. Especially if you have a lot of angst or drama or plot (as I tend to do), you need to throw in some comic relief and/or wit or other things to leaven the brew. If you can tell that the author is willing to poke fun at themselves and their own characters (we’ve all encountered that piece of media where the lead character Cannot Be Criticized By Anyone even while they’re being an idiot and is clearly a projection of the author’s egoism/how great they think they are), that is usually a hallmark of a good story and someone that knows what they’re doing, and I really do stand by that. If it’s pretentious and trying to make a Point, it’s just not that enjoyable. This is a hellworld. We need some escapism and ridiculousness with our adventures and our drama. So yes.
Good endings, basically. Don’t put your characters/readers through so much and then nope out of a satisfying resolution because Gritty Realism (think why everyone hated the final season/ending of Game of Thrones). You can, but.... again, it’s not something I personally like, and people seem tired of it in general. An ending does not have to be a Disney happy ever after, but it shouldn’t make a reader feel like a sucker for emotionally engaging with your story, and should have some kind of payoff for having done so.
(Also. Whenever possible, make it more gay. I mean, who said that.)
Anyway. Last but not least, have fun. If you’re writing something you enjoy and take pride in, that will transfer, and I always think that is worth the most.
14 notes · View notes
myfriendpokey · 6 years
Text
zine thoughts pt 2
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where do you sell videogames? zine fairs, children's book stores, used record marts, from the trunk of a car like rudy ray moore, on etsy or on craiglist, with flyers on the wall of the local chip shop or library. through awkwardly hammered-together handmade electronic systems or the reverse, turning your game into a jumbled set of paper text and graphical fragments which can be sold in boardgame stores as some kind of reconstruct-the-narrative puzzle. you could make one-off bespoke games or game simulacra for movies that want to depict some kind of videogame being played onscreen without having to go through the licensing rights. you could ghost-develop games for wealthy people to put their names on ("american mcgee presents my life with princess diana by donald duck"). you could develop training games for the military-industrial complex, ha ha ha ha. you could get funded by the CIA to ensure the medium of videogames remains sufficiently arty and rehabilitated to function as propaganda for capitalism... i mean we already know they were involved with the paris review and iowa writer's workshop and all that jazz so they gotta have least a couple people on the payroll already, right, and we will all be treated to some very entertaining revelations following the inevitable freedom of information act request 15 years down the line. you could try connecting with the little self-contained fan communities for things like touhou, fnaf, undertale, m-minecraft, like those renaissance artists who had to drop their patron's face in the background of some religious scene except in this case it would be one of the homestuck guys. you could make "trainers" for more popular games, or demos that could show how they "feel" without a $60 investment. you could sell small games as assets for larger ones that want to have some kind of in-universe  playable arcade system without having to invent a whole new game from scratch. you could just make extremely specific forms of pornography, maybe not the worst option even, just make sure the very artistic sequences of the protagonist remembering his dead wife are broken up every now and then with scenes of him unhinging his jaw to swallow and slowly digest another, smaller sad games protagonist whole (with rumble function for controllers!!!). you could make games for all the people who are still on windows xp or earlier or have some kind of arcane video card setup that prevents them playing anything other than that one preinstalled pinball game. you could try selling them at street vendors. you could try learning another language and making games for non-anglophones that don't sound like an english-written game that was localised without much thought after the fact.   you could make games for kids in the hopes that they sexually imprint on them enough to support your erotic oil paintings of the characters 10 years later, just like nintendo. you could make an extremely interesting and thoughtful videogame and then offer not to release it if the donation threshold is met, thus sparing people the emotional obligation of having yet another thing on their should-play-this-eventually list. you could develop games with some bewildering system of in-game and real-world currency interactions and then sell it to the mob as a way to launder money. you could make videogames that robots record themselves playing to upload en masse which are then watched by other robots as part of some weird, ungraspably abstract SEO economy, or better yet make robots to make the videogames as well. you could make virtual cemetary plots either private (downloadable exe) or public (hosted on the server) with their own customisable mood-themes and weather settings (dark, stormy, remember-you-will-die; sunny, quiet, circle-of-life etc). you could make prosperity orbs. you could make games for office workers or call center staff which resemble excel documents or phone system frontends from a distance. you could make games which really ARE excel files, some dense collection of interlocking hidden formulas that change to display text and ascii characters as you tab your way through. you could probably talk your way into "adapting" any of those old IPs that still float around long after anyone stopped having any particular thought or feeling about them at all, like the flintstones or ziggy or something, maybe do like those 1960s superhero cartoons where they just filmed panels from the comics - just break a 2d flintstones cartoon into constituent elements and have them hover around in a little cutout diorama that you fly thru, possibly explained in-universe as representing the 4-d vision of the great gazoo. you could make games that play themselves, for the depressed. you could become a ghastly serial m**derer where after each crime you upload a new game to itchio which will reveal the  name of your next victim, and costs only $9.99, and of course everyone buys and plays it because the police have put up a reward for solving the crime because they can't get past the dinosaur on level three, and all seems lost until some plucky young computer student who found the game on a friend's hard drive manages to solve the riddle hidden within the game's structure, following the clues, to an old castle, she knocks on the door, it's opened by, yes, it's will wright, wearing a wizard outfit, who tells her that by dint of solving all the puzzles she is now invited to join that mysterious organization known as "The Elect" which is assembled from the finest minds in all game design with a view to secretly controlling the world economy (via "werewolf blood", somehow), that she need only complete the ceremony by sacrificing one untutored soul, he holds out an ornate knife, she hesitates........
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the question is where to sell videogames rather than how because for the most part we already know how - there are a million more or less instructive articles out there about hitting up conventions or talking to the press, and it's not that they're wrong, exactly, more that they expect to be applied in an environment that no longer exists. but what should preface and qualify the idea of sheer volume swamping the indie games market is that, outside of a few small pockets, there never really was an "indie games market" to begin with - indie games drew and mostly still draw on the existing videogames market, rather than constituting a new one. it's telling that the glory days of indie games were just the ones where they were able to draw upon some of the same privileges larger titles already had in the ability to access that same audience - being frontpaged by steam, say, or making it onto a comparatively closed console platform, or generating earnest thinkpieces... you could say that they were tapping into structures the industry had already built but had not yet occupied to full capacity.
of course there are exceptions and various efforts to set up new economies for small weird interactive things (like patreon, or game bundles), and some efforts to reach outside the existing games audience likely were successful - but when we think of indie games "functioning" economically, whether that means supporting a small team, a single person, or just hitting minimum wage per hours spent, i believe we're mostly still talking about ones which are built around the existing games economy. which is fine, but i think it's also intrinsically precarious in ways which maybe get glossed over in discussions of the "indiepocalypse" - are all those new steam releases really causing a problem or are they just exacerbating a structural limitation which was already always there, a reliance within the indie game economy on a certain lucky-few-ism which just became grossly more noticeable the more disproportionate it got?
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of course it's easier to be dismissive after the fact, and my fantasy about "where" to sell videogames is partly a fantasy of them having a location to begin with - of attaining something of the grounded and immutable appearance of the non-digital, as though brick and mortar stores  don't have a relationship to the likes of amazon as basically precarious as any online storefront. and there are also real and obvious reasons why the various videogame audiences all tend to clump together - similarities in terms of the hardware required, the inputs allowed, of visual and cultural reference points, to say nothing of the personal / professional histories of the people involved in each. we are all contained within "the medium"...
so maybe it's also a fantasy of starting to pick apart that conception of the medium. i think small game developers already have more in common with artists or musicians working on the fringes of their respective industries than they do with even moderately successful teams within the same format, and use similar language, engage in similar forms of practice - particularly as near everything  comes increasingly mediated by the digital these days. i think they already ARE working in similar spaces to some extent, whether it's social media sites or digital storefronts or meatspace stores pushed by necessity not to specialise. and without wanting to be paranoid (or moreso than the CIA thing, at least) i think we should be cautious of the way a certain focus on mediumicity can obscure these overlaps.  a "new medium" is one which inherently pushes against the image of one as grouded ahistorically in some eternal human verity or other (where each medium supposedly embodies some different mode of perception / medieval humour / ninja turtle etc) - it is to see firsthand the way in which supposedly eternal, neutral qualities are materially constructed, which includes seeing forms of social organisation and usage become mystified into extrahuman conditions.  and given their basis in technology that includes drawing from wider trends in the use of that technology as a whole - which specifically, in tech circles, can mean more and more tightly interlocking systems of proprietary knowledge and speculative capital, as well as "new mediums" constructed so as to be inseperable from some storefront, website or monitoring technology. i don't think anybody will necessarily break even taking their games to a zine fair (not that they're breaking even now). but i do feel like trying to build networks across those medium boundaries could be more valuable in the effort to build some sustainable environment for these things than any amount of reform within the house that tech built.
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[PS: it occurs to me that you could plausibly argue that the very bagginess of medium-centric formulations is what makes them valuable, in forcing many different groups to butt against each other on one platform rather than just disperse into echo chambers. but i think exactly the reverse is the case: nobody really engages with each other's work in artgames because the stakes are simultaneously too small and too large. they're too small in that however much i might be picky about another person's work - and i think it's this vague pickiness or sense of not-quite-right-ness that drives the most searching critiques - it still feels pointless to pursue that instead of the glaring, omnipresent faults of the big AAA players, which means more complaining about far cry for all eternity. and they're too large in that most small game development is so precarious that it's not really worth the risk of knocking someone out of the circle over penny-ante shit. only with both economic security and broad similarity of outlook can a truly vital,  human culture of spiteful cattiness begin... our day will come]
(image credits: Eco Fighter, World Heroes 2 ,The Space Adventure, Nancy)
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bouncingtigger10 · 6 years
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New Post has been published on The Bouncing Tigger Reads
New Post has been published on http://www.tiggerreviews.com/how-often-do-you-lie-jody-discusses-this/
How often do you Lie? Jody discusses this.
An Interview with Jody Sabral
Can you tell your readers something about why you chose this particular topic to write about? What appealed to you about it? Why do you think it is different and your approach is unique?
I think the topic chose me in a way. I lived with an alcoholic for a year and felt the need to write about it in a realistic way. To capture the absolute denial of it and what the impact of that can be on everyone who comes into contact with it. I think it’s unique in the sense that I lived up close with it and therefore have a real passion for the issue. I’m not just using it as a plot ploy in a flippant manner. I hope it starts a positive conversation around alcoholism as I feel it’s something that is lacking in this country. I’ve always felt that literature and art can have a much longer lasting impact than that of news, the other business I’m in, so I guess I wanted to bring this to my novel, which I hope is also extremely entertaining. I still recall scenes from books I read ten or fifteen years ago and they make me think differently about the world we live in.
How long do you think about a topic before deciding to write about it? Do you have a set of notes or a notebook where you write down topics that appeal before making a decision as to which topic this time?
 Not really, for me it’s a very organic process. I think we all have themes in our lives that we feel strongly about for one reason or another and my writing is born from that. I’ve just completed a screenplay in which the main themes were born out of reading an article in the newspaper and a conversation with my niece. I felt strongly about the issues so I wanted to write about them.
3. How long does it take to research a topic before you write? And for this book?
It depends. I tend to pull off my experiences and those of friends. I’m not writing police procedurals. Yes, I have an investigation and an investigator but the emphasis is on the characters affected by it and the impact it has on them. So I tend to write about people’s emotions, which I think is about connections and the human condition. People fascinate me, so my writing is born out of conversations with others and observations about how people deal with a crisis.
How helpful do you find authority figures such as the police when you say you want to write about them? Is there a good way to approach them in your experience?
As a journalist I’ve always found them very helpful and happy to cooperate. I have contacts who will read to see if it’s plausible and they will tell me if it’s not working.
5. How many times have you been rejected before your first novel was accepted or before this book was accepted?
I’m proud to say upwards of sixty-five rejections in my writing career. Obviously with this novel it was different as my agent handled those rejections. But with the two earlier books, the first CHANGING BORDERS I sent it out to almost thirty agents and got a heap of rejections. The second, THE MOVEMENT, which I won the CWA Debut Dagger for got me lots of interest from agents, yet many more rejections. I met my agent on the back end of those rejections. He had the foresight to ask me what I was working on next and a partnership was formed. He’s been with me since the conception of I NEVER LIE and it’s a very supportive and nurturing relationship. Finally I have someone behind me, believing in my work. What I will say to aspiring writers is just keep at it, at some point something will give.
Did you need to self-publish on e-books before a publisher took you up?
I think you self-publish because you want to put it out there. To move on to a new project. To draw a line under it. But self-publishing has its pitfalls. Selling a book is a full time job.
Would you recommend self-publishing and building an audience before approaching a publisher? If so, what benefits do you see that it might have for the aspiring novelist?
I found self-publishing to be a very tough sell even though I had an audience of millions at the time that I wrote CHANGING BORDERS because I was a foreign correspondent on TV regularly. I write. I’m not a marketing person so I found that part of it tricky. It depends on your skills. If you’re good at sales and marketing I suppose you’d be in with a better chance than me. I don’t think there’s one perfect route. It’s a personal journey, but the important point is that you keep writing because at the end of the day it’s the words that will eventually pay off and resonate with someone. I like the support I have with an agent and publisher behind me because writing is a solitary job.
Does writing provide sufficient income to live on? And how long did it take before this happened?
Not yet. This is my first novel to be released via a publisher, so let’s see!
What is the funniest thing that happened to you on a book tour?
I haven’t done a book tour yet, so not sure I can answer this. But some interesting people have a copy of my first book. Sir Patrick Stewart has one via someone I met on a plane, and the musician Moby. I inscribed on Moby’s copy, ‘if you like it Tweet it!’ Obviously he didn’t, but you have to be your own ambassador for your work in a competitive environment. Maybe one day he’ll tweet about I NEVER LIE, who knows!
What do you read when you are ill in bed?
I don’t get ill very often. I write a lot in bed though.
 What is your favourite genre?
Crime obviously. I like Sci-fi too because it makes you think about the bigger questions in life as in ‘why are we here?’
If you recommend a living author – who would it be? A dead author?
That’s tough because there are so many amazing authors dead and alive. J G Ballard is my all time fav. Living, there’s just so many. It’s like asking me what my favourite song is, it changes all the time. I really love Gillian Flynn, S J Watson, Nicki French, John Le Carre’s earlier works…. I mean the list just goes on.
Which author had the most influence on your writing? Your writing style? Your writing genre?
Dan Brown possibly? I’m not a literary writer. It’s pacy and not overly descriptive. I don’t read as much as I used to, which may shock some people, but that’s because I find that other writer’s voices get into my own and presently I’m trying to hone my own, which I think I did with I NEVER LIE. I found my voice with this book and that’s a very satisfying feeling.
In your opinion who is the funniest author now writing?
I think the best comedy writers of the moment for me are Sharon Horgan and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, oh and Charlie Brooker, but they write for TV, which I’m also attempting to do after attending an evening class in screenwriting. I tend to watch more comedy on TV than read it in books.
Have you ever tried to imitate another author’s style? And if so, why?
When I was retraining from journalist to novelist during my MA at City University I used to copy sentences from Raymond Chandler’s books word for word into a notebook then change the adjectives for my own, I did this so I could try to capture the show aspect of writing rather than tell. As a broadcast journalist I’ve had to work on my description a lot because news writing is stripped back and we don’t use a lot of adjectives. I think Chandler’s writing is all about the atmosphere, which he creates through even just describing the materials in a room. He is my guru of descriptive writing.
What have you done with the things you wrote when in school?
Sadly, they’ve been lost over the years as I left home at sixteen and moved endlessly to a million different flats and many countries. So if you find a diary in a charity shop somewhere one day that has me name in it, please return it to me!
About the Author
Jody Sabral is based in London, where she works as a Foreign Desk editor and video producer at the BBC. She is a graduate of the MA in Crime Fiction at City University, London. Jody worked as a journalist in Turkey for ten years, covering the region for various international broadcasters. She self-published her first book Changing Borders in 2012 and won the CWA Debut Dagger in 2014 for her second novel The Movement . In addition to working for the BBC, Jody also writes for the Huffington Post , Al–Monitor and BRICS Post .
Twitter: @jsabral
I Never Lie will be followed by Don’t Blame Me in early 2019, which will explore the dark side of instant celebrity culture and the deadly  consequences of overnight success.
Canelo books can be found on Amazon, Kobo, Apple and Google Books – some books will be limited to UK publication places only:
Amazon (UK)
Kobo (UK)
Google Books (UK)
Apple Books (UK)
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dipulb3 · 4 years
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Netflix is doubling down on Asia with K-dramas and mobile-only deals. But China remains elusive
New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/netflix-is-doubling-down-on-asia-with-k-dramas-and-mobile-only-deals-but-china-remains-elusive/
Netflix is doubling down on Asia with K-dramas and mobile-only deals. But China remains elusive
The entertainment giant added 9.3 million paid subscribers in Asia Pacific last year, a 65% jump compared to 2019. Revenue in the region soared almost 62%, compared with 40% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
That momentum has encouraged Netflix to direct more firepower to Asia. It’s made plans to roughly double its budget for original content in the region this year in the hope of signing up even more new customers in India, South Korea, Japan and elsewhere. For the time being, though, mainland China remains off limits. (The company declined to specify how much it would spend.)
“We’re excited — massively excited, I would say — about the potential in Asia,” Greg Peters, the company’s chief operating officer and chief product officer, told Appradab Business. “There’s literally hundreds and hundreds of millions of people that we’re still trying to find a great way to connect with and entertain.”
Netflix (NFLX) moved into Asia Pacific five years ago by launching in Japan. At the time, the California-based company was essentially “a startup” in the region, said Peters, adding that it had no local workers or even office space.
Times have changed. Three years ago, CEO Reed Hastings predicted that the “next 100 million” users would come from India alone, and the company has since seen “big growth” in viewing there. Netflix spent some $2 billion from 2018 to 2020 to either license or produce content in Asia, and has now amassed a library of more than 200 original Asian titles. It also employs about 600 staffers across the region and keeps its APAC headquarters in Singapore.
The winning formula relies in part on taking hit shows from the West and marketing or adapting them for other audiences. In 2019, it rolled out a special season of “Queer Eye,” where the cast performed makeovers in Japan. In December, it announced a South Korean version of “Money Heist,” a Spanish crime drama that has won critical and audience acclaim.
But the company has found that Asian audiences don’t just want to watch adaptations of Western shows.
When Minyoung Kim joined Netflix in 2016 as its first Asia-based content executive, the company “knew that local content was going to be a really important factor for growing our business in Asia,” she said.
“We just didn’t have … proof,” added Kim, who is vice president of content for Netflix in South Korea, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
Today, that’s no longer the case. Just as Netflix’s international shows have worked in different markets, the company has found that its Asian shows have appeal worldwide. Japan’s “Alice in Borderland,” South Korea’s “Kingdom” and “Indian Matchmaking,” which was shot between India and the United States, have all been breakout successes around the globe.
Two other factors have been driving Netflix’s growth in Asia. Last year, Korean dramas, or “K-dramas,” dominated its top 10 lists in Southeast Asia. Regional viewership for Korean content quadrupled last year compared to 2019. Regional viewership of Japanese anime, meanwhile, doubled year-over-year.
A scene from “Kingdom.” The South Korean thriller was a recent hit for Netflix across countries. Credit: Netflix
Building an audience in Asia also means that Netflix has had to expand the number of languages it supports. The service is now available in 35 languages, including Hindi, Chinese, Vietnamese and Malay. It is continuing to add more, including subtitling and dubbing options.
The company has also unveiled a cheaper mobile-only plan to cater to Asian audiences who watch a lot of TV on their phones, even at home. The offering started in India in 2019, and has since expanded to other countries, such as Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand. (Amazon (AMZN) has picked up on the trend, too, launching a mobile-only subscription for Prime Video in India last month.)
Peters said that Asian viewers have also helped the company develop new technology that it has since rolled out globally. Someone trying to learn a foreign language, for example, might want to watch a show in slower motion. That led Netflix to introduce the ability to toggle video playback speed, which is now available worldwide.
The difficulties of going global
As competition continues to heat up, the need for new content has only gotten stronger. In recent years, Netflix has lost parts of its catalog to studios that have launched their own streaming services (including HBO Max, owned by Appradab’s parent WarnerMedia). By stocking up on original content, the company can hedge against the risk of losing subscribers to competitors.
In a letter to shareholders last month, the company acknowledged as much, saying it had been expecting more competition worldwide for years. “This is, in part, why we have been moving so quickly to grow and further strengthen our original content library across a wide range of genres and nations,” it wrote.
That line of thinking has allowed Netflix to build up an arsenal of new movies, series and documentaries, with more than 500 titles almost ready to launch. It even plans to release a new original film each week in 2021.
The company faces some significant challenges in international markets, though. In India, for example, Disney (DIS) has partnered with local player Hotstar to offer live cricket matches.
“One of the things that Disney/Hotstar has in India that they [Netflix] don’t have is live sports,” said Neil Macker, a senior equity analyst at Morningstar. “Their competitors are using other things [to hook viewers].”
To stand out, Netflix could partner with a wider range of players to find “some way of creating more value than just simply the [streaming] service itself,” Macker added.
Netflix has also had to contend with political headaches.
In 2019, it blocked an episode of the comedy show, “Patriot Act,” in Saudi Arabia that was critical of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The decision — made in response to a legal request from officials — was a “troubling compromise,” Hastings told Appradab.
Last November, Netflix found itself in hot water in India. It became the subject of boycott calls and even police complaints after some politicians objected to the series “A Suitable Boy,” which featured a kissing scene between Hindu and Muslim characters at a Hindu temple. (The production was a BBC title acquired by Netflix.)
Asked how the firm dealt with demands for censorship, Peters pledged to support “creative freedom.”
“We don’t have a particular agenda we’re trying to push,” he said. “We are not looking to harm or insult any group of people, but we are working with a diverse set of creators. And those diverse sets of creators have a wide set of perspectives.”
There is still one massive Asian market the company hasn’t been able to crack: mainland China. Netflix has tried to dip into the country before, with disappointing results.
In 2016, the company told shareholders that the local “regulatory environment” had become an issue, though it still hoped to launch there “eventually.” The following year, it embarked on a largely fruitless licensing partnership with iQiyi, a Chinese streaming giant. (Netflix’s own service has never been available in mainland China.)
“The effect wasn’t that great, so we didn’t continue the partnership anymore,” iQiyi CEO Gong Yu later told CNBC in an interview.
“We’ve got no plans [to launch there] for the foreseeable future,” said Peters. “Really, we look at the opportunity outside of China.”
Even accounting for the company’s success elsewhere in Asia, though, Peters said it can’t afford to be complacent.
“There’s nothing I would say that I’m satisfied with. We have to constantly keep improving,” he said. “We’re connected with a lot of people around the world. But it’s not everybody, right? So we have more work to do.”
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aion-rsa · 4 years
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Wonder Woman 1984: Ending Explained
https://ift.tt/eA8V8J
This article contains major Wonder Woman 1984 spoilers for the ending of the film. We have a spoiler free review here.
Wonder Woman 1984 fits a lot of story into its 2.5 hour runtime, especially in its action-packed third act as Diana faces off against not one, but two villains: Cheetah and Maxwell Lord. While audiences have been encouraged to think of the DC blockbuster as a relative standalone, there’s much about the sequel that harkens back to the first film (Steve Trevor, most of all) and there’s much about the movie that hints at what’s to come for our eponymous hero.
If you have some burning questions coming out of Wonder Woman 1984, you’re not alone. What happens at the end of the superhero sequel? What might it mean for the future of the franchise? And which characters might be back for future installments?
We have those answers and more ahead…
Will Steve Trevor Be Back?
Coming into Wonder Woman 1984, one of the central plot mysteries was: how the hell is Chris Pine back as Steve Trevor? We now know the answer: After Diana wishes on the Dreamstone for her dead beau’s return, Steve’s spirit or soul or something is resurrected in the body of a local engineer played by Kristoffer Polaha, credited only as “Handsome Man.” While the rest of the world sees the body of “Handsome Man” when they look at the Steve-possessed body, Diana only sees Steve.
Unfortunately for Steve, Diana must renounce her wish to save the world, sending Steve back from the apparently nice place from whence he came. The movie ends with Steve once again dead, probably never to return. As he tells Diana in his final scene, “I’m already gone.” 
But will he be back? It doesn’t seem likely. Wonder Woman 1984 goes out of its ways to maintain the weight of death in its world, creating a very specific scenario in which Steve and Diana can be temporarily reunited. If Wonder Woman 3 were to bring Steve back again, it would be even harder to maintain the stakes and logic of the world and, honestly, Patty Jenkins is too good of a filmmaker to make a mistake like that.
Sorry, Steve fans. Chris Pine has to go play Dungeons & Dragons now.
Wonder Woman Can Fly Now
In her heartbreak over losing Steve (again), Diana runs. Then, she flies. Using what Steve taught her about how he understands flight (“It’s so easy, really. It’s wind and air, learning how to ride it, how to catch it,”) she uses her Lasso to snag the tail of a plane that pulls her far and fast up into the sky. She spreads her arms, and catches the wind. She uses her Lasso to snag clouds and the occasional lightning bolt to propel her forward, and then she soars.
New power: unlocked.
It’s Diana’s accomplishment, but it’s also a symbol of how much Steve has affected her life. In the beginning of the movie, we see how much Diana still thinks about Steve. She tells Barbara that she still sees him sometimes, in the sky. Later, she tells Steve that she’s always thought of flight as his gift. In this way, flight becomes Steve’s parting gift to Diana. Before, she would look up to the sky and think of Steve as a plane flew overhead. Now, she gets to be the one in the sky, thinking of Steve as she does the thing he so loved.
What is the comic book precedent for this? In her original comic book incarnation, Diana couldn’t fly, but Wonder Woman has never been a character to accept limitations. During the Silver Age of Comics, Diana learned how to glide using the air currents, but it wasn’t until after the Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot that Diana full-on flew. In her post-Crisis origin story by George Perez, Diana was gifted the ability to fly from Hermes. In Wonder Woman 1984, it’s a skill she learns in the World of Men.
Patty Jenkins told Den of Geek and other outlets during a recent press junket: “I love that she learns how to fly in this emotional way, and that that metaphor stands for something for all of us, which is you have to let go and embrace the truth and things for what they are to understand that it’s just wind and air.” 
Maxwell Lord Uses a Satellite to Grant the World’s Wishes
While Diana is going on an emotional journey about Steve, Max Lord is continuing his quest for MORE—more wishes, more power, more everything. After visiting the Oval Office, he has gained access to the government’s Atmospheric Satellite Defense program (which POTUS tells us uses Star Wars technology). Using Marine One (with Barbara in tow), Lord travels to the satellite facility where he is able to simultaneously hijack every broadcast signal around the world to deliver his message: make a wish, and I will grant it.
The logic here is all a bit hand wave-y. The Dreamstone rules require that people be touching the Stone, in this case Lord, when they make their wish. Screenwriters Patty Jenkins, Geoff Johns, and David Callaham seem to be making a statement about mass media with this plot point (which isn’t so surprising, given their professions): that media has the power to “touch” people.
Regardless of the logic, people around the world start wishing, not understanding the power of their words. A Chinese woman working in a restaurant wishes to be famous, and is immediately recognized through the window. An Irish man wishes that his partner would drop dead, and she does, only moments after she wishes that all of the Irish people in the U.K. would be sent back to “where they came from.”
Elsewhere in the world, a man wishes for nukes for his country. The world erupts in chaos. The Soviet Union launches nukes towards the U.S., in retaliation for the new weapons POTUS wished for; the U.S. fires back. It’s a mess.
Wonder Woman Faces Off Against Cheetah in Asteria’s Golden Armor
Before Diana can stop Max Lord, however, she has to get through her friend, Barbara, who has entered full-on Cheetah mode. While most people only got one wish from the Dreamstone, Dr. Minerva got two. After Barbara saved him at the White House, Max told Babs: “I’ve never been one for rules … Tell me, what do you want? I’m feeling generous.” So she wishes for even greater power: “I don’t want to be like anyone anymore. I want to be #1. An apex predator, like nothing there’s ever been before.”
Yes, friends, she is now a cat.
While Barbara pretty easily dealt with a wish-weakened Diana at the White House, tossing her around like she was nothing, Cheetah ultimately proves to be no match for Diana at her full strength, in Asteria’s Golden Armor. As we learned earlier in the film, Asteria was the Amazonian’s fiercest warrior. When the Amazons escaped to Themyscira, someone had to stay behind to keep the encroaching men at bay. That person was Asteria, wearing armor forged from all of the Amazonian armor. Diana found it when she came to the World of Men, but she never found Asteria…
Cheetah claws her way through the armor’s wings, but Diana doesn’t need those—not really. After a swinging battle, Diana gives Barbara one last chance to renounce her wish. Barbara doesn’t, and Diana uses a nearby downed power line to electrocute Cheetah into submission. Does she know this won’t kill Barbara? Honestly, probably not. Who even knows the limits of a half-human, half-cheetah creature that, by wish definition, has no precedent? It doesn’t kill Barbara, though, and Diana leaves her weakened on the ground outside of the satellite facility.
Diana Uses Her Lasso to Show the World the Truth
Midway through the movie, Diana tells Steve (and us) that the Lasso of Truth doesn’t just have the power to make people tell the truth; it also has the power to make people see the truth. This comes back in a big way in the movie’s climax, when Diana furtively snakes her Lasso around Maxwell Lord’s ankle while he is broadcasting to the world in order to speak to all of the wish-makers herself, in order to make them see the truth of what their wishes are costing the world.
“The world was a beautiful place, just as it was. You cannot have it all. You can only have the truth ,” she tells them before also recognizing and validating their pain. “You’re not the only one who has suffered, who wants more, who wants them back, who doesn’t want to be scared anymore or alone or frightened or powerless … Because you’re not the only one who imagined a world where everything was different, better … But what is it costing you? Do you see the truth?”
It’s a particularly strong message on a thematic level: the idea that we, as a world, need to see through the lies of capitalism and consumerism to the truth. That “more” doesn’t come without a cost, one that is hurting not only ourselves but the entire world. From climate change to global and domestic inequality (both complex issues that represent the devastating human cost of late stage capitalism), it’s not hard to see the real-world applications to this theme.
Max Lord is Saved By the Power of Fatherhood
With Diana’s help seeing the truth, people around the world begin renouncing their wishes. And, eventually, so does Maxwell Lord. Diana helps him see the truth of what his wish is costing him: his son, Alistair. Then, it is an easy choice for Lord. He chooses his son, over power, greed, over more. He chooses the joy and love of his present and future over the pain of his past, which we see in flashbacks: The trauma he suffered watching his father hurt his mother, from being poor, from being socially isolated growing up.
With Diana’s help, Max recognizes the truth of all that he already has in Alistair. In the film, fatherhood represents a kind of sustainable abundance that the Dreamstone could never give. Because of this, Max is finally able to be truthful with Alistair: “I’ve been lying to you. I’m a pretty messed up loser guy,” giving his son a truth that we get the impression Young Max was never granted: “You don’t ever have to make a wish for me to love you.”
In return, Alistair reminds Max that he doesn’t need to earn his preciousness. He has always been worthy of love, even when the world failed him and the people in his life weren’t able to give it to him. “I already love you, Daddy,” Alistair tells Max. “Because you’re my dad.”
Does Barbara Renounce Her Wish?
Max Lord definitively renounces his wish at the end of Wonder Woman 1984 in order to save son Alistair, but the choice is much murkier when it comes to Dr. Barbara Minerva. In her final shot of the film, Barbara is no longer in Cheetah form, but we also never see her explicitly renouncing her wish. According to Patty Jenkins, the ambiguity was intentional.
“I have my reasons for making it ambiguous, and I think it’s not clear what her point of view [is] on everything that just happened …  I love that we wrap up Max Lord’s point of view, and that you see the culmination of that storyline, I think is so important. But the truth is there may or may not be more to come [for Barbara].”
It sounds likely that we will see Cheetah again.
Why Does Wonder Woman 1984 End at Christmas?
Originally, Wonder Woman 1984 was supposed to be a summertime release. No one could have predicted the circumstances that would lead to the many delays, and an eventual global release during the Christmas 2020 season. However, the film’s final scene is very Christmas-y. Patty Jenkins told Den of Geek and other outlets during a recent press event that she had thought about re-filming it, but ultimately decided against it. Now, it works perfectly!
Interestingly, it also means that this final scene takes place roughly five months after the events of most of the movie, which takes place around the Fourth of July, as we see from the Invisible Jet scene. Emotionally, this works really well as it makes sense that Diana would need some time to get over losing Steve again, and might not be ready to fully embrace the wonder of the world around her right after having to say goodbye. In other words: this feels more truthful to the character.
The Mid-Credits Scene: Reveal of Asteria
Hopefully, you stuck around until the very end of the film, as Wonder Woman 1984 snuck a scene into its credits. In it, we see a woman who looks like Diana from the back save a baby and its mother from a falling telephone pole on a busy market street. When the woman turns, it is Lynda Carter, the actress who played Wonder Woman in the 1970s TV series. 
In the show, Carter played Diana Prince. Here, she is playing Asteria, the warrior who stayed behind when Themyscira was built in order to keep humanity from following the rest of the Amazons. Earlier in Wonder Woman 1984, Diana told Steve that she searched for Asteria when she came to the World of Men, but could only find her Golden Armor. Now, we know Asteria is still around and still saving people.
“I’ve been doing this a long time,” Asteria tells the baby’s mother in the mid-credits scene, before Carter winks at the camera. Hopefully, this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Asteria.
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oliverphisher · 4 years
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Candice Fox
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Candice Fox is an Australian novelist who won the 2014 Ned Kelly Award for Best First Novel for Hades. She was born in the western suburbs of Sydney into a large family. She spent a brief period in the Royal Australian Navy before studying and teaching at university level.
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Hades (An Archer and Bennett Thriller) By Candice Fox Buy on Amazon
Hades, Candice Fox’s first novel, won the Ned Kelly Award for best debut in 2014 from the Australian Crime Writers Association. The sequel, Eden, won the Ned Kelly Award for best crime novel in 2015, making Candice only the second author to win these accolades back-to-back. She is also the author of the bestselling Fall, Crimson Lake and Redemption Point, all shortlisted for Ned Kelly and Davitt Awards.
In 2015 Candice began collaborating with James Patterson. Their first novel together, Never Never, set in the vast Australian outback, was a huge bestseller in Australia and went straight to number 1 on the New York Times bestseller list in the US and also to the top of the charts in the UK. Since then they have written Black & Blue, Fifty Fifty, Liar Liar, Hush Hush in the Harriet Blue series. Her books are printed in fifteen languages.
Born in 1985, Candice is the middle child of a large, eccentric family from Sydney’s western suburbs composed of half-, adopted and pseudo siblings. The daughter of an enthusiastic foster-carer, Candice spent her childhood listening around corners to tales of violence, madness and evil from the cops and childcare authorities who frequented her home.
What are one to three books that have greatly influenced your life? 
Every Dead Thing: A Charlie Parker Thriller (1) By John Connolly
A friend got me Every Dead Thing by John Connolly when I was about 23. It bridged the gap for me between crime writing and supernatural stuff, which I had been exclusively writing. The book straddles the two genres so it was a way to ease myself into crime, which I found a little intimidating. I wrote Hades immediately after, which was a multi-award winning novel and my first to be published.
What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted your life in the last six months (or in recent memory)?      
I’ve spent a lot of money on my baby over the last six months. Educational toys are a very seductive money pit. I bought a $2.50 loofah from the IGA the other day and it’s her favourite toy ever.
How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? 
My first marriage was a trainwreck. That’s what comes to mind first! But on the subject of writing, Hades was first acquired by an independent publisher in the Isle of Mann, of all places, when it had been rejected by every other publisher I could get it in front of. The guy running the company eventually ran out of money. If that deal had gone ahead I’d have sold maybe thirty copies and never been published again.
Are there any quotes you think of often or live your life by?
You can’t change people.
What is one of the best investments in a writing resource you’ve ever made? 
Microsoft Word. That’s all you need.
What is an unusual habit or an absurd thing that you love? 
I hate hearing other people scat (jazz singing). But I scat all day long, every day of the week. Driving, doing house work, whatever. I know, it’s weird.
In the last five years, what new belief, behaviour, or habit has most improved your life? 
I don’t discuss religion or politics with anyone. Ever.
What advice would you give to a smart, driven aspiring author?
Get an agent. If you want to do this gig for a living, an agent is essential in building your brand, sourcing international income and being the bad guy so that you can maintain good relationships with the people who publish you.
What advice should they ignore? 
Don’t try to build your social media profile as a means of getting published for the first time. Thousands of devoted followers would be nice, but that’s not going to get a bad book over the line with someone working in acquisitions.
What are bad recommendations you hear in your profession often? 
Word count recommendations. When people say ‘you should aim for X amount of words per day’. There is no catch-all number for words. You fit in what you can, and don’t beat yourself up for not meeting other people’s targets.
In the last five years, what have you become better at saying no to (distractions, invitations, etc.)? 
I’m still terrible at saying no. The fact is that every single time I do some promo I reach someone new. Maybe they will hate what they see but I still got in front of them, and that’s always worth it.
What marketing tactics should authors avoid?
It’s always best not to step on people to make way for yourself. People remember when you hogged the mic on a panel, or you bagged out their book in an article, that kind of thing. Everybody needs everybody in this game, and a sense of community spirit goes a long way.
When you feel overwhelmed or have lost your focus temporarily, what do you do? 
Take a day off. Go for a walk. Clean out an old cupboard. Distract yourself with other things and a part of your brain will work subconsciously on your problems.
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rideofbrunhelga · 7 years
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nycc recap!
OK.
so now I'm on my computer finally ( I slept most of the day lmao ) so lemme give a rundown on my nycc experience!
thursday:
So. I got a SUPER late start because I barely slept this week due to work stress and just general stress about getting a bunch of stuff done prior to leaving for NY. I drove to Hamilton station in NJ and was told that their overnight parking was full so I had to drive to Trenton. Then I think because I was so in a tailspin just trying to get there when I was already running behind, I missed the train and had to wait for the next one. I got into NY around 2:30. I was meeting my BFF and she thought I wasn't getting in until 2:45ish so I waited for her outside MSG at Penn Station for a bit.
So, we finally made it to the con around 3:15 and it was packed. I couldn’t even believe it (this was both our first con). But right when we walked in, the shrine with spongebob pineapple was at the entrance and I got emotional (I was also tired so emotions were running high) but there was a huge line. Not for the shrine, but to meet Spongebob and Patrick who were basically in front of the shrine. The guy told us they would be leaving soon so we decided to come back later.
We walked around for a bit, we got a pic with BB-8. They explicitly told us not to touch him. And then after our pic I subconsciously used him to pull myself up LMFADJSAKLDJAKDJA. omfg the girl looked like she was ready to murder me but it was a complete accident the second I did it I was like OMG I’m so sorry. and I HIGH TAILED IT THE HECK OUTTA THERE.
While we were walking (by the way I felt like I couldn’t even stop to look at things because people were EVERYWHERE you felt like you had to keep moving), we saw Kevin Smith. I didn’t know who he was and I was standing right next to him and this guy ran up to him to get a selfie and he was like “thanks man it means a lot” I was like “who is this guy?” lmfao. Then I noticed there was security and the one said “he can’t take anymore pictures he’s on a tight schedule.” and my friend then realize it was Kevin Smith hahahahaha. Then we headed back to the shrine and spent a good half hour there. NO one was taking pictures with it. I have no idea why because it was so neat. The people at the Nickelodeon booth didn’t care that we were just like having a full on photoshoot with it so that was cool. 
We went outside and there was this Jigsaw escape room and we’re like “oh yay fun” but the girl was like “we’re closed for the day” so :(. Oh well. We bought overpriced drinks and sat on the floor for awhile to decompress before we met up with our other bff for dinner. 
We then had dinner at this ramen place on the upper west side. It was fun except so bizarre. This woman tripped over my friends chair, fell to the floor and for like 45 min she refused to get up from the floor. The owner looked panicked and kept asking to call the ambulance and she was screaming “NO!” “NO!” like 500x making a HUGE scene. She wouldn’t get up and was just sitting there. Someone eventually called an ambulance because like wtf? If you don’t think you can get up you can’t just sit on the floor of a restaurant the whole night? People were so uncomfortable and trying not to laugh because she was being so dramatic lmfao. When the EMTs came they basically were like “lady we’ve been doing this for years, your shoulder is not dislocated and we need to get you off the floor” so finally that was that. Then we went to have gelato and they made mine into a really beautiful flower I was like omg?? Then I went back to my friend’s apartment and we watched AHS: Cult which I think I cannot watch another episode of because it was so traumatic. 
friday
I woke up around 7. Took a shower and got ready for the panel. I knew I wanted to get there around 9 because I planned to sit through the first panel. In line I met two girls from the Facebook group and they were so sweet and so fun. We all sat together and managed to get front row. I’m not sure HOW that happened but I think it’s because the rows behind us were reserved so people assumed our row was (it wasn't). so that was so good! Especially considering I think I was in the first 100 people at Hammerstein and still managed front row. 
This girl and DJ were hyping the crowd and then the first panel started. It was for both Amazon’s Man in the High Castle and Electric Dreams shows, both Phillip K. Dick works. It was cool. It would’ve been cooler if Bryan Cranston was there but Liam Cunningham from GOT was there and Rufus Sewell. 
Finally that ended (lmfao). I swear. 85% of that crowd was there just for Arnold. There was 45 min in between panels. It got a lot more crowded for Arnold. The DJ was spinning some 90s tracks and people were dancing in the aisles lmfao. The hype girl then brought some people on the stage, one of them in Helga cosplay ( she was AMAZING, she was stomping around like Helga too we all were cracking up ) and two 14 yr old girls in Arnold apparel. She asked them how they got into Hey Arnold! since they were so young, and the one girl said from watching The Splat and we all cheered. The other girl was like “it’s a long story” I was like ok I guess? Then we played a game where the DJ played like two seconds of a 90s cartoon theme and the audience had to guess what it was. I also got another Arnold hat that they were giving away. 
FINALLY it was 12:15 and the panel began. 
It was hosted by Keely Flaherty (sp?) from BuzzFeed. She was cute. They started playing the music and introducing everyone. Everyone got a huge reception, especially Craig and Franny. I was freaking out. I started getting choked up the moment I saw Craig LMFAO. The audience was going NUTS. They spoke about doing the show all those years ago and if they remembered their first auditions (Toran revealed he didn’t originally audition for Arnold, he possibly auditioned for Stinky but wasn’t sure). Craig said they were doing the auditions where they made Ren and Stimpy. Then they discussed each of their characters at length. Craig noted he voiced all the animals including Abner, lol. Anndi also talked about how she was competitive like Phoebe, and tried to join Boy Scouts as a kid. 
It was revealed that Toran was playing a character of Che, who is Olga’s love interest in the film. We saw the character lineups that we’ve seen before as well as some new ones. Everyone was laughing with Rhonda’s newly revealed jungle outfit. Craig said she Rhonda is going to have a hard time in the jungle. Olivia was like “Thanks Craig. Do you hate me or something?” lmfao. 
They were showing new stills and every time a new one was shown the audience oooh’d and ahhh’d. Craig then introduced the trailer and I died. I really fricken died. I was a mess. The girls I was sitting with were choking up too. When the lights went back up, Franny looked over at Anndi with her hand over her mouth like she was ready to cry and they hugged each other, Anndi started crying. Most of us stood up and clapped and cheered. I CRIED EVEN MORE. Craig was like “let’s play it one more time!” and we all cheered lmao. So we watched it again, and I caught things the second time around I for some reason didn’t notice the first time. We then had a Q&A.
The one girl I was sitting with asked a really great question about if Craig incorporated any of the technology and animation styles from Dinosaur Train and Ready Jet Go into TJM. He seemed impressed by the question. People asked about Mr. Simmons sexuality, Gertie’s role in the film, Phoebe x Gerald, so on and so forth. Some people just complimented Craig on things that they loved about the show. There were a couple weird moments. Someone asked Craig how it felt when the first movie didn’t do well leading the series cancellation...I was like ??????? He then got up from his seat and was like “WELL AT LEAST WE’RE GETTING THE JUNGLE MOVIE NOW!” and we all cheered :D
SADLY the panel came to an end and I started crying again. It was so much fun. I can’t even express it properly here. The vibe in there was awesome and everyone was so excited and happy. They were taking a group picture on the stage and people then rushed up to the stage to shake Craig’s hand like a freakin rockstar (I have pics of it). It was so funny. He was like “guys I have to get off the stage” lmao. 
I then had a couple hours to kill between the panel and the signing so I headed over to Javits. It was MOBBED. I wasn’t sure how it could be worse than yesterday but it was lmao. I saw amazzzzzing cosplay. My phone was dying and my portable charger was drained but I was like whatever we can’t take pics at the autograph session anyway (which apparently was not enforced -_-) I sat for awhile and calmed my nerves down and then realized I had no idea where the signing was since it wasn’t clear in my email. I asked so many people and staff and NO ONE knew. I finally found it in the corner of the Autographing area. I saw the one 14 yr “it’s a long story” girl hanging around there and I was like “is this the line for Arnold?” and she was like “Yeah, but it’s for lottery winners ONLY.” I was like ‘I know I have a ticket.’ and she shot me this weird look and was like “You’re lucky.” LISTEN HONEY, YOU WEREN’T EVEN BORN WHEN THIS SERIES ENDED I’VE WAITED TOO LONG FOR THIS don’t sass your elders like that!
I got in line. I was pretty okay waiting. I realized Lucius Malfoy from Harry Potter and Pornstache from OITNB were doing signings at the booth next to us lmao. Finally the cast came out and I was okay, totally calm. Then I was up next and my heart started beating out of my fricken chest lord have mercy.
I can’t tell you everything because I feel like I blacked out a portion of it lmao. Craig was the first person you go up to. I said “Hi Craig.” and he said “Hi! What’s you’re name?” I said Andrea and he asked me to spell it. Then I was like “It’s really so nice to meet you.” he asked me if I watched the show growing up and I as like ?!?!??!?!?!@!@PUQIOERDuwqajdJALSDJAKLD YES. I told him how I made a petition when I was 11 and mailed it to Nickelodeon. He got a kick out of that and asked if I sent to the 1515 New York address, which I do remember was the address I had at that time. He’s like “so maybe in a way you influenced this” I was like, “I hope so!” and he asked me if I went to the panel and I was like ALDJASLKDJAKLJLK YES. I told him how the energy in the room changed once the first panel was over. I was like, “IT WAS COOL AND ALL BUT WHEN IT ENDED THE ENERGY CHANGED” and he loved that and said he heard the hollering from the audience backstage and asked the staff what the audience was cheering for and she said it was for them and he couldn’t believe it! I told him that it really meant so much to me to that this was happening. I told him I was beyond thrilled for him and couldn’t wait. He thanked me and I really felt like he meant it. He was sooooo nice and so interested in what I had to say. Franny was next to him and I said “Hi Francesca, so nice to meet you” And she asked how I pronounced my name and such. I told her I was like “I don’t know if you remember but a few years ago I emailed you about doing a paper on Helga.” She was like “YEs!” And I thanked for her for taking the time to do that and giving such great answers. She asked me if I graduated college, what I majored in, what I was doing now, what the class was for, etc. Like, me? Let’s talk about you? Then I spoke with Anndi, who asked if I would consider shortening my name to hers lol. She was very very sweet and warm and beautiful in person. I think I blurted something stupid to her and Olivia at the same time about Instagram like, “you guys are so cool!” LMAOOO. What a moron. 
Anyway they all were incredible and down to earth, they seemed just as excited to meet us as we were to meet them. Olivia asked if I went to the panel, and Anndi said “She was in the front row!” I think they asked this because prob some of the lottery winners were not even fans lmao. 
I’m missing some detail because like I said, I feel like I blacked out aldkjasdjasdkl, but it was AWESOME. The whole day was just so fun. It was beyond my expectations. The trailer was incredible - I really am so stoked now. Like, the movie looks so fun and action packed. I am so glad I decided to go because it was really something I will remember and hold close to me the rest of my life. I wish we could all have a screening to watch the movie together because it was too fun being in that room with all the fans experiencing that collectively. I am so grateful for the experience, and to be apart of such an incredible fandom that has such a wonderful cast and creator behind it. I could not ask for better. I feel so lucky.
I love you guys! I hope you enjoyed my coverage on ig story. I’m gonna image dump on here soon from my experience. I’m so excited, we are so close and it’s all feeling real now!
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eggnogdoubt38-blog · 5 years
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How Sweetgreen Got to $1 Billion
The rumors started a few weeks back: Sweetgreen, the chain that dishes out kale caesar salads and quinoa-filled bowls to sad desk lunch crowds, was worth $1 billion. With the average Sweetgreen salad bowl clocking in between $9 and $14, that’s a lot of, er, green. “I mean, it’s insane,” says restaurant investor Elaine Chon-Baker of Mokja Ventures of the brand’s “unicorn” status — a distinction given to privately held start-up companies that reach a $1 billion market value. “These unicorn valuations are happening so often, everyone just shakes their head at it. It reminds me of what happened with the dot com bust in 2001.”
With investors chasing the next Shake Shack, companies like Sweetgreen (which has 90 locations) and Joe & the Juice (with nearly 300 locations and plans for a $1.5 billion IPO in 2019) seem to be rushing into high valuations just to drum up buzz. But how did Sweetgreen, a relatively small chain known for serving vegetables in oddly shaped bowls, become the first real restaurant unicorn?
“They’ve built almost more of a social, political, cultural brand versus a fast-food occasion.”
Sweetgreen started life 11 years ago as a small restaurant in D.C. founded by three recent Georgetown University graduates, Nicolas Jammet, Nathaniel Ru, and Jonathan Neman. To date, Sweetgreen has collected $325 million from investors including Revolution Growth and Shake Shack founder Danny Meyer. The salad chain doesn’t talk about its financial health publicly, but confirmed that it is turning a profit. “The business is very healthy economically,” Jammet told Eater in early October, before the most recent raise. Sweetgreen’s $1 billion valuation comes after Fidelity Investments, one of the world’s largest asset management companies, poured another $200 million into the chain’s bank account.
Sweetgreen wasn’t the first concept to offer a customizable salad menu, but it was the first to understand how to cultivate loyalty — by reaching its target audience outside of the restaurant. Four years into its run, with only a handful of locations open on the East Coast, the brand launched a music festival: Sweetlife kicked off in 2011 with the Strokes, Girl Talk, and Lupe Fiasco headlining. Phoenix, Lana Del Rey, and the Weeknd hit the fest in subsequent years, generating an enormous amount of attention — on social media and in real life — for what was otherwise just another farm-to-table concept in an ocean of farm-to-table concepts. (Sweetlife ended its marquee run in 2016, but continues to host smaller shows.)
In between its annual festivals, the group collected over $100 million in venture capitalist funding, expanded to the West Coast and Chicago, partnered with high-profile chefs for seasonal menu items, solidified its partnerships with independent farmers, and launched an order-ahead app. A sign of its influence? Sweetgreen has over 170,000 followers on Instagram. By contrast, the internationally reaching Shake Shack has over 500,000 fans on Instagram while competitors like Chopt (44k) and Just Salad (21k) don’t have nearly the same level of engagement.
“Sweetgreen understands the power of great storytelling: the story of how they started, the story of each menu item,” Chon-Baker says. “A lot of great concepts have really great stories behind them. Apple. McDonald’s. Shake Shack. These companies have amazing branding and marketing.” The key element is consistency, and Chon-Baker notes that Sweetgreen’s social media presence has been “a huge driver… People are always looking for visual cues. [Social media] really created this pattern of looking at food as art or food as an image versus just food as nourishment.”
A large part of Sweetgreen’s image is about selling the idea of nourishment. The company has long projected an image of health, wellness, and sustainable farm and labor practices. Its marketing language uses phrases like “real food should be convenient and accessible to everyone,” “food from scratch, using fresh ingredients and produce delivered that morning.” Its stated mission is to “build healthier communities by connecting people to real food.” Lofty, but not flimsy, it’s real enough to appeal to Sweetgreen’s core audience: young professionals with disposable income who are likely to ask a lot of questions about where their food comes from, and why. Perhaps no other fast-casual brand on the market is so well-aligned with its consumers.
This alignment coincided recently with a cult-like gathering at chef Dan Barber’s four-star Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Over 100 Sweetgreen fans and partners were invited to what one guest called “a wedding, but celebrating a very special squash.” There was a photographer, there was a Spotify playlist, there were several toasts, there was a live band. The four-course meal honored Sweetgreen’s triumphs in promoting sustainable farming practices, and its new collaboration with Barber’s Row 7 seed company, which develops seeds for produce with an emphasis on flavor. Last year, Sweetgreen bought Row 7 seeds for a squash called Koginut, which looks a little like if a butternut and acorn squash had a baby. Sweetgreen then gifted the seeds to its farming partners across the country — including SoCal chef-favorite Weiser Family Farms — asked them to grow it, and promised to buy the resulting produce. As of this month, Koginut squash is on Sweetgreen’s menu nationwide, served roasted with fennel, pears, basil, goat cheese, walnuts, wild rice, and a lemon-balsamic dressing for $11.
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Sweetgreen/Official
“This is a major first for us,” Jammet says of the Koginut partnership. “It’s a first for Row 7, and for our farmers, and we’re going to see how it sells, but we have a good feeling about it,” he told Eater just before the launch. Halfway through into its first month on the menu, Sweetgreen’s demographic of upwardly mobile and influential fans are literally eating it up.
“They use this phrase a lot: ‘Democratizing food,’ which is so unique in the food space,” says restaurant consultant Judge Graham. “They’ve built almost more of a social, political, cultural brand versus a fast-food occasion.”
But even that’s not enough to get Sweetgreen to $1 billion, says Jenifer Ekstein, a senior consultant at Vivaldi. “What holds so much potential is turning a fast-casual restaurant into a food platform,” she says. “Sweetgreen looks beyond just the food they serve — it’s about how they can create an entire food ecosystem that reaches their customers in ways personalized to them.”
“They’re doing something that a fast-food company has never really been done before,” Graham says. “How they’re approaching their customers, how they’re selling it, how they’re using technology, how they’re positioning it… It’s almost a tech company.”
Sweetgreen’s app, which 1 million people across the U.S. use, brings in a full 50 percent of the chain’s business today, and that’s only expected to grow. The company also pioneered use of blockchain technology for its supply chain, which means it has systems in place that trace each fruit and vegetable from farm to consumer. With its new influx of cash, it plans on growing its Outpost concept, in which deliveries to office buildings are free. It also plans to expand into new markets, drawing more users to its app.
And that means one thing: data. “With their technology infrastructure they are able to collect mountains of data,” Ekstein says. That data is valuable for the company’s marketing, menu development, and expansion purposes, but it might become even more valuable in the future. (Jammet promises the company is only using the data for good.) “We are big believers in leveraging data to create a better experience for the customer, the team member, everything,” he says. “We like to make a lot of our decisions on the foundation of data... it’s always art and science. The data we collect informs how our menu evolves, it informs the efficiency of our SKUs and eventually what we buy from our farmers. For the past year and a half, we’ve been testing this larger blockchain of food.” This, Jammet says, has become a “massively powerful” tool for food safety, for “traceability.” (See also: Chipotle.)
Ekstein believes that because Sweetgreen started small and “took calculated, purposeful steps to create a strong brand,” they can “ultimately disrupt the long stagnant food industry.” But that $1 billion valuation is just a number.
Graham says when small companies throw around big numbers it’s a sign that “they’re positioning to get sold. 100%. That’s what my gut tells me.” In an interesting twist, he says that “the fact that they’re so technology and delivery focused, and they have this cultural spin, this would be such a perfect brand for somebody like Amazon to purchase.”
Whether or not Jeff Bezos would put down $1 billion of his pocket change to get into the restaurant business remains to be seen. Sale or no sale, Chon-Baker doubts salad alone will be enough to propel the company forward. It’s a good thing Sweetgreen also plans to use some of its new cash to expand its menu — and maybe they’ll tone down the whole farm-to-table schtick. “I mean, of course it’s ‘farm-to-table,’” Chon-Baker says with a laugh. “It’s lettuce.”
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Source: https://www.eater.com/2018/11/15/18096104/sweetgreen-1-billion-unicorn-tech-company-lifestyle-brand
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