#if this feels a little preachy i'm sorry i just have a lot to say kjhgfdfvgh

[prisonhannibal]

Hi, I'd just like to say how it's just so incredibly cool to me that you're making indigenous ( specifically sámi ) art. Though just "cool" might be too small a word to describe it.

As someone who IS sámi but. Kind of doesn't feel like they are / has a whole lot of their own complicated feelings about it (didn't speak the language at home and that sort of stuff yk), it's always so special to me to see anything about it online. Always makes me want to get a hold of myself and actually connect with my culture, it's so so important to me and seeing your art makes me really happy :'))

And honestly? Seeing stuff about us online makes it feel like it's not too late for me, that I don't have to just put "finnish" in my bio anymore. ( Though I can't really start thinking it's too late if I'm still a minor now can I?)

Sorry if this got a little much, but I wanted to let you know how important your art can be, don't feel pressured to answer this, if you want to you can just leave it or delete it!! I'm a scared guy hiding behind anon anyways :'))

Hi ❤️💚💛💙 Don’t apologize it’s not too much and I’m glad you chose to reach out instead of dealing with it alone, that’s a step in the process of reconnecting ❤️ There is a specific loneliness in not having connections to your people. I don’t know your circumstances or if it’s a completely disconnected situation or if your family grew up calling themselves sámi but not participating in the culture, so some of this might not be relevant to you but I’ll answer as if you have very little connection just in case, so I can cover too much instead of too little. I’m sorry if this is all unnecessary and preachy and you didn’t ask but I have things I feel like saying.

The language thing doesn’t say anything about how sámi you are, I didn’t grow up speaking my heart language (that’s what my áhkku calls it and I think it’s beautiful) either, the majority of sámi people don’t speak any sámi language. You have to remember that the damage done to our communities is so severe that I literally feel like I’m in a privileged position for growing up with our culture and traditions in a proud sámi family and that I got to wear a gákti as a kid, even though our language was taken from our family before I was even born. A lot of people don’t even get that. It’s not our fault, whatever we lost during the norwegianization period (and similar policies and laws in the other “countries” in sápmi) was taken from us when they beat and forced it out of our great grandparent and grandparent generation.

It’s not too late for you, or for anyone. I know many people who got their first gákti late into adulthood. I’d celebrate someone reconnecting in their 60s. You are so so so young, you have so many years left of life where you can have this, if you choose to take it. You’re also lucky that you’re young bc there’s many youth organizations across the borders. I work on the board in one and we work on organizing social stuff and duodji courses and stuff like that to create meeting spaces for sámi youth! I was actually just in Helsinki to meet with some of the organizations on the finnish and swedish side and they seemed very nice :) I would recommend looking into what’s available in your area, and if you’re interested in learning languages or duodji I wish I could help find resources, but I don’t speak finnish, but I imagine if you contact your local community they’ll be able to help you with that.

Connection is healing 🌸 Both for yourself and for our people, because we are still here and we always will be. The only people who win when we are quiet is the people who did this to us. I want all of us back and together and with the sámi spirit that ČSV stands for. There is no obligation to do anything and you should never feel guilt for not being able to do things, but I like to think that if my family from the past who weren’t allowed to do the things I do now could see me they’d be happy. When I took sámi classes I thought that the people that came before us when boarding schools were a tool to get rid of our language would be so happy to see that we’re allowed to learn now. I hope that thought can give some comfort and strength no matter where you are or what you do in this process ❤️

After the 2023 protests I was really fucked in the head, so I went home to my áhkku and she cooked reindeer meat for me and taught me how to sew a gákti, and that felt like it healed something in me.

Anyway, this was a really nice ask to get. It means a lot to me to hear that my art is meaningful to other people. I wasn’t always sure there was an audience for it, but I always made it anyway because I think sámi art and happiness existing is a beautiful and important thing ☺️

I need to say again, you are so so young, there’s so much time and so much you can learn and do, and there’s no rush. I have heard many from the older generations say how proud they are and emotional that our youth is taking our traditions and our languages back, we’ll be happy to have you. I wish you all the best

[scoops404]

Casual reminder that to know the true amount of reviews an author get on ao3 you need to !

Divide the number of comments by the number of chapters (ex : 24 reviews for a 8/8 chapters story is 3 reviews)

Divide that number by 2 for the author's answers (so 1-2 reviews by chapters)

Big numbers are often just inflated, in particular for big stories ! There are never too much comments

(I know you know as a writer but your public is the more susceptible to care about leaving reviews. Also, would anyone be interested about a guide on how to write a review bc I know it's something people get stuck on)

Hi!

There's a few things I want to talk about in this ask, and I realize that you absolutely mean well, but trying to do breakdowns of comments or even kudos vs hits or anything like that is kind of... against the spirit of fanfiction? I think that's the best way to phrase it.

Comments don't get divided up evenly between chapters. Not necessarily. As a story picks up momentum, more people discover it and comment. Sometimes an author will drop all three chapters at once and people will only comment on the last one, etc. Some authors don't respond to comments, or are perpetually behind on them, so diving by two doesn't really work there. There's many reasons this doesn't shake out entirely.

But, moreover, I really want to encourage readers (and nonwriters I guess, more accurately) to realize that it doesn't matter how many comments a fic does or doesn't have. If you liked it and you feel led, then you should leave a comment. Obviously it's not necessary (and there are days where I'm brain-dead and I don't have the mental capacity), but comments on a fic are better than gold to writers.

There's not a magic number that means you have to leave a comment, or on the flip side, this fic has *enough* comments so I don't need to leave one. The spirit of fanfiction is that it's a fan service someone takes time to craft to share with the fandom, and you can encourage them to do it more by writing some nice words about their story.

Imagine spending hours and hours of your time working on something, thinking about it in the shower, talking to your friends about how to make it better, researching things online to make it better, editing down words, and when you go to share that--silence.

Comments are the lifeblood of fanfiction writers, it's how we know we're doing something that people like. Fanfiction is what keeps fandoms going when the source material dries up or goes on hiatus.

It's so so important to let writers know you like what they're putting out, or one day they might just stop. There is a point when we as writers get little to no feedback and start thinking, "What's the point? No one is reading this anyway." (This happened to me in the Dan and Phil fandom years ago). Now, I have a healthy view of my stories and I write for myself and my close friends (which is why i have such batty stories), but if my close friends didn't even want to read what I was writing, I'd just stop.

I've been very very blessed with a comment section in my time here in the DNF fandom. I've made friends through my comments, including a new IRL friend -- hi @czargasm.

Sorry, I'm not trying to be so preachy or single you out or anything. I think a comment guide would be really really lovely and something that could help a lot of people who would be willing to leave more comments if they had an idea of what to say.

As a writer, my favorite kind of comments to get are 1) in depth analysis, but of course that's a lot so, equally loved are 2) the "i was doing X thing when I saw you dropped a chapter so I ran here" and 3) "I made myself a treat to read this update" comment - extra points if you tell me what the treat was 4) A line you particularly liked or a story it reminds you of, etc.

Thank you for giving me a vehicle to apparently preach about comments. I guess I had a lot to say. Oops.

From the bottom of my heart, writers love comments. Nothing will make us write faster or better than knowing people are into out stories.

[northopalshore]

Hiii ^_^!

Hope u doing ok. Here are some little placements for your good heartwill to interpret. Thank u in advance if u give me your time. (You are so good at these)* I know this is quite a lot. If u are like too much girlie, just pick the ones your heart desires, and I still appreciate it so much.

Great attractor 11 house 14° ♐️

Pluto 12 house 24° ♐️

Kama *r 12 house 29° ♐️

Fama *r11 house 12° ♐️

Alma 8 house 28° ♌️

Boda 7 house 3° ♌️

Eros 6 house 25° ♊️

Kiss 10 house 1° ♏️

Uranus*r 14° and NN 27° 3 house piscis

Hello! I'm assuming this is the post that you forgot to mention was from your Juno Persona chart?

There are quite a lot of aspects here lol. I'll pick out the most interesting ones to write aka less obvious ones to read.

Great Attractor 11th house (14° Taurus) SAG:

You could feel more popular when you're with this person. They could be a very extroverted individual, and you may seem like they have friends everywhere they go. They could also have an important role in their community or their friend circle!

Fama retrograde 11th house (12° pisces) SAG:

Perhaps this person craves fame or perhaps their popularity may be a burden to them. They could be the one everyone goes to for comfort or for help but their goodwill may end up adding more to their to-do list. With more power comes more responsibility lol. Maybe they have trouble saying no when someone asks for their assistance.

Kama retrograde 12th house (29° leo) SAG:

They are likely a virgin when you meet lmao. Or at least, they may have refrained from indulging in sexual endeavours because of a fantasy they may have about it in their head i.e how they want everything to go down when they find the partner they trust the most. They may dislike the idea of a relationship purely for sex. They might despise hookup culture ( leo: loyal, selfish+ Sagittarius : preachy & introspective)

Alma 8th house ( 28° cancer) LEO:

You both will feel deeply connected to one another. Perhaps this is a karmic relationship where you were together in a past life. You come to transform each other, and help the other grow in this life. Very devoted and very intense. Perhaps you'll be able to teach him to keep his boundaries in check so he's not walked over by those in his community.

Uranus retrograde (14° Taurus) in 3rd house:

They might speak a different native language than you, but you/they perhaps have studied eachother's native language in the past, so there you'll still be able to communicate with eachother if you are foreigners. They could speak many languages (or more likely are learning/want to learn more other than the one they speak) They could teach the language you're learning lol. It's really stressing that you'll learn languages together (uranus retrograde & nn gemini degree in 3rd house), maybe you both plan on living in a foreign country not native to either of you (pisces 3rd house).

Reminds me of Felix & Marzia moving to Japan even though both aren't native at all.

I think I'll have to leave it here, I'm sorry I didn't write everything TT

Hope this helps though!!♡

[wedriftlikelonelyplanets]

i have (3) questions to ask, feel free to answer/not as you wish, all for your landoscar verse

would they ever delve into breath play/would they enjoy it

how do you think a spanking scene would come about between them and would oscar love the bruises

does oscar completely stop orgasms unless lando says yes?? or does he still go off his own schedule sometimes

OKAY ANON, I uh...had an incredibly long and nuanced response to this typed out, and then my internet decided to be a raging cunt for some reason, and die (it's done this way too many times in the last two days and i'm pissed about it). I will try and answer with the same amount of detail I did when I wrote the original response, however it took me almost 30 minutes and now i want to yeet my computer at the wall. (and also now i'm being distracted by [redacted] in a chat)

ANSWERS BELOW THE CUT due to the USFW nature, discussions of D/s dynamic, and kink

1 - I have...an incredibly nuanced answer to this question, and it's probably going to come across as a little preachy, so feel free to yell at me in the askbox later about it

CANONICALLY, Lando likes the act of putting his hand on Oscar's throat, at the base of it, fingers gently around it, using it to guide him a little bit. It's possessive, and he LIKES being possessive, and Oscar likes it too. Oscar also likes being man-handled a little bit, but that's neither here nor there (I mean it IS but you get it I think).

For Oscar and Lando both, the part of this that they like IS the possessiveness. It's a reminder that he belongs to Lando, and honestly it makes him kind of feral, it's kind of more of a sign of his submission to Lando more than anything. And for Lando, it's a sign of the trust that Oscar puts in him to care for him, to hold him, and dominate him.

I think that both of them would likely enjoy delving into breath play at least a little bit. I think there's a lot of fun that they could have with it, especially in like...the context of a CNC scene involving breath play, Lando pinning him down, deciding when he can breathe and when he can't. It would be HEAVILY negotiated, however, because breath play is ABSOLUTELY dangerous, and they already have relatively high risk jobs as it is. Even when breath play is done correctly (iykyk), it is still HIGHLY risky, and the ONLY way they would engage in that behaviour would be to have it heavily negotiated. And quite honestly, I think I would bore you all to tears if I wrote that.

On my side of things, and without getting into too much personal lore, I can't say whether or not I'd actually be comfortable writing about it. I'm not a sex educator, and I'm not here to put together a kinky primer, however I've read a VERY well written article that made me change my own mind regarding breath play. This does carry over to my comfortability writing it, because again, I'm not here to write a primer on sex and kink, and I enjoy writing my little guys doing things, and like also not having to worry about people using what I write as a primer for things they want to try.

RISK AWARE CONSENSUAL KINK, FOLKS.

I'm pretty sure my dead response to this was much longer, but I don't remember it all cause my memory ain't that good. Sorry for the monster reply to that, though, and I apologize if this isn't QUITE the answer you're looking for.

2- AHHHH SPANKING, my favourite, my beloved.

SO spanking scenes definitely would come around in two separate ways in this verse.

The first way would literally simply be for like...catharsis, i guess? for lack of a better word. And because saying "for fun" sounds weird. But essentially it would be something in the realm of Oscar feeling shitty about something, and just wanting it to get him out of his head, and focus on something else (this could be any number of things, from a poor race result/shitty strategy call, feeling generally just overwhelmed and needing grounding, or just feeling a little off about things, and needing something a little sharper to help him focus), and honestly Lando's more than happy to oblige. This is a situation in which Oscar would also LIKELY be allowed to come, instead of Lando controlling that too, but again incredibly circumstantial.

The second way would be as a punishment or essentially a funishment, i guess, because Oscar enjoys spanking. This would MORE THAN LIKELY be from Oscar breaking a rule. What rule, you ask? Great question, I don't have any made up for them yet beyond the fact that Oscar's not really allowed to come without Lando's permission, and Lando's hand-wavey rules about Oscar doing better than him in races. This really is Lando's excuse to have Oscar over his knee and writhing in his lap and maybe crying a little bit, and then denying Oscar while he's rutting against Lando's thigh.

I actually would seriously consider writing either one of these situations. If I were to do an alternate version of the first fic I wrote for this verse, I'd probably have included cathartic spanking because Oscar was feelin' a little out of sorts about that race win at Lando's expense.

Oscar (and Lando) would both enjoy seeing the bruises and marks left behind, and I TRULY think that Oscar would blush bright red every time he catches sight of them in a mirror when he's walking by naked or something, and he'd also very much enjoy the achey pain as they heal, and Lando digs his fingers in.

ALSO, very specifically, impact play is just another way Lando gets to indulge in his dacryphilia kink and i just think that's neat.

Very specifically, any impact play scene-ing would likely be done with enough time between race weekends for Oscar to recover, however, because I can't imagine it would be...comfortable.

3 - AHHH yes, the truest of true questions. This is a uh...loaded question. The short answer to this, is that Oscar gives all his orgasms to Lando. This means that Lando gets to decide whether or not he gets to come and how many times he gets to come (and yes that can and may in the future include forced orgasms). This means that if Lando decides he wants to [redacted] Oscar [redacted][redacted][redacted][redacted], he will (I alluded to this in a previous answer to an ask, y'all can fight about what it means in my inbox if you want)

The long answer is as follows:

Lando - Wants to be in control of Oscar's orgasms. There's something something about the power and control that he gets from it, especially when sometimes he feels like he's out of control. It grounds him, in a way, to get to choose what Oscar gets from him and what he doesn't, and like...I'm aware of how this could sound to someone not involved in a D/s relationship or a relationship that doesn't include power exchange, however, there's something inherently cathartic about BDSM and associated kinks, imo. He also really loves the idea that he can get to decide whether or not he thinks Oscar deserves orgasms, whether it's through something completely arbitrary (performing better than him in a race), or for a valid reason (again i have NOT made a rules list for these idiots, and will I truly ever? WHO KNOWS).

The EXCEPTION to this is if they're going to be apart for a long time, or they're not going to be able to interact much. Lando's a little more charitable when he can't be there to take care of Oscar, tbh, but honestly the likelyhood of Oscar coming without at least asking Lando for permission first even in this situation is pretty low.

Oscar - Oscar's view on this is a little more complicated to like...wrap my head around, ironic considering [redacted personal lore here]. The biggest part is that a) it's not a decision he likes to make, he just wants someone else to make it for him. He's in his head a lot, so even if he wants to get off, sometimes he's just so wrapped up in everything else going on in his brain that he can't shut it off enough to have an orgasm, and b) it's kinda fun and sexy.

He definitely gets bratty about it, despite the fact that he actually does want it. And it's not like Lando denies him all the time. it's been very heavily leaned into in my first two fics because of the circumstances that I set (including the rancidity of the vibes that were supposed to be there), but Lando's not going to deny him all the time. (just most of the time ehehehehe). But honestly, some of the brattiness will just make Lando be even meaner. It's also just another way for him to give up the careful, controlled part of him that the rest of the world sees.

Like...you're not cool and put together when you're sobbing because your boyfriend won't let you come.

This is probably not quite as eloquent as I wanted to make this, and really it's hard to describe exact reasons for characters liking what they like, so I hope this makes sense and is kind of the answer that you're looking for.

AS ALWAYS, apologies for the monologue, but y'all came into my (a certified yapper) inbox, and asked me questions about my verse.

Please feel free to hit me up with more, I am ALWAYS here for it.

[period-dramallama]

The King's Mind by Christopher Rae: review.

"How curious men are, how much is hidden, how much left unsaid."

A very late post for @fideidefenswhore sorry for the wait xx

TLDR: Solid, but I have some Notes. Rae is knowledgeable but he falls into some common pitfalls. Not as good as Rae's The Concubine. The pacing is weaker, and unlike The Concubine there is a Whiggish streak that gives the book a preachy taint.

Long post below.

Henry: I'm not easily persuaded

*a few moments later*

Henry: you know what? I've been deceived.

The book starts in media res and even I am a little lost and confused. The book hops between first and third person without warning which gets easier but at first takes some getting used to. Was it always necessary? We go from third person "a sky streaked with red and gold" to Henry saying the sky is streaked with red and gold.

The presence of Weston and Norris in this book is good. It was a good choice to emphasise the presence of Weston and Norris at the coronation. I think a lot of writers tend to forget they existed before 1536. They're Henry's Great and Loyal Friends yet they pop into existence ex nihilo solely so they can be beheaded. Obviously their presence also makes good foreshadowing. They're natural portents of doom.

Sometimes, as is often the way with first person POVs, Henry gets too self aware: “He knows how easily I can be mollified by a good cash offer”. But Rae's is probably the most interesting and nuanced of the Henries. Rae captures his ego: "Mark, who plays the lute so prettily, almost as well as myself." Cromwell “is now better informed than any man alive, with the exception of myself." After a whole book of his ego, Duchess Mary roasting Henry at the end was remarkably cathartic. Girl's got a point.

Henry has a serious case of doublethink. "My sweet Anne, so mild and sensible. I know that they are all constantly working upon her to have their way in this, but she is the true friend of my heart and her counsel will always be in my best interest. Of course, she is right."

On the very next page: "Anne’s eyes gleam with triumph, she believes she has influenced me to align myself with her purposes, and has won the field."

"Anne is naive sometimes and behaves as if matters of grotesque complexity can be reduced to simple solutions, simply because she wills it so."

Pot calling the kettle black, Your Majesty.

"More does not learn from the world, he merely seeks to impress himself upon it."

POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK, YOUR MAJESTY.

"I am glad of it, your majesty, for I am certain of what is true. This strikes me as an odd thing to say at first, but upon reflection I decide that I rather like it, and might profitably adopt it for my own use."

I don't have much to say about this moment, it's just funny and feels very Henrician.

“The king is like a man who sets fire to his own house, and then goes crying in the street for help.” Wolsey decides to ignore this while privately acknowledging the truth of it."

Wolsey:

“The honour of my betrothed must be preserved, and passion must bow before patience.” There's some nice moments of Tudor-style courtship, and Rae does a better job than most of giving Henry a distinct voice: “Diana, flushed with the exertion of emptying her quiver. By the mass, she is pretty when she is roused.” "Ah, my sweet, but I will never allow it. For that would kill me, and I cannot let you become a regicide." “return to the palace where there is precious little pleasaunce now.” PUN! Henry described himself as the king of disappointment, I liked that moment.

Many Henries are pretty gullible, but this Henry has a certain low cunning and I like the interpretation that while he's swayed by Anne he is quite manipulative himself: “I play the innocent most cruelly deceived, and I know that she finds me plausible.”

In terms of pacing, there is a tendency towards repetitiveness. PARTLY but not wholly because, let’s be real, the KGM has a repetitive nature. Like we get it already, Wolsey's fat, he's gotten fat, he's big, he's bulky, he's plus-size, he's chubby, he's out of breath WE KNOW. Anne is impatient and worrying about her age, WE KNOW. Henry is impatient and wants to marry Anne. Wolsey thinks it can’t be done. Wolsey thinks Henry is like a kid who has to be told he can't just have whatever he wants because he wants it, WE KNOW. Henry is fickle and people hope he will tire of Anne. WE KNOOOOOOOOOOW. The book also goes back in time to 1528 less smoothly than in the concubine. (Also, this book again calls Katherine 'Aragon' instead of Princess Dowager, sometimes the Spaniard, which works better.) You could probably cut out Latimer’s recantation to Warham as it repeats what we got from other scenes.

I must give this book some leeway and acknowledge that I'm just not as interested in the political dimensions of the KGM as I am the intellectual and theological dimension: partly because I find it boring and frustrating the way it constantly goes around in circles and there's this document and this document. But personal preferences aside, I still think the book could have been less repetitive.

“she contains within her a deep strand of idealism…But if Anne lacks anything, it is an understanding of the pragmatism that accompanies power.” Anne overall is better characterised in The Concubine. Here it is Anne's insistence that keeps Mary from her mother while Henry is willing to let them meet. Hmm. Disagree, but it's not too bad.

“Thomas More, Bishop Fisher, and of course the great red whale- Wolsey.”

I choose to interpret 'great red whale' as a reference to the 'white whale' in Moby Dick. Wolsey is Anne's equivalent of the white whale.

Ambiguity just how corrupt Wolsey is. "The fate of his grace the Duke of Buckingham, brought down by Wolsey and sent to the block, is not forgotten"- Buckingham's fall was Henry's doing. Wolsey actually warned Buckingham to be more careful.

"And Norfolk? His grace has all the diplomatic ability of a culverin." "Norfolk has nothing to do with things that are broken." Norfolk is slightly softer in here than he was in The Concubine, and not angry all the time.

Unlike The Concubine in this novel Cromwell seems to have a hint of being an evangelical, being motivated by religion.

"Today he will truly make or mar."

"As ever, in the shape he shows to the world, Cromwell is quiet, unassuming, and affable. Not blessed with a great deal of the outward glamour which tracks the interest of women, he relies instead on comporting himself in a manner which causes men to desire his presence."

Men desire his presence, you say? *Eyes emoji*

Also speak for yourself Cromwell is dummy thicc

Rae gives us a witty and remarkably sympathetic Gardiner. He's not usually given this much attention, or depth to his motives and thought process. We have him admiring Cranmer's intelligence.

More has more energy than usual which I like. He's usually depicted as soft-spoken for some reason when there's no indication in the primary sources that he had a quiet voice. We'll get to the problems with him later in the review.

"Fisher... the sympathy he drips with is not of a personal nature. For him Catherine is nothing more than a simple minded, weak, creature, as all women are, and he thinks that she has failed England and the one office which should have justified her feeble existence- to provide the king with the heirs he needed."

I'm not a fan of Fisher but DAMN that's an unusually unsympathetic portrayal. What a meanie. But it's refreshing to see Katherine of Aragon's supporters as less than noble or admiring for a change, at least in their heart of hearts.

Like The Concubine, there are some great turns of phrase.

"For some time he sits there, like some Saint of the early church undergoing a particularly unpleasant and imaginative martyrdom at the command of a Pagan emperor."

"And for the first time he begins to despair, because for the first time he sees clearly that he does not have the power to truly open their eyes. The terrible, inescapable conclusion begins to oppress him; There is actually nothing he can do to prevent disaster."

^^I like this moment because it encapsulates the feelings of many people in the Reformation, on both sides.

“I was nothing more than an empty vessel, like unto A goblet made in the most glorious and rich fashion, but empty nonetheless, a vain, dry thing. Here is the wine which was lacking, it comes now brimming, overflowing, and sweetest tasting anything upon the earth.”

^^ A particularly evocative and authentic conversion narrative.

This book also had some good analogies, like this one: "Master Christopher, think of the king as like a man who has inherited a battery of cannons."

Rae did a good job in this book with foreshadowing and instilling a sense of doom:

“There is a heaven for Anne Boleyn, in which she ascends uncontested to the throne as Queen of England, and a hell also, in which she is confined to being seen as nothing more than the king’s mistress, until he tires of her and moves onto the next one.”

^^It really drives home that Anne's fate is beyond her wildest nightmares. HILLARYYYYYYYYYYYY

"The shadows that have claimed the last of the sunlight are gone from the garden, and the Cardinal's face is now in shade, the whole of his vast bulk entirely consumed by the dusk."

^^A nice bit of pathetic fallacy and foreshadowing of Wolsey's downfall.

"Norfolk, so fond of sending people to the tower. Perhaps he will get the chance to see what is like one day himself?" “As she listens Anne’s eye is drawn upwards; she senses black shapes moving in the air, and she sees two ravens alighting upon the crenelated rampart high above. A sudden chill descends upon her, and she shivers.”

There are some good details in this book. Wolsey in the garden in the evening- Cavendish mentions that he takes evening walks. "He smells of cabbage, cabbage and wet horse dung!" A reference to Gardiner's skill at salads? “but the heat will recede, as it does when the sun progresses around the world and the hours of darkness begin.”

"But as I recall, when Hercules cleaned the stables he also slew the man who owned them. Because Augeas would not pay him for his work, Thomas. I think the king preferred to leave them as they were."

^^ a nice classical analogy. I wish Rae paid more attention to humanism and the classical learning of the characters. He tends to forget about the existence of humanism and the fact that the Reformation isn't binary, especially at this moment in time.

Not all the details are correct: The great seal of England sits inside a white linen bag when it was actually a white leather bag.

Rae continues to have good moments of levity:

“His single word expires, friendless and alone. He looks down at the floor as if he has lost its companions and thinks they might be down there somewhere.” “Ah yes, but there are only so many wives a man may take, before things start to become complicated. I think Henry has discovered this already, no?"

"By the mass I would have her now, hereupon the sweet earthen floor of the forest, with the sound of the rain hissing down upon the leaves around us."

Someone's watched The Tudors.

"His face, when he sees who has come uninvited and unannounced, is a picture, and his people begin at once to scurry to and fro like frightened chickens."

Someone's watched A Man For All Seasons.

"Thomas Howard. And Charles.... Charles..." he pretends to struggle to remember Suffolk's name. "Brandon? My Lords, you are welcome, though your message is not. Let me explain something to you."

Norfolk’s face contorts into an ecstasy of fury and hatred, and his hand reaches for his belt before he remembers he is unarmed. ‘You are ended, Wolsey. By the mass I will kill you myself, with my bare hands. "

Wolsey stares at him,  unmoved . "my Lord is intemperate."

He (Suffolk) gropes for a suitably devastating parting shot, but his invention fails him, as it often does."

Hilarious, I love it, 5 stars, 10/10. Wolsey is delightfully bitchy and it's infinitely better than the meh equivalent scene in Wolf Hall.

Now for my Notes.

"The story is that he fell ill on the journey from the north, and died of it, conveniently. I do not believe it. Either he ended his own life, or someone helped him to do it".

While I love the intrigue, this novel has gone to SUCH lengths to stress that Wolsey is stressed, out of shape and in poor health. If there's one thing we know about Wolsey from this novel it is that he is F-A-T. He's also 57. He's no spring chicken. It makes total sense that he'd fall ill and die, especially after a long journey, drinking and eating from a variety of different sources, some of which may well be contaminated. But the characters speak as though Wolsey was a svelte Olympic gymnast who was spinning around on the crossbars until he suddenly died from eating some dodgy kale.

"Then he tosses what remains over his shoulder, and wipes his hands upon the silken cloth." I get that Francis I is the worst but people took etiquette seriously in this time period.

"Mary discovered a taste for them [kings] in Paris, and says that it was the recommendation of king Francis that brought her to the King's attention."

I'm pretty sure historians are questioning the old story that Mary slept with Francis?

Elizabeth Boleyn suggested Anne play hard to get (which I like) but later in the book Rae has Norfolk suggest it to TB years before. Yet Thomas B reacts to Elizabeth as if it was the first time he heard it. So what gives?

And like in the Concubine, Rae puts in things he's read uncritically from historians, and the result is something that makes no sense.

"His [Norfolk] affection for More is undiminished" yet the scene clearly shows that they have nothing in common, they see the world in starkly different ways, Norfolk sees More as vain and stubborn and More sees Norfolk as a crude toady. Norfolk even has a "menacing look" when he looks at More. So what is this nonsense about them having any affection? Well, like Jane Boleyn's nonsensical motives in the Concubine, Rae has read a historian, unquestioningly, and feels the urge to insert it into the story like a square peg in a round hole even though as a writer he can probably tell it doesn't fit.

There are some anachronisms- the phrase 'like a good Catholic'. 'Catholic' means united- Anglicans believe in "one holy catholic and apostolic Church". Protestant and Catholic are divisions that show up in the 1550s. "More is a fanatic"- fanatic is a very modern criticism. People at the time wouldn't object to religious obsession- the problem was if your doctrine was incorrect.

(Also Henry should be happier at the birth of Elizabeth.)

Now for the misconceptions.

While Wolsey did get his BA at 15, university students then were younger than they are now.

“Henry has been taught to stick to what the bishops tell him in matters of religion, and he derives his idea of faith his elders, who have made him think that orthodox observance matters more than a deep personal sense of a world imbued with the Holy Spirit. He is often reluctant to talk about such things, but she has formed the opinion that he is genuinely in motion, attracted by the scent of reform and willing to alter his thinking to accommodate change.”

Henry was given a (renaissance) humanist education. And the humanists like Erasmus were influenced by the late medieval devotio moderna that placed great emphasis on interior faith. Erasmus absolutely believed that inner faith was more important than outward show: that rituals like the Mass mattered, but that empty ritual was bad. But Rae falls into the false binary of Catholic: Rituals Good and Protestants: Rituals Bad.

Gardiner says: “Your majesty must know that the Pope holds the keys to heaven, there is no higher authority. If clarification or exegesis is required concerning the interpretation of scripture, then the final word must always rest with His Holiness.”

There IS a higher authority! Gardiner and More would tell you that the highest authority in the Church is a Church Council. Basically all the bishops across Christendom come together in a General Council and the Holy Spirit descends upon them invisibly, blessing the proceedings and giving authority to the decisions. If the Pope, say, tried to get rid of the Nicene Creed, Gardiner and More would say the Pope is wrong. Because the Creed comes from the Council of Nicaea, and a General Council >>>>the Pope. Papal infallibility doesn't show up until the nineteenth century.

"How can I help you, when I do not believe it is the right course for a Christian king to abandon his lawful wife? I make no secret of it, as you know. I am not one of those who will say anything in the hope of pleasing you."

More's stance was actually closer to: "I'm not qualified to speak on this issue so I stay well out of it". Fiction tends to portray him as more outspoken in Katherine's support (though he did like her as a person) than he actually was. Fisher was the one loudly objecting to the divorce. It was the Supremacy that More took issue with: he was willing to accept the new succession.

"Attend to your Scripture, and tell me where it says that our Redeemer left any vicar to succeed him upon this earth."

More and Fisher don't give a rebuttal to this in the book- because Rae can't think of one. But they actually could: a Catholic would say that Jesus said exactly that in Scripture. Jesus says to Saint Peter in the gospels "you are the rock on which I build my church." Then in the book of Acts, (the sequel) Peter is the leader of the early Christians in the years after Jesus zooms up to heaven. For Catholics, St Peter is the first pope. All the later popes follow him because of something called the Apostolic Succession.

(Also Catholics believe that 2 Maccabees supports Purgatory. Problem is, both 1 and 2 Maccabees are deuterocanonical and therefore less authoritative than the gospels.)

“Going to Wittenberg, I believe, where he intends to continue his work. A new testament in English, what do you think of that, Thomas?” He looks at me and I see the sorrow in his eyes. He thinks very little of it indeed.

“And how will things be then? When the plough boy reads Scripture in his own rude tongue? Without guidance, or education, without knowledge? Without the interpretation of the church placed upon it? He will say, ah, now I understand it, here is the meaning of this, or that. But when he meets his fellow they will not agree upon it, for this man will say, no- you have it wrong, it means this. They will not be of a like mind, and will fall into endless disputation strife. and the heretics will go about amongst them, stirring up whatever abominations they wish. There will be no order in what men think, no agreement. There will be no unity. That is what the church gives to men, unity, and it is our only hope of it.” “And if men throw off the authority of the church, whose authority will they look to throw off next?”

“If the church is corrupted, then it must be reformed, from within, by honest men of faith. Who has appointed master Tynedale to translate scripture into English? Who is there to supervise and approve the work? No one, because it is forbidden, and with good reason.”

This is a mixture of accurate and inaccurate. Yes, More did see the authority of church and state as connected. He argued that the church had every reason to support the king- because when anarchy breaks out, vulnerable priests and monks and their churches are attacked and looted. So it was in the best interests of priests to support, not subvert, secular authority and the rule of law. Yes, More wanted reform from within the church. He wanted political reform of the church not theological reform. He didn't want fewer priests, he wanted well-educated and well-behaving priests.

But More was a humanist. The ploughboy singing psalms as he worked? Exactly what Erasmus wanted. Even when the Reformation was underway, More still wanted an authorised English Bible, as he thought it would do some harm, but on balance, more good than harm.

So why did he have such beef with Tyndale? Because of how Tyndale translated the Bible. Tyndale's word choice in More's eyes undermined Catholic doctrine and made it look like Catholic doctrine didn't have Scriptural support- especially dangerous given that Tyndale was also saying Sola Scriptura. Tyndale pointed out that some of his word choices were the same as Erasmus' word choices. But More argued that Erasmus was translating honestly while Tyndale was being subversive.

And while More's Confutation Against Tyndale's Answer is a fierce criticism, More does quote Tyndale saying something he agreed with: More replies to this quote "this is well and holily spoken". So I wouldn't say More is blind with hatred for Tyndale, any more than Tyndale is blind with hatred for More. If More was blind with hatred, he wouldn't say anything positive about a single word of Tyndale.

“Like many wise men, Thomas More understands astrology and can read what is written in the heavens.” More knew astronomy. Astrology More thought was BS. But that doesn't fit the binary of Rational Protestants versus Superstitious Catholics, even though Rational Tolerant Elizabeth I believed in astrology while UberCatholic Pope Fan More was sceptical.

Rae’s analysis is Whiggish, and like most Whigs, it gets really preachy really quickly.

“His mind is the prototype of the totalitarian. One who has invested in a static system of thought, which cannot easily accommodate change or development. More thinks only in terms of certainty, and cannot bear the presence of doubt, which may undermine the fortress.”

Anachronism aside, historians actually debate whether More's opinions changed over time: if he became more religiously conservative as the Reformation progressed, having started as a humanist Catholic reformer. Personally, I'm on the side of consistency. More was never opposed to burnings and his last letter to Erasmus explicitly supports Erasmus and his work and calls Erasmus' critics jealous people. His debate with Tyndale is a Catholic Humanist versus a Protestant Humanist. And in classic humanist fashion they're arguing about language.

As for doubt: his patron saint was Doubting Thomas. So I wouldn't say doubt is the enemy to him, but that you must overcome your doubts by choosing to believe.

Also More did not see the Church as static. Catholics believed in progressive revelation: ie. you can add to the faith (things like purgatory) if the Church has a revelation that is authorised by a General Council. You just can't contradict the Bible. The Protestants want to go back to the OG Christianity: the faith of late antiquity, and cut out things like Purgatory that are seen as medieval accretions. They want the Church to go back to the old and keep it that way. They are not changing- they are undoing change, in their eyes.

“He [More] thinks himself to be a compassionate man, but is untroubled by the grotesque cruelty he has inflicted on those who have dared to oppose the orthodoxy which he deems essential to peace and salvation. They are given every opportunity to see their errors and recant, and if they will not then they must burn, so that the infection of heresy may be cauterised, and other vulnerable souls may be saved from it. This is a man of the highest intellectual capacity, who has earned his place among the most exalted thinkers of the new century.”

You could say this about literally anyone in the Tudor period. Cranmer is also considered to be compassionate, and his writing shaped the English language, but that didn't help Joan Bocher, did it?

"Now there is nowhere for men like More to turn, except back to persecution and mediaeval barbarity."

I haaaaaaaaaate this line. It’s so Whig history. As someone interested in ancient history and also the Tudor and early modern period in particular, I can confidently say that barbarity is absolutely not the preserve of the mediaeval period. On the contrary, the early modern period gives us more holy wars and witch hunts. Back to persecution? Persecution was ongoing. Protestants in heartlands like Zurich were drowning Anabaptists in the Rhine at the same time as Catholics were burning them!

(Also Protestants believed in the Trinity and infant baptism even though there's actually no explicit mention of those things in the Bible...)

[mzannthropy]

Tell me why you dislike the Emily trilogy please because I'm rereading it!!

It's more of a difficult relationship, rather than disliking it; there are many parts that I like about Emily. Like, the majority of it is good. But it drives me CRAZY! It's the way LMM wrote, and the choices she made in the Emily series.

(Sorry if it's ranty and incoherent, it's the first time I've properly wrote down all my thoughts & feelings on Emily.)

So first of all, what the hell is it with all the preachy, patronising BS? This is not LMM's usual style, which is why it's so bewildering. The narrator frequently breaks the fourth wall to tell us how she's not there to defend Emily, but to merely chronicle her life and I want to say, I don't need you to defend Emily, Lucy Maud, I can make my own mind for myself, thank you! She doesn't do it in Anne (also a story of an orphan being taken in), and as far I can remember, she doesn't do it in any of her other writing. It reminds me of Little Women a lot. And from me that's not a compliment.

Then, I say it outright as it is: I loathe Aunt Elizabeth and Aunt Ruth and I think they're both child abusers. Aunt Ruth, especially, is a tyrant. She's a dictator. Her constantly calling Emily "sly" with no evidence and then after that incident with Perry and the kiss, when they hold a family court, she says "I would have believed you if you had told the truth", can you get any more textbook abuser? I have this thing when I cannot handle someone not being believed (also due to something that I went through), it triggers me, and a person (esp of authority) determined to disbelieve you and think the worst of you when it's just not true sends me to a rage. Aunt Elizabeth is a vile, cruel, narrow-minded woman, who should not be allowed near children. If the narrative ever condemned these women, it would be a much better reading experience. But it doesn't. Right to the very end, the last page, the second to last paragraph, when Emily and Teddy finally, FINALLY, find each other, Ruth still calls Emily sly. Worst of it is that Emily really doesn't do anything remotely wicked. She's essentially a good kid. What would these hags do if they saw today's teenagers?

"You are always writing yards of trash that nobody wants." Quote from Aunt Elizabeth. What a nice, loving aunt! Then they call Emily a Murray when it suits them--when she does something they disapprove of, it's "that Starr coming out in her". Or they say she's "half a Murray" and I'm like, everyone is unless both your parents were Murrays?

Abusive caregivers are no strangers to LMM works, ofc, but they're usually presented as villains and are not the "endgame" caregivers. (Take as an example, little Elizabeth from Windy Poplars.) That's why I like Jane of Lantern Hill, bc here LMM finally admits that an abusive narcissist is an abusive narcissist (the grandmother). And that was 1937, so you know, it took her time to realise that.

So, most of what I'm saying here relates to the second book. Emily of New Moon is not as infuriating and Quest I actually like, despite how it drags, bc it so perfectly depicts the consequences of Emily's choice at the end of Emily Climbs. And here I get to the crux of the matter--the ending of Emily Climbs.

So, Emily has graduated school, has some success with her writing, has had short stories published and at last meets someone who believes in her, who sees her talent as a writer. Janet Royal offers her a job and a place to stay in New York. An opportunity people would sell their literal souls for. And what does Emily do?

She refuses it bc she doesn't want to leave New Moon.

Once again, I repeat. Emily gets offered a job and free accommodation in fucking NEW YORK and she refuses it bc she doesn't want to leave New Moon, that fucking backwards, progress-denying, candle-burning, abuse-filled place in godsforsaken village on PEI.

How is this supposed to be a good storytelling choice??? And this is why I don't think the series will get adapted again. Not without some major changes. Bc I can't imagine how modern audience would react to a heroine rejecting an opportunity of a lifetime, an opportunity many young people today would commit literal CRIMES for--and for what? It's not even that she is doing it to get married and have kids (stupid choice still, but at least more understandable). The end of Climbs makes me so fucking mad, that story with the dog is so stupid and painful to read (YMMV). I want to cry, why, Lucy Maud, whyyyyyyyyyyy *cries unconsolably*

I think it's bc LMM wouldn't have been able to write--or at least she thought she wouldn't have been able to write--a story of a young upcoming female writer in NYC, bc that wasn't her type of story. But in that case, she should not have included that golden opportunity in Climbs at all. Bc why is it there? Emily could have just returned to New Moon after she finished her schooling.

The tragic, Watsonian interpretation is that Emily is merely experiencing effects of her childhood trauma. (If you want to look at it as a tragedy, then it makes it sort of more bearable, if only it was less patronising...)

When she informs Aunt Elizabeth of her decision, the woman's response is: "I thought a Murray would." I thought a Murray would. Not, I'm happy you're staying with us. That tells you everything you need to know.

And this is what's good about Emily's Quest. Bc here, Emily suffers the consequences of her moronic choice. Ilse, Teddy and Perry all leave to chase their fortunes. Imagine Emily left too. The NYC offer was a tad unrealistic, but, had LMM had better ideas, she could have made it a Toronto job instead. Or Halifax. Or just Charlottetown, ffs. Imagine her getting out of the New Moon environment, getting brand new experiences, seeing people not give a slightest fuck that she was a Murray of New Moon. Seeing how, out in the real world, little their majestic family clan matters. But she didn't. And that's why she had to go through what she went through in the last book. Bc she never meets any book/literary people, she puts so much stock in Dean and she believes everything he tells her. She believes him when he tells her that her book is no good, burns her manuscript and in anguish runs out of her room, trips over the sewing basket and----

So ummm, Dean. Of course he's a creep. But it makes sense to me that she's friends with him. She's a vulnerable child, he preys on her. I don't buy that he'd so happily to give her the deeds of the house as a wedding gift, but LMM wanted her happy ending and she never actually wrote Dean as the dangerous predator that he is.

When I read LMM biography The Gift of Wings by Mary Henley Rubio, I hoped I would find some answers to things that bother me about Emily--but there weren't any. So, *shrugs* I guess I never will know.

[oh-katsuki]

Hi Cal, I'm sorry if this is really random or you don't want to answer which is fine. But I've got blocked by someone who used to follow me and reblog my works and stuff. Like they weren't any mutual of sorts but I had their account in my notifs pretty usually.

I've noticed some days ago that someone had unfollowed me and idk why I felt like it was this person, but it wasn't. Days later, I lost a follower again and I decided to check with Tumblr stlkr to see who it was just go to quicker and it was this person this time. I decided to look for their acc and it didn't show up which I just assumed they had me blocked and ofc, I was right.

I'm all for curating your online experience and blocking whoever makes you uncomfortable but sometimes I feel like shit when this happens. Because idk what I did wrong, I don't know what I posted that made a person not unfollow me but block me straight up? Like was it that bad?

I'm already afraid of messing up but idk why they would follow me in the first place just to block me later. I don't think you'll relate much but I just wanted to share it and see.

hiii nonnie, i completely understand where you're coming from and the same thing happens to me fairly often, especially recently with tensions being a bit high and vastly differing thoughts going around.

it can hurt when mutuals or someone you've noticed frequents your blog unfollows or blocks you. i def understand feeling dejected or maybe even a bit self conscious about it. i think what's important to remember though is that a lot of the time, it's not personal, even though i know it can feel that way. there are a lot of blogs that have me blocked, including people i have and haven't spoken to or interacted with, but i have to remind myself that not everyone thinks like i do and sometimes it's just not about me.

sometimes, it could just be that a topic you really like is something that upsets them and that's totally fine. or it could be the other way around!! a topic you don't like is something they feel differently about. i've certainly blocked people whose opinions or content i vastly disagree with, without really taking their character into mind. it's important to remind yourself that most of the time, it's not about character. it's just someone creating their own safe space and curating their own experience.

i know i sound a little preachy and even as im saying all of this, it still stings to see that people who i was mutuals with, who followed me, who i followed, or even random people have unfollowed or blocked me. i just have to remind myself that, in the same way im glad i don't have to see content or opinions i disagree with / find upsetting, they probably are too and it doesn't have to do with character so much as differing personalities and boundaries.

don't think of it in terms of what you did wrong. the likely chance is nothing. chances are, something just didn't gel, interests changed, they disagreed with an opinion, or they just aren't all that into something you may post a lot about. and (in most cases) none of those things are bad things. they just are in the same way that you just are.

regardless, im sorry you're feeling this way :( it sucks and i hope that you start to feel better soon.

[oliviaischillin1204]

Looks like not that many people liked my latest work. I'll try do better next time, maybe I should take some time off to try improve.

~ Anne Onymous

hey, i'm sorry it's taken me so long to get to this Anne. i was gonna write a long drawn out answer, then i worried it was coming off too preachy, and i just wanted to sit on it a while.

firstly, i wanna apologize for how i uploaded ur latest work. the fact that i uploaded all 4 parts at once definitely impacted they way ppl read them, due to the overall length of all the posts one after the other (i could've put them under a read more, i know, but honestly i don't even want to put submissions under read mores bc if anything ever happens to this blog, i don't want someone else's stories to be lost forever behind a broken link). so again, i'm sorry that i posted them all at once, bc spacing them out would've given them a better chance imo.

secondly, please don't take notes as a sign of who liked or disliked ur work. i still get messages from people saying that they don't have accounts but lurk my blog (or at least, i got these messages a few months to a year ago, when i had written more recently than nowadays). additionally, the number of notes you get does not correlate to the joy any single reader might get from your work; numbers can't quantify that.

thirdly, you don't have to try to do better for anyone other than yourself. seriously, the pressure to please people has led to me writing things that i didn't even feel that engaged with before, only bc i knew that it was something a lot of people would like. i don't regret any of my works, but i can acknowledge that i often did things bc i knew it's what people 'wanted'. this assumption doesn't leave room for the fact that what people WANT is earnest, unique takes on ideas that the author is excited about, not pandering. i do believe there is a difference when an author is phoning something in vs. when they're writing an idea that might be weird or unpopular, but is theirs.

so fourthly, if you want to "take some time off", again ofc u can. but you never have to do it with the intention of making urself better for other people. also, taking time off to improve implies that anything you make in the meantime- before you've "improved"- isn't worthy or exceptional, and i just think that's categorically untrue. i would be NOWHERE without all the middle of the road pieces i've written through my 3.5 years on here- each one helped me get a little bit better, a little bit faster, a little more clear on my authorial voice. and i'm GRATEFUL that i kept going, and kept posting them, even when i felt embarrassed or frustrated that they weren't meeting my standards. so pls don't feel like u have to stop submitting anything u write until you've "improved"

fifthly, this community is a lot smaller than it used to be- people get busy, get older, get different interests. it really makes me happy to know that there are people like you, writing away bc it makes u happy, and allowing ME to share that happiness as much as i can. i'm very grateful for your works, Anne, and i for one know i would be very sad to not see you around. take all the time you need, and my inbox is always open for you <3

[hollyvorpahl]

6, 23 and 29 please!

Also, I apparently can't DM you if we're not mutuals? But I'm happy to keep talking like this if that's what you're comfortable with. :D

6. What kind of readers would be fans of this wip?

I could see fans of Legends and Lattes liking The Dot Duology and Of Glass Pens and Enchanted Treats. They're very low stakes stories that focus on the day to day of a young woman and the community she meets.

A Vow from the Winter Lord would maybe attract fans of Sjm and Elise Kova. However, it's still on the less epic scale. Important stakes but not full scale war style. So maybe those who liked specifically the romantic side to the story but didn't care much for the brewing war. 

23. How would you describe your writing style?

Um... a concentrated dose of my sense of humor? I don't see myself as inherently clever and I'm really not. So if you're reading something of mine that has a clever line or something funny, it took forever to come up with. The line also passed The Husband Test. If I have a line that I think is funny, I'll ask my husband if I can read him something. I read the scene in full with little context (he knows my stories so he understands what's going on) and if he laughs then it was actually funny and I keep it. 

For example, in A Vow from the Winter Lord, there's this lovely moment between Marian’s father and her love interest Lord Athello. Athello asks why Gregor calls Marian "Spark"? He explains that when Marian was little, he was very standoffish with her because he didn't quite understand the whole father thing yet. His wife left Marian with him in the forge one afternoon and she watched him work and would squeal with delight anytime sparks would erupt from the piece he was working on. This started their bond as father and daughter and he began to understand. He's called her Spark since. Athello calls Marian his "Little Duck". So Gregor asks the same of Athello. The answer, it feels like I'm explaining the joke so I'm sorry it isn't funny here, is that when Marian and Athello met she had been cursed by a Hag to be a duck for mouthing off to her. So Athello just sorta looks over at him and says, "She was a duck when we met."

Or lines like "Once you have animated your skeleton (that is the one you have arranged on the table, not your own)..." in A Princess Guide to Love and Necromancy. 

I see my narration as being a friend to the reader. A nicer, less foreboding version of Lemony Snicket. It gets to be clever and fun because I agonized over it for weeks.

29. Books or series or movies influenced your writing style the most?

How far back you want me to go? All the way? Okie dokie! Disney movies, particularly Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hunchback and Hercules. Disney's Gargoyles and the Aladdin TV series too. Not Disney but still great is Anastasia. David Bowie in Labyrinth left a huge mark on my choices of love interest for my characters. The first few Barbie movies, Nutcracker, Rapunzel, Swan Lake and Princess and the Pauper. They really drove my love for feminine yet active protagonists. Most of which don't rely on combat training. Lord of the Rings, of course. Tamora Pierce was a big one. Ella Enchanted and Fairest were others. The Chronicles of Narnia, even though now I see how preachy they are. Neil Gaiman, particularly Coraline, Sandman and Stardust (book and movie, I actually like the movie more). The Merlin tv series and Tin Man had something to do with my writing too. Same with Once Upon a Time. Terry Practchet even though I haven't read a lot of his work. Lemony Snicket and unfortunately Harry Potter. Also... don't judge me but The Tinkerbell movies. I love the hell out of them and I'd be lying if I said they weren't an influence in A Vow from the Winter Lord. There are more but I'm drawing a blank now... I actually have shown my husband a lot of these things and he points out the things he recognizes as influences in my work.

I went into my settings and turned that thing off so you should be able to DM me now. I didn't realize it was on to begin with. I'm sorry.

[spacebuck]

Yo I've got three braincells and you've been writing for a while and I assume you have at least Four Braincells and could maybe help me? What do you do when you get stuck with a story? I don't have anyone to bounce ideas off of and that, unfortunately, seems to be the only way my thought process works through plots? Any ideas or other things I could try?? What is your process like????? Thank you!!

sorry i’m later than expected! roommate cooked dinner while I was on my way home so had to eat my one true meal of the day fghjk

okay so I have a few main things I do if I can’t plot-jam with a trusted person:

1. work on something else. i usually have two or three Main fics that I work on at any given time - if I get stuck on one, i’ll move to the next. it keeps things fresh, and gives me a chance to stew on what’s happening in the other one. it doesn’t work for everyone, to be fair, but I find it does work for me - and when I go back to the one I was stuck on, often even if I haven’t consciously worked out what to do, I can write myself out of the pickle i put myself in.

2. move on to a new scene. this one I feel can be ~controversial~ in the writing community mostly because there are many people who simply can’t just move on - I usually can’t either, but what I have figured out works for me is:

a. bullet point the rest of the scene i’m stuck on (if possible)m so I know where I want to go

b. move on to the very next scene

that way I get the beats of the scene i’m skipping, so I can trick my brain into thinking I wrote it, enabling me to move onto something that lets me reset my brain a bit.

3. take a step back and review the scene. if you’re struggling with it, or getting bored with it, it may be that it’s because it doesn’t actually need to be there, or it needs to be rejigged to work better with where you want the story to go. if you find that’s the case, don’t delete it - just start rewriting the scene again under it as you may even find you can reuse some stuff, or merge the two to get what you want out of it.

4. push through it. another potentially controversial one, but i’m of the mind that one bad sentence is better than no sentences at all, even if it takes you half an hour to get it out. you can edit a bad sentence, you can’t edit a blank page. sit down, set yourself a small goal (like one sentence or one paragraph)and just write it. if you find that things start to flow, then awesome, write more. If not, yay you got a sentence or a paragraph down, move on to #5.

5. go for a walk or drive or bike ride or run (if possible). getting outside, in the (hopefully) fresh air, and getting some exercise can let your brain have a chance to catch up, and you may start spinning ideas while you do it. if not, you got out of the house for a bit and that’s honestly far better for you than people realise. for reference, when I was writing howitzer and got stuck I would grab my skates and head down to the local rink, and remind myself why I loved the sport (and get some exercise in to get the body moving). i know it’s pandemic-times, so please only do this if it’s safe, and wear a mask.

5. go do something else completely. seems counter-intuitive right? but honestly, we’re living in unprecedented times, to use the overused phrase. we as a society are undergoing so much trauma day in and day out with no let-up, and even if we weren’t, it’s okay to rest. it’s okay to give your brain time to catch up and process things. sometimes we get writer’s block for a reason. if nothing else is working, it may be time to rotate your mental crop fields and leave the writing one fallow for a bit - unused, given a chance to recover - while you go work on a different field. that field could be anything - crafting, baking, playing a video-game, watching that tv show you’ve been meaning to, pick up that book, vacuum that couch. you could even literally do nothing at all, anything as long as it’s not writing! letting your brain rest is a huge part of the creative process, and when you’re ready to give things another go, go back to step 4 - set a little goal, see how you go.

i spent most of last year in spot number 5 - I had a lot going on irl, and needed to give myself space to deal with that. i only really started to come out of that at the end of October (which is why nanowrimo went okay) and then got slammed with renovations so I haven’t got much to show for it, but the majority of the words i’ve written this year are from November - and that’s okay!! sometimes that rest is a few hours, sometimes a few days, sometimes several months. it’s okay to need time!! if you feel like you need permission to rest, this is it - you’re allowed to!

this is longer than i’d planned (story of my life lmao) so i’m going to stop here, but I hope that’s of some use to you?? good luck finding the errant braincells!

[bridgertonbabe]

WAIT! DID YOU GO TO SEE THE PLAY? HOW WAS LUKE T??????

Anon asked: but how was the play??? 🥹

Sorry I'm answering these a week later but the play was so good! It was such a well written play full of wit, charm, but also a lot of conflicting perspectives to make you reflect upon (without it being too preachy, like the setting and the topics covered all worked hand in hand organically). Luke T and the rest of the cast did such a magnificent job in bringing the script to life and making it feel so real and authentic, I think the playwright will have been elated to see their show come to life the way in which they performed it. I think Luke T has previously said in an interview that with any character he plays he works hard to make them feel lived-in and he did just that with the character of Dan. In much the way he performs Benedict, he does a phenomenal job in capturing the smallest of facial expressions that say a lot without him even saying a word, and I couldn't help keeping an eye on him during pieces of dialogue he wasn't even featured in just to watch what his reactions were to what the other characters were saying. I think it's a testament to his talents as an actor because he's not someone who demands or obnoxiously pulls attention (honestly if that man has an ego he's a master in concealing it), the audience just naturally gravitates towards him every time he appears on stage or screen just to see everything they can of his character.

(Also for a little behind the scenes insight, during the play when a scene came to an end and the actors weren't in the following one, they would step out of the small studio we were in - just for reference there was only four rows of audience - via the door behind the set. The door always swung shut after them and it would make a noise every time - and I know the actors were miked up but I did wonder if the noise of the door was picked up on during the livestream because I kept noticing it in studio - but a few times I did watch Luke as he came and went through the door and he actually would keep his hand on the door as it closed to prevent it from making a sound and disturbing the scene, which I thought was sweetly thoughtful of him.)

[kinomiakai]

Your fics were one of the things that kept me going after my father's death just last month. I never expected I'd read your fics as a way to cope with grief. And I wanted to say that I relate to naruto in 'something good'. I don't know how to mourn. Everyone tells me what to do and not do and I can't take it anymore. I feel guilty when I have fun, laugh, smile or eat meals that I know my dad would have liked. I feel like throwing up everytime i pass by the hospital he died in. His voice comes up in my head and I feel like cracking my skull open and pulling it out just so I can hear him for real. I never expected I'd become and orphan at 18 and I wish I could tell him I love you just once more because God knows i never said it too often. I just want to say to whoever is reading this to appreciate the people your life because I didn't and now I regret it so much.

I'm sorry to drop this on you kinomi. I know you're not a therapist and you're here to have fun but I just need to talk to someone because I feel like going crazy

Oh friend. I am so sorry. I completely understand and I appreciate that you didn’t want to just go and drop this - but I get it, and you’re not alone at all in this. I wrote something good for a reason, and to be honest, I really started it because I was in the middle of all of my grief and realized I had no clue how to mourn either. Like I did not know what I was doing at all. And everybody talks about unhealthy coping mechanisms but what the hell would healthily coping with grief look like?? So I wrote something good. To see what it could look like. While still being messy and real and full of backslides and all of that. All that to say the emotions of the fic are very much from experience, and I’m so sorry you can relate to that grief. And this is so new to you, friend, please be kind to yourself. A month, that’s barely any time at all for something like this. Let yourself have bad days and let yourself have good ones. It’s okay to laugh, I promise, it doesn’t negate your grief or your love in any way. They can absolutely coexist and you deserve moments of good to help you live with this, you really do. I promise there will come a time when the fog in your head will start to clear, and your grief will start to settle as part of you, instead of all of you. I know everyone experiences it differently, but I’ve lived it, and you’re not alone. You’re not even alone in something good - I've had a lot of other people contact me with their own stories. Some of them are even in the ao3 comments. I wish I could give you the biggest hug but I hope my fics do that for you instead - I’m so glad I can help you cope, at least the tiniest bit. This reply is probably messy and hopefully not too preachy or anything, I know everyone copes differently. I am crying a little so I apologize for its imperfections - but I feel for you, I am so incredibly sorry, and I hope you’re kind to yourself. You deserve it. All my love to you, friend <3

[13eyond13]

Well, that's the thing, he established a contrast between L and all the other characters, even though he said he could never have created the other characters either, and only said of L that he didn't feel real for him. That's why it never sat well for me, despite it being a good opinion at first glance.

And I agree. I read some similar things about both Near and Mello in the How to read while checking for that information. I'm not too surprised either about what you say about Platinum End, though I have not read it myself. I don't rely much on them either to form my opinion besides what's in the text, I agree it seems like the best choice all things considering. Like the Ryuzaki thing having to do with L and R sounding similar, I see that, but prefer to roll with Another Note here. It works wonderfully with it being Beyond Birthday's real name (I was this 👌 close to start rambling about identity again but goodness what a wonderful messy thing L has going on there). And still the washing machine bugged me, I couldn't help it. I thought for the longest time it was some kind of absurd joke headcanon popular in the DN fandom and I liked it a lot more as such xD

I don't like to dismiss completely File no. 15 though! I don't know if this is an unpopular opinion (pseudo ☕), but I love that L visits museums and likes art, and that he enjoys going to the park at times, and maybe I'm biased due to my background, but I adore and find so thought inspiring that he finished the demonstration in his first case with "Q.E.D."! The message is long again (with the new limitless asks it's easy to get carried away), but I wanted to add some positive things. I didn't mean to sound so bitter and negative in the other messages, sorry about that.

May I ask what are some of your own unpopular opinions? You don't have to reply, of course.

Oh, I didn't know the asks became limitless recently 😆 No worries, you didn't sound bitter! I tend to like being a bit critical or negative as a way of analyzing or attempting to discuss stuff honestly as well, and that's bound to happen in unpopular opinion sharing. I think it's valid to still be bothered by those things in the HTR13. I was just explaining how much I prioritize it or let it affect my feelings personally when it comes to my own interpretations of things.

Oh man, I haven't thought about my own unpopular opinions in a long time! But I think I made a list of them once in an ask I received way back in the day... I'll copy some here and then add some others, too.

I hope I don't offend anyone with these opinions, I'm not saying these are objectively true or anything but my own subjective takes, but

Some Unpopular Opinions:

-I think Misa is a worse person than Light and would rather hang out with him and be friends with him than with her. This is mostly because of how differently he acted upon losing his memories whereas she stayed almost exactly the same.

-I strongly prefer the manga to the anime because I think it's better written, more consistent, funnier, prettier, and more in-depth with all the characters and themes. I love stuff about the anime like the music, but I don't think the changes the anime made to L such as seemingly giving him regretful emotions before his death and little flashbacks to his past were automatically improvements on his manga self. I think he was far more original and complex as a character without that other stuff added in

-I LOVE LIGHT YAGAMI and can’t comprehend not loving him because he’s such a good character. Roasting him is always fun, but just straight up hating on him with no sense of humour about it is boring to me

-L is probably my all-time fave character but at the same time I think he can get a bit boring after a while if he isn’t fleshed out more in shippy fanfics and things. I love it when people give him a backstory and an interesting life in fics that go in-depth, because otherwise he can be left too much of a question mark

-Lawlight is both my favourite ship and also something I find a little overrated in the fandom at times. I think it's a really entertaining ship as an uncertain one full of tension and mind-games, but when it comes to actually putting them into a secure and loving relationship I end up getting easily bored by it

-sometimes I think Wammy's is overrated in the fandom compared to the other interesting characters and stuff in the series as well. I would love to see a little more exploration of the task force and SPK and mafia and such instead

-I think Higuchi was actually pretty nice to Misa on their date and the only thing that was awkward was that he lunged at her a little in the car when he got excited, lol

-I love Kiyomi and think it’s so silly to hate on her just because she killed Mello, he kidnapped her and made her strip at gunpoint first. I also think she gets blamed more harshly for things the guys also do sometimes, both by the characters in the story and by fans

-I don't believe Matsuda is as much of a pure cinnamon roll as some people seem to think, but he's more interesting with that darker side included in his characterization too

-I LOVE NEAR and think he’s so funny, and one of the most three-dimensional characters in the manga

-I think it was a good story choice that L died when he did and that he wasn't the final one in the warehouse showdown (though if I had only watched the anime that probably wouldn't be the case)

-I like that the story says that all the characters go to MU no matter what they do. I don't see it as just an edgy nihilistic thing which we should pretend isn't part of the story due to being too depressing to think about. In my opinion it's important to include it because it forces the audience to draw their own conclusions about the actions we see onscreen, and who we choose to sympathize with or condemn. If there was some sort of afterlife consequences based on the characters' morality it would easily become way too weirdly preachy or annoyingly nonsensical for me. And I respect how permanent the character deaths are because it would weaken the dramatic stakes and lessen the tension a lot if characters could arbitrarily come back from the dead

[heart-forge]

Wait wait wait, why does Anne with an E bother you so much? Because I've always felt that Ann without an E feels like nails on a chalkboard to me. Never occurred to me that someone could feel the same way as me only opposite! I am now intrigued.

The fun and totally unconflicted answer is because I know what a field in Ontario looks like, and what a field in PEI looks like, and I know when they've sent a drone over the cliffs of PEI and when they're in a soybean field in rural Ontario. The more thinking emoji answer is below a cut for racism, indigenous racism, and residential schools !! Like those are literal plotlines in the show, not to misrepresent Anne or anything.

I've rewritten this like a thousand times just because I've done a little research into what people thought of the show and it means so much to a lot of people but also I think it was absolutely batshit of them to introduce a residential school plot alongside "Anne goes to university and kisses Gilbert", just in time for the cancellation so that thread is perpetually just hanging there. On one hand people think it was important for them to introduce the plotline and let it get as dark as it did, on the other hand it's by far the darkest and I'm not sure there would have been a way for them to do it justice without literally dropping every other storyline. And also like...there's the question of what would be done with Rachel. Are we just supposed to be cool with her saying she was sorry and didn't know she was actively enabling, participating in, and supporting violent colonialism that could have literally killed a beloved side character? She's already the go to for being the racist and the one who was introduced to us by bullying an orphan so like, where were we supposed to draw the line with Rachel?

I didn't like that they killed Mary, and I especially didn't like the weird flaccid thing Sebastian then had with the school teacher. Nothing against her or Sebastian, just that I already hated that they killed Mary for no discernable reason even though she had plenty of drama in tank with Elijah and all, and the Bog is just Gone Now. And Mary got replaced with a White Woman With Modern Sensibilities She Rides a Bike and Wears Pants and Fishes. Like you could have kept Mary alive and done an Elijah redemption arc. They didn't have to nuke Bas' family after like what an entire season of waiting on their romance? Best case her actress had other things to be doing, otherwise like...she died offscreen. They did her so dirty so Gilbert could stand there and do a cry face about it and swear to be a better doctor than the racists that wouldn't go see her.

Diana's gay aunt is where I feel really comfortable rolling my eyes at the just...paternalism the show seems to unintentionally have? Just in the sense that Anne never has to learn anything about these extremely complicated topics that she immediately begins white knighting for. She always instinctively understands the situation, which I think was just a case of "the POV character isn't an asshole and knows everything that we know right now" but in a way that comes off as preachy just because nobody else is on that level. Everyone else needs something explained to them, everyone else needs help accepting others, but Anne's open heart and sheer zest for life is always ready to tell all of Canada about residential schools: surely they'll be outraged (spoiler alert for literally up to last week: they weren't)?

I guess the tl;dr is that it felt like a social justice monster of the week game where they were flipping through a rolodex of topics for Anne to be extremely knowledgeable about regardless of how close she is to a topic or how reasonable it is to assume she's had experience with it before which was a disservice to her character and like, she didn't have to know everything about everyone's particular struggles and burdens in order to be a kind person? She was infinitely more compelling when she was shit talking Gilbert only to find out about his home life and his sick father and feel terrible about it, and that scale of drama doesn't translate into "finding out about gay people" (Diana was extremely funny that whole arc because she really was Just Finding Out About Gays).

And on one hand, some people just really do need to be told things: that Indigenous people really did undergo all this terrible violence done with the full sanction of the government and frankly a lot of the population (again, Rachel's immediate defence is that she didn't know what actually went on there—is that meant to absolve her in some way? She almost killed a child and definitely helped kidnap one and we will never ever be sure that Ka'kwet didn't die because Anne is cancelled), that gay people really are just people in love, that racism is bad. Maybe it's my own sensibilities that roll my eyes at that because like, that information is so easily accessible nowadays and intersects so heavily with so many fandoms that at some point people have to be working really hard to not hear marginalized folks on the ground floor telling them all these things to their faces........but I feel like the only fluffy plotlines really belonged to Anne and her straight white friends that are legacy characters. Anne and Gilbert, Diana, Matthew and Marilla (Matthew's actor made me soft, extreme farmer vibes, immediately wanted to help him figure out how to use his cellphone).

It felt like they were trying and I appreciate the hustle, but also 1) where were you going with this because you were escalating so fast I lost sight of your exit strategy, and 2) Anne is incredibly knowledgeable about most if not all social issues despite her backstory where she is an extremely isolated and abused child, and in addition to this open-heartedness that makes her unusually kind which, fine, anime logic, she is also extremely confident voicing her take on these situations almost like she's written by people with a hundred and a half some odd years of hindsight which leads to this weird duality of "this is Anne the character" vs "this is Anne on the soapbox". Like I said, she doesn't need to be (and should not be) a bigot in any particular way, but the way she navigated the world was almost like, in ignorance of it. Like not only was she totally open to the Mi'kmaq (good), she had no idea that other people wouldn't be (weird, she lives in this world doesn't she?).

[quarkmonger]

Omg this is going to be one of these episodes, lots of thoughts. Lots of moments.

Julian's reaction to being singled out for a major award is so relatable. Center or attention in a small group fine. Center of attention on a company wide scale? Nope sorry. Got some work needs doing.

I want to watch Quark slip into his coat on a loop. He slept in his clothes? Zek didn't even let Quark keep his pj's?

That glass of millipede juice is huge. It's be like a 15$ glass of juice in a restaurant. "Hold the shells.." I know it likely means the exoskeleton, but Ferengi millipedes having actual shells like snails is a cute thought. Like a big long backpack on it.

Rom I love you and your messy ass quarters.

- ... Teeth grinding and ear picking every night - do.. Are they sleeping in the same room?

Pakled refuse merchant! All the dozens of times I've watched this show and I never picked up on that reference.

I love this huge cracker lookin sculpture Rom has on his wall.

Goddammit why is every move Quark makes so sexy. He's just standing in a hallway gearing himself up to bother the Nagus and it's hot as hell.

I legitimately, unironically love Zek. His squeaky voice and giggles.

"I got rid of it" lmaooo. Poor Quark.

A Good Deed Is Its Own Reward - I'm surprised he didn't think it was written by Hu-mons.

He thinks this book is a code or has a secret and he licks it. How many other secrets have you uncovered that way sir?

How Quark says Devious plan like he's wooing a lover and *wiggles*

Maihar'du is so done. Just. Done. Give him his Nagus back.

It's no fun for the beetles! By talos the profits made the Nagus a preachy vegan.

The irony of 'the new ways' actually becoming the new ways once Rom is Nagus. He ends up saying the only place the new rules exist in inside my head. I bet he actually does remember them too.

AW the dart board makes its appearance! Idk why but something about the dart board being part of the show makes me happy. It's like such an earth game and it ending up in the bar is just perfect.

This is Rom's first real episode. His character makes a significant change from 'little lady, little lady' and this feels like the first time we really get to see him as him.

Zek giggling at Julians threat to Quark is one of the moments that always comes to mind when I think of the character.

Quark really is very clever figuring this all out and fantastically explaining his way around the need for greed leading to the extinction of all life to the prophets to land on if you want to be left alone then give me what I want.

WHERE'S MY BEETLE SNUFF!?

Rom is too good to Quark. He made enough profit for them both. He's going to share it with him even though he's such a jerk. Quark doesn't deserve such a good brother but I'm glad he's got one.

[mimiatmidnight]

Um i feel nervous for admitting this but I never liked Meghan or Harry and didn't quite believe them, and I would hang out on all these anti-sussex blogs quite frequently, and while I would see objectively racist stuff (like publishing George Floyd's toxicology report as if any amount of drugs in his system would justify his death at the hands of a police man), I was so convinced that I wasn't being racist in not believing Meghan because the more overtly racist stuff these people posted 1/

Would always gross me out and I could tell it was objectively bad. I kind of had my wake up call of "bitch ur sliding down into alt right bs" when I saw people spreading QAnon conspiracies and actually started believing that shit. I took a break from all that and started trying to see the other side so to speak, of blogs pro-sussex and man, I had never realised just how little context there was for the shit that I believed wholeheartedly about her 2/

It is so incredibly racist and terrible of me to have just discounted her account especially since I'm a woman and POC myself. I should know better I've been through the similar shit. And now William and his fucking horrible comments about how "normalised violence is in Africa" just made me realise how right she was to leave and I just, idk I can't believe I defended them for so long 3/

I don't mean to throw a pity party or I'm sorry if anything I saw sounds like an excuse for my racism–nothing can excuse it and all I can do is grow from it but fuck dude, I feel so bad, and I deserve to tbh. Anyway thank you for letting me rant, and your blog was actually one of the first ones I saw in my pro-Sussex hunt, and a lot of posts were instrumental in changing my views, so thank you so much for what you do 4/

Answer below the cut

Wow. Thank you for reaching out and sharing this. It obviously is not my place to excuse or forgive anything at all (I know you didn't ask for that, but it warrants disclaiming). I wouldn't do such a thing even if I could. The pain and shame you are feeling now is important and good. It means you are doing the hard work of reprogramming. You are challenging your own world view and recognizing your own failures. I say this not to congratulate you or pat you on the back, but to encourage you to continue the process. I know from experience how difficult it is.

And it is a continuous process, too. Every day, I have to put in the work to confront myself and keep myself in check. Pause, and question everything, even the people you trust, even yourself. Especially yourself. I try to always ask myself, "Why was my first instinct to feel this way? What other people would benefit from me feeling this way? How have I allowed them to influence me in this direction? What have I taken for granted that led me to this conclusion, and do those beliefs warrant closer examination?" These are the challenges I constantly try to place on myself, and it has led me to some rather remarkable paradigm shifts.

I hope you understand that I don't say this to sound preachy or like I know better. In fact, my point is that I don't. Though our experiences are very different, I recognize the pain you are feeling, and I want to share with you that I am still working on my own painful process of self-reflection. But these are good things. Discomfort is essential for growth.

You are so right that all you or I or anyone can do is continuously put in the work to learn and change for the better. We must remain accountable for our past, and understand and accept that the people we have harmed might choose not to forgive our past. That is their right. For us, let's invite that pain of self-examination in, let's welcome it, sit in it, and understand it, and let's have it inform us as we continue forward. It will only make us healthier and more aware in the future.

I am very touched (and frankly astounded) that anything I have said on here might have helped you in anyway. Thank you so much for your kind words. I'm sending you all my encouragement as we all try to grow, every single day.