#it's not indie

[hummingbee-lievable]

Song of the Day #10 (yayyyy, double digits!):

Mahk Jchi (Heartbeat Drum Song): Ulali, Pura Fé, Soni Moreno, Jennifer Kreisberg

Mahk Jchi tahm boo-ee

yahm pi-gih-dee

Mahk Jchi tahm boo-ee

kahn speh-wah eh-bi

Mahm-pi wah ho-ka yi nonk,

tah hond tah-ni kih-yee tai-yee

Ghee weh meh yee-tai-yee,

Nan-ka yaht yah moo-ni-yeh wah-jhi-seh

English translation:

Our hearts are full and our minds are good

Our ancestors come and give us strength

Stand tall, sing, dance and never forget who you are

Or where you come from

Track 2 on 'Music for the Native Americans', produced by Robbie Robertson and the Red Road Ensemble.

Fun fact: This compilation was created for the documentary 'The Native Americans'. It was Robertson's first time creating music inspired by his Mohawk heritage. His children show up in the album, with son on drums for a few of the songs, and his daughter singing backing vocals for 'Coyote Dance'. The language of the song is a mix of Tutelo and Saponi, which are dialects of the Sioux nation from the Ohio Valley.*

Personal blurb: I had a friend tell me years ago that I seem to be a morning song person, while they were a night song person. I'm not certain I buy into that perspective (because aren't we all a balance of everything?) but I came across this song marked 'Cherokee Morning Song' on YouTube (thank goodness for the hidden features the algorithm unroots) and fell in love with it; the whole album just followed suit.

I think mentioning Robbie Robertson last night got this stuck in my head this morning. 😋

To me, music is the perfect communal place to gather for cultural appreciation. How lucky we are to get to share in the joy this song brings.

*Reference:

[chunkysoup22]

[theaftersundown]

the holy grail types of fanfic

[sailermoon]

I WISH IT HAD ALL BEEN DIFFERENT!!!!!

[momopatchi]

"passive egression" Rough anim loop

[gulistan-blog]

㋡🥀

colors of the sky.

[maviyenot]

[lou-wilham]

Just a quick note from your friendly neighborhood bookworm/indie author

if you use kindle for the majority of your library, they will be shutting down the function that allows you to download your files and transfer them via USB on the 26th of February. Which doesn't sound like a huge deal, but this also means that if a book is taken off Amazon for any reason—like it being banned—they can scrape it off your kindle as well. So maybe backup your library?

Edit: as an indie author I feel like I should make a small note that this is not an excuse to say “fuck Amazon I’ll just pirate my books”. Please don’t do that. No one’s reaction so far has been that but I’m begging you not to react that way. That doesn’t hurt Amazon it hurts authors.

Some alternatives are

- check and see if the author sells their books on other marketplaces. Hint: any not enlisted on Ku are probably wide

- check your library. If they’re not at your library request them.

- if all else fails, reach out to the author. I have 100% hunted down a way for my book to be available to a reader that couldn’t access it for whatever reason. And I’d do it again.

Just for the love of 🧀 don’t pirate them.

[mugenfinder]

(source)

[sarahdraws16]

Poor Curly my beloved 🥹🥩

[rubyjones]

Too many writers are using generative 'AI' to make their book covers, so I've written a guide on how to make your own cover for free or cheap without turning to a machine.

If you can't afford to pay an artist, you CAN make your own!

I hope this is a helpful overview that covers the basics and points to some free resources.

[Edit:] this is getting well outside this account's usual reach and a few people in the notes are making not so great comments about the fact I write weird erotica. So, for full disclosure: yes, I am an erotica writer. And the book covers include those for tentacle erotica and robot erotic romance. But you cannot see anything NSFW. All of these covers were approved by Amazon. Frankly, the cover of the most NSFW story, Oviposition, is downright tame! And to those complaining about the word 'Oviposition', that is a scientific word for a naturally occurring phenomenon - it's only naughty if you know the content of the story, which is only alluded to as 'sexy'.

I also do not believe that shirtless men require a warning, but yeah, two of the covers have shirtless men. The cover with a tasteful nude drawing (showing a bum, but not a weenor) has already been censored.

I can't do anything about the version of this post that got rb'd by a popular person, but for those who are concerned, consider this your content warning.

[pencildragons]

bro i LOVE indigenous fusion music i love it when indigenous people take traditional practices and language and apply them in new cool ways i love the slow decay and decolonisation of the modern music industry

[morxwar]

[deseos-de-la-via-lactea]

source

[fox-teeth]

Preview of Basilisk, my personal favorite of my risograph comics, and the project all my other recent medieval-inspired art descends from.

Styled after medieval illuminated manuscripts and printed using a custom color palette requiring 5 risograph inks (including metallic gold), Basilisk asks the question: what would drive a teenage girl to create a monster?

Physical copies available here (also digital here). To brag for a moment--this is my masterwork of riso printing and is even more impressive in person.