#small offset printing

[greenprintqa]

Unleashing Brand Potential

The Power of Custom Printed Packaging Products

In the fiercely competitive market landscape of today, where brands vie for attention and consumer loyalty, every detail matters. From the product itself to its packaging, each element plays a crucial role in shaping brand perception and influencing purchasing decisions. This is where the significance of custom-printed packaging products truly shines, such as gift boxes, paper bags, leather boxes, and food grade boxes.

Custom printed packaging products are not merely containers, they are storytellers, brand ambassadors, and experience creators. They have the power to captivate audiences, convey brand identity, and leave a lasting impression long after the initial interaction.

Elevating Brand Identity

In a world inundated with options, standing out is paramount. Custom printed packaging products offer brands the opportunity to differentiate themselves in a crowded marketplace. Whether it's a striking logo, vibrant colors, or engaging imagery, customized packaging allows brands to express their unique identity and values, fostering recognition and loyalty among consumers.

Creating Memorable Experiences

Beyond merely containing a product, packaging serves as the first point of physical contact between a brand and its customers. Custom-printed packaging products can turn this moment into an unforgettable experience. Thoughtfully designed packaging can evoke emotions, spark curiosity, and enhance the overall perception of the brand. From unboxing moments that delight to tactile experiences that engage the senses, customized packaging transforms mundane transactions into memorable interactions.

Building Brand Trust and Credibility

Consumers today are discerning and value authenticity. Custom-printed packaging products not only reinforce brand messaging but also instill confidence in the quality and authenticity of the product. Whether it's through eco-friendly materials, transparent labeling, or innovative design, customized packaging communicates a brand's commitment to excellence and builds trust with consumers.

Driving Marketing and Brand Awareness

Packaging is not just a functional necessity, it's a powerful marketing tool. Custom printed packaging products serve as a silent salesperson, effectively communicating key brand messages and enticing consumers to make a purchase. With strategic placement of logos, taglines, and imagery, customized packaging extends the reach of a brand far beyond the point of sale, sparking conversations and driving brand awareness both online and offline.

Conclusion

In today's hypercompetitive market landscape, brands cannot afford to overlook the importance of custom-printed packaging products. Far more than mere containers, customized packaging serves as a powerful extension of a brand's identity, creating memorable experiences, fostering trust, and driving marketing efforts. By investing in custom-printed packaging products, brands can unlock new opportunities for growth, differentiation, and lasting customer connections. It's time to unleash the full potential of your brand through the transformative power of customized packaging.

[drawsmaddy]

[ID: A digital illustration of Crowley from Good Omens. He leans his right elbow on an invisible table, resting his chin in his hand. In his left hand he holds a large glass of whiskey. He peers over the top of his sunglasses, grinning. Small devil horns are drawn above Crowley's head, and a thin devil tail pokes over the top of the invisible table. The illustration is almost entirely done in dark linework, with the only added colour being the red of Crowley's hair and the yellow of his eyes. The colours are slightly offset from the linework, imitating a misaligned physical print. End description.]

Demonic doodle ❤️

[hazbinshusk]

a kiss in parting w blitz please i need the angst lmao😭

prompt #28: a kiss in parting.

You arch up against Blitzø with a throaty moan as he thrusts hard into you, his slow, steady pace offset by the way devasting way he bottoms out with every press of his hips. His teeth graze the soft flesh of your neck, his breath leaving him in a soft growl.

It hurts in the best way, the way he’s stretching you with every slide of his cock into you. The way his claws dig into your hips. The way he moves his mouth to yours and his teeth catch your bottom lip as he moans into your kiss. You tighten around him, wrapping your legs around his waist, and his breath catches. “Jesus. Fuck…”

“Right there,” you whine as he angles his hips in the way that makes your eyes roll back. “Fuck, right there, Blitz, right there, right… fucking there…”

He rolls his fingers over your clit and you cum hard, nails digging into his shoulders. Blitzø groans, curses, and moans your name as he follows you over the precipice, spilling himself into your warmth. “Satan’s… fuck!”

Blitzø keeps pumping his hips into yours disjointedly until you’re pushing him away, your thighs shaking from the stimulation. He taps your clit with his tail teasingly, and you smack him in the arm. He rolls off of you with a laugh.

“Holy shit.”

“Damn fuckin’ right,” he replies cockily, tucking his hands behind his head.

“Oh, shut up.” He laughs again, the tip of his tail drawing slowly up your thigh. It makes you jump, and you swat his tail away, rolling onto your stomach and taking his face in your hands. You kiss him, letting him relax into it for a few moments before you reach down to scratch your nails over his hipbone. He jerks away from you with what could almost be a whimper as you find that sensitive spot that always seems to rile him up. This soon after an orgasm is basically torture. “Serves you right.”

“Fuckin’ dick.”

“I just finished doing that, actually.”

Blitzø scoffs, the sound devolving into a laugh. Then, he sighs, stretching his arms out above him before he sits up and swings his legs out over the side of the mattress. You sit up slightly, raising an eyebrow curiously.

“Are you leaving?”

He nods, tugging a shirt on over his head and scanning the carpet for his briefs. “Full moon tonight – got that appointment with his Royal Horniness for a grand-slam smack-down of sex.”

You wrinkle you nose at the description, trying to ignore the weight his words set into your stomach. “That’s still happening?”

Blitzø shrugs a shoulder. “Still need the book if I.M.P. is gonna keep bringing in bank.”

“Right.”

He stands, pulling his underwear up his thighs and snapping the waistband into place. Even as your mood drops, you can’t help the small smirk that touches your lips at the silhouettes of galloping horses printed across the fabric. “And you just knooooow Birdy is probably already gagging over the thought of getting to split himself open on—”

“Oooookay,” you cut him off, rolling your eyes as you sit up. You tug the blankets up against your chest, swallowing back the distaste you suddenly feel. “I get it.”

Blitzø snickers, fastening his belt.

“Just… promise me you’re gonna shower before you go over there.”

He turns to face you, shooting you a wink. “’Course. I’m a classy bitch, tits. Besides, I’ve gotta swing by home and check on my Loonie-Toonie anyway.”

“Mm-hm.” You toy with the sheets with unsteady fingers.

Blitzø shrugs his jacket into place, tail whipping gently back and forth. He lets his eyes fall down over your body for a moment before meeting your eye again with a wiggle of his eyebrows. “I text ya later for a round two, alright?”

You nod, offering him a weak smile. “Sure. If the Prince doesn’t wear you out.”

The imp snickers, leaning across the bed to smack a quick kiss against your lips. “Oh please, y’know it takes more than a few ball-drainin’ fucks to stop me from bangin’ your silly little brains out.”

You press your lips together tightly as he turns to leave, and you lay down again, rolling onto your side so you can avoid watching him walk through the door.

send me a prompt and either husk or blitzø

[moonstrider9904]

Sing Me Like a Folk Song

Crosshair x Female OC (Clair)

Summary: During a calm night at their cottage, Crosshair and his wife have some time to kill while a cake bakes in the oven.

Word count: 2.4k

Tags: Explicit, Smut, 18+ adults only. Domesticity, TBB canon divergent universe, established relationship and marriage, baking and handling of food, soft smut, PIV sex, creampie, oral sex.

This work is part of the Moonlight universe. If you want to read how Crosshair and Clair got together, you should totally check out that story too!!

Main Masterlist | One-shot Masterlist | Crossposted to AO3

Crosshair stepped forward silently, his former sniper instincts creeping into his movements, and he leaned forward for his head to be at the level of his wife’s. His ever-watchful gaze looked over her shoulder as she poured the batter into the sheet and used an offset spatula to even it out, and then, she added the layer of almond-coffee cream on top of the luscious, white cream cheese filling, smoothing that out too. That was his favorite part to watch when she prepared the cake that had quickly become his favorite.

Like music filling his senses, Clair chuckled as she reached for the cake batter to repeat another layer.

“I can feel you there, Cross,” she mused.

Crosshair smiled, and he set his hands gently on her waist, snaking them around her figure, feeling the fabric of her flower-printed dress and the pale pink apron she wore under his touch. He pressed his tall figure onto her small one and delicately kissed her temple, and he took a deep breath that allowed him to get a whiff of the sugar and butter and coffee and almond. Whenever his wife worked her magic in the kitchen, he felt like he was in heaven, but then again, his entire home, their cottage, their little town, and their planet, would qualify as paradise to anyone.

“Good,” Crosshair replied to Clair’s remark.

She laughed softly again. “I kind of need a full range of motion in my arms for this, Berry Pie.”

“You’re the expert baker, that shouldn’t stop you,” Crosshair tightened his grip around her.

Clair giggled. “That’s what I get for making your favorite cake.”

Crosshair peppered kisses around the side of Clair’s face, with gratitude sprinkled over each one of them, and he smirked into her skin when he felt her cheek becoming plump resulting from her own smile. Clair could ask for nothing more—she already had the two things she loved most in the universe, and when they would be together in one calm night in her cottage, baking a delicious cake as she was held by her beloved husband… it let her know life was good, but it wasn’t as if she ever doubted.

Clair had no reason to doubt since she met Crosshair, smirking at her and devouring her with his gaze that day at the Allium café. And he had been a tough nut to crack, but he’d cracked nonetheless, and the snarky, war-driven sniper now clung to her from behind, eagerly watching as she placed raw batter into a pan all because he’d expressed a craving for something sweet, something other than his beautiful wife.

Like an artist brushing paint over a canvas, Clair swirled the offset spatula and smoothed off the last of the batter, evening it out so that it would bake perfectly in the oven. There was just one more detail left, and from a nearby container, Clair grabbed the lumps of butter, flour, and sugar that she’d made before assembling the cake, and she began to sprinkle them over the top of the raw batter.

Crosshair watched her delicate fingers sprinkling the lumps that would result in an exquisite crumble topping, one of the best parts of the cake beside the creamy, sugary almond filling between the layers of bread, and he felt his mouth watering already. Crosshair then removed one of his hands from Clair’s waist and he reached for the glass container where the rest of the raw crumble topping was, and he took a piece from the container into his mouth, not giving a damn if the flour was raw. A little bit wouldn’t do him any harm, as Clair told him each time she baked something. Clair smiled brightly at what Crosshair had just done, and when she saw his hand reaching for another chunk, she playfully swatted it away with the softest of touches.

“You’ll get a bellyache, love,” she said.

Crosshair chuckled, the sound deep and purring into the curve of Clair’s neck, and he let his lips dance around her skin once more and travel up until they were at the level of hers. Clair turned her head and faced him, and she kissed his lips with a passion not unlike the one shared during their first kiss ever. The seconds they spent kissing felt like one delightful eternity, and when Crosshair broke the kiss to look into her deep brown eyes, he let his inner softness emerge as he smiled at his beloved wife.

“I love you so much,” Crosshair whispered before leaning in again, resuming their kiss. He circled his arms around her waist once more and pulled her closer, and Clair giggled into the kiss, causing his chest to flutter. He loved that sound, and he could listen to it forever. It meant that she was happy and that she felt loved, and that was Crosshair’s single duty for the rest of his life.

At least, until it shared priority with a little one who came into the family.

Clair broke the kiss, giggling breathlessly, and Crosshair smirked at how he was still able to leave her dazed and flustered. Shyly, Clair tucked a strand of her black, silky hair behind her ear, and she reached out to get her oven mittens to then clutch the pan with the raw cake.

“Time to put this in the oven,” she cooed.

“Let me,” Crosshair reached for her hands.

But Clair shook her head in return, always proud of her duty as a baker. “Nope. I got it.”

Crosshair leaned on the counter as he watched Clair moving around the kitchen, from the way she opened the oven to how she took the cake and placed it inside, closing the oven door again and setting the timer down on the counter next to the oven. Crosshair’s gaze scanned every curve of Clair’s body when she bent over to put the cake in and when she straightened back up again, and his heart swole with affection at the intimacy of the sight, suddenly overcome with the need to have his arms around her again. With delicate movements, Clair had removed her oven mittens and cast them aside, and her big brown eyes were on him again as she directed a soft smile his way.

“Now we wait,” Clair said.

Crosshair tilted his head and raised his brows as he smirked, pacing over at Clair and reaching out to hold her waist again. “How long do we have to wait?”

“70 minutes,” Clair replied. “This one’s a slow cooker.”

“Oh,” Crosshair moaned softly, pulling Clair closer and feigning wonder. “70 minutes… What can we do in 70 minutes?”

Clair giggled and blushed at his flirting. “I don’t know. Enlighten me.”

Crosshair let out another soft moan that became a chuckle as he bent down, wrapping his arms firmly below Clair’s behind. When he straightened his figure, Crosshair lifted Clair directly up, reveling in her delighted laugh as she kissed him. Then, he slowly set her back down, but their kiss didn’t stop. As he felt Clair’s hands slide up his chest and find their rest at the back of his neck, Crosshair let his own hands travel to the curve of her back where the pale pink apron was tied. With an intricate touch, Crosshair undid the knot behind her back, and then he did the same with the straps that tied around the back of Clair’s neck until the apron was free for him to cast it aside, letting it rest over a chair. Clair whimpered softly into his lips, and the sound set Crosshair ablaze.

He’d waste no more time, and he’d make the most out of those 70 minutes. He bent over and picked Clair up once more, carrying her towards the living room the way he had done through the threshold when she became his bride. Crosshair set her figure delicately over the couch to then hover over her and cage her to it. Their kisses grew in passion and the heat built up between them, and Crosshair slid his hands up the smooth skin of Clair’s legs, slowly snaking under her skirt and up her thighs until they reached the fabric of her lace panties. Crosshair smirked upon feeling the lace at his fingertips, and he wrapped his hands around the rims to pull them down and cast them aside too as he quickly scurried downwards.

Peppering kisses up Clair’s legs, Crosshair slid himself under Clair’s skirt and let the flower-printed fabric drape over his head, shielding each other from their view. Clair looked down at Crosshair under the skirt of her dress and shuddered briefly in excitement, and a velvety moan escaped her when she felt Crosshair brushing his tongue over her sensitive folds. Her hips instantly bucked forward, seeking more of that friction, but she knew her husband well enough to know she didn’t have to ask for it. Crosshair pressed himself more onto Clair’s skin and made love to her folds long enough to bring her climax close, and then he shifted his approach, using his fingers to lift the hood of her clit and grant his tongue better access to the swollen, sensitive pearl.

He flicked his tongue in quick, repetitive motions over the bud and heard Clair’s breath quicken, with her moans and whimpers increasing in pace and in pitch. It wasn’t long before Clair’s thighs were clenching around Crosshair and her moaning filled the entire cottage, with her hips rutting against him to heighten her already breathtaking waves of pleasure. When Crosshair moaned into her clit, Clair threw her head back in ecstasy, as it was the last detail that crowned her orgasm, rendering it one of the best Crosshair had gifted to her. He continued to moan and grunt into Clair’s cunt, adding more and more to her pleasure until she was just at the edge of not being able to withstand such intensity any longer, and Crosshair emerged from beneath her skirt, granting her a moment to catch her breath as he scurried onto the couch next to her.

When Clair regained herself, she climbed onto Crosshair and straddled him. Hungrily, Clair kissed his lips, devouring him as she could taste herself on him, and she trailed her kisses downwards to suck and nibble on the flesh on Crosshair’s neck. Nipping at every one of his sweetest spots, Clair was able to draw moans, and even a few well-placed whimpers, from her otherwise stoic and composed husband. And as she continued, her hands traveled down to undo his trousers, to which Crosshair immediately obliged.

Clair lifted herself from him to get the pants off him with her mouth watering, and she was about to bend over to suck on his large erection when Crosshair gently clenched her cheeks and turned her face to look at him.

“There’ll be time for that later, darlin’,” Crosshair uttered. “I want to be inside you now.”

Clair cooed and giggled as she adopted her previous position, lifting her skirt so that she could position her thighs around Crosshair’s hips, and she sat down on him, moaning at the stretch of his cock inside her walls. Crosshair muttered silent praises at her, and he wrapped his arms around Clair’s waist, holding her so close that her body somehow felt smaller in his grip. She bounced softly on his cock, the pace slow and without any hurry, so tender and delicious, letting the couple feel everything.

Clair looked deep into his eyes as he helped her move up and down his shaft, and Crosshair became immersed in the pleasure flooding his body. His wife gazed down at him sweetly, smiling at him, and even when she muttered loving declarations or tender praise, he didn’t have the headspace to process it. It was enough just to look at her as her figure bounced delicately, and the closer Crosshair got to his release, the more often he shuddered and grunted, part of him wanting to extend the moment to wait for her.

But Clair rested her forehead on his, smiling. “You can cum, love… I want to see you.”

Crosshair moaned and let his head fall back for a moment. If Clair kept speaking like that, he’d take her up on it, and it seemed as if his wife could read his mind at that moment. She whispered sweet words of encouragement, pulling him closer over the edge until all that was left for him was to fall, and Crosshair’s body trembled when the pleasure unleashed itself within him. During the last few moments before his release, Crosshair found it in himself to open his eyes and gaze into Clair’s, and the only thought that could run through his mind was how much he loved that woman, how he worshiped the ground she walked on. Finally, with Clair invading every corner of his mind and his body, Crosshair released inside of her and spilled hot white ropes inside her walls, filling her up so deliciously that she moaned at the sweet tightness inside.

With a bright smile, Clair slipped outside of Crosshair and sat down next to him on the couch, curling up beside him. Her hand rested softly on his chest over the fabric of his shirt, feeling as Crosshair’s pecs rose and fell, with the pace slowly coming back to normal. The two remained there, silent, full of intention to continue gracing one another with wave after wave of pleasure, though only finding it in themselves to bask in the other’s presence. There was nothing else they needed at the moment.

Crosshair looked at Clair and softly leaned in to kiss her forehead. As his lips were in contact with the warmth of her skin, he felt a wave of the sweet, warm scent of the cake baking in the oven—he’d forgotten about that for a moment—and a smile curved his lips as he took a deep inhale and filled his senses with it.

Clair took notice and chuckled. “Does that smell nice?”

“Mm-hmm,” Crosshair agreed, his eyes closing and body relaxing on the couch.

Clair clenched her fist around his shirt and kissed his chest softly before looking up at him. “Do you wanna go stare at the oven?”

Crosshair laughed softly and opened his eyes to kiss his wife’s forehead again. “Yes.”

With an amount of energy that astonished Crosshair for a moment, Clair got up and tugged on Crosshair’s hand, helping him up to standing, and the two made their way into the kitchen once more.

Thank you so much for reading! If you like this, please consider reblogging too to support me!

Back to Moonlight Masterlist

[uwmspeccoll]

An End of the Year Lesson

On this last day of 2023, we at UWM Special Collections would like to offer one final thought on How Books Work from American book artists Julie Chen and Clifton Meador, who are, as the notable artists-book dealers Vamp & Tramp describe them, "two veteran practitioners near the top of any serious list of contemporary book artists." This small, multilayered book was printed offset at the former Colombia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts in fall 2010, and is signed by the artists.

Please take a moment to read this.

This is how books work.

Thank you.

Now, go off into the New Year. . . .

View posts from New Year's Eves past.

[probablyasocialecologist]

From Apple to Disney, Gucci to Shell, many of the largest companies in the world have used carbon credits for their sustainability efforts from the unregulated voluntary market, which grew to $2bn (£1.6bn) in size in 2021 and saw prices for many carbon credits rise above $20 per offset. The credits are often generated on the basis they are contributing to climate change, mitigation such as stopping tropical deforestation, tree planting and creating renewable energy projects in developing countries. Proponents say they need to massively increase in size and scale to help meet the Paris agreement to limit global heating. But repeated scandals about their true impact and a crackdown from regulators on claims of “carbon neutrality” have meant that demand and prices for offsetting have slumped, with signs that some carbon credit traders are writing off investments that would have been worth hundreds of millions of dollars as recently as last year.

[...]

A new study in the journal Science has found that millions of forest carbon credits approved by Verra, the world’s leading certifier, are largely worthless and could make global heating worse if used for offsetting. The research by scientists and economists at the University of Cambridge and VU Amsterdam was one of the three studies used in a January investigation into rainforest offsets by the Guardian, Die Zeit and Source Material. The Science study was used in a pre-print form while awaiting peer review, which it has since passed. The analysis, published on Thursday, found that 18 big forest offsetting projects had produced millions of carbon credits based on calculations that greatly inflated their conservation impact. The schemes, which generate credits by avoiding hypothetical deforestation, were found not to reduce forest loss or to reduce it by only small amounts, far less than the huge areas they were claiming to protect, rendering the credits largely hot air. The findings follow a 2020 study of 12 projects in the Brazilian Amazon by the same group, which found they had a negligible impact on stopping deforestation despite generating credits on the basis they were preventing large areas from being destroyed. A 2022 study of 40 Verra-approved projects led by University of Cambridge researchers found that while some projects did stop deforestation, most stopped none or small amounts.

[tpeakphotos]

On an April afternoon drive in the Smoke Creek Desert (Lassen County California), I saw a fair number of pronghorns. This is in no way unusual. It would be unusual to not see at least a few. What was quite unusual indeed is that they were somewhat cooperative for picture taking. Normally, when driving on those dirt roads the first look I get of them is when they’re moving across the rugged terrain faster than I can safely drive on the road. They came by their “speed goat” moniker honestly (although they’re more closely related to giraffes than to goats). Their skittishness is quite often in direct conflict with their curiosity. The latter evidently won out that evening. I saw several different groups while I was out there including a couple small groups of does. The highlight was this little group of bucks including one pretty good sized boy who was clearly quite proud of himself. These guys actually walked TOWARD my pickup for a bit when I stopped in the road. Add to that the nice warm late afternoon light, and I got a rare photo of these critters that I actually like, somewhat offsetting the plethora of bad frames I’ve gotten while trying.

In my Etsy shop: https://buff.ly/4cfzag3

Prints and merch on demand: https://buff.ly/4aSWYpE

[scotianostra]

January 29th 1848 saw the first adoption of GMT by Scotland. The subject has been the source of controversy ever since.

The change had broadly taken place south of the Border from September the previous year with those in Edinburgh living 12 and-a-half minutes behind the new standard time as a result.

The discrepancy grew the further west you moved, with the time in Glasgow some 17 minutes behind GMT. In Ayr the time difference was 18-and-a-half minutes with it rising to 19 minutes in the harbour town of Greenock. All these lapses were ironed out over night on January 29th 1848, but the move wasn’t without controversy as some resisted the move away from local time.

Sometimes referred to as natural time, it had long been determined by sundials and observatories and later by charts and tables which outlined the differences between GMT and local time at various locations across the country. But the need for a standard time measurement was broadly agreed upon given the surge in the number of rail services and passengers with different local times causing confusion, missed trains and even accidents as trains battled for clearance on single tracks.

An editorial in The Scotsman on Saturday, January 28th, 1848, said: “It is a mistake to think that in the country generally the change will be felt as a grievance in any degree. “Probably nine-tenths of those who have clocks and watches believe that their local time is the same with Greenwich time, and will be greatly surprise to learn that the two are not identical. “Even if they wished to keep local time, they want the means.

“Observatories are only found in two or three of our Scottish towns. “As for the sundials in use, their number is small, most of them, too, are made by incompetent persons and even when correctly constructed, the task of putting them up and adjusting them to the meridian is generally left to an ignorant mason, who perhaps takes the mid-day hour from the watch in his fob.” Can you imagine a Mason putting up with being called ignorant in this day and age!

The editorial added: “For the sake of convenience, we sacrifice a few minutes and keep this artificial time in preference to sundial time, which some call natural time, and if the same convenience counsels us to sacrifice a few minutes in order to keep one uniform time over the whole country, why should it not be done!”

Mariners had long observed Greenwich Mean Time and kept at least one chronometer set to calculate their longitude from the Greenwich meridian, which was considered to have a longitude of zero degrees. The move to enforce it as the common time measurement was made by the Railway Clearing House in September 1847.

Some rail companies had printed GMT timetables much sooner. The Great Western Railway deployed the standard time in 1840 given that passengers on its service between London to Bristol, then the biggest trading port with the United States, faced a time difference of 22 minutes between its departure and arrival point.

Rory McEvoy, curator of horology at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, said travel watches of the day had two sets of hands, one gold and one blue steel, to help measure changes in local time during a journey.

Maps also depicted towns with had adopted GMT and those which had not, he added. "There was information out there for determine the local time difference so they would know the offset to apply to GMT before the telegraphic distribution of time.”

Mr McEvoy said different towns and cities in Scotland would have had their own time differences before adoption of GMT. Old local time measurements show that Edinburgh was four-and-a-half minutes ahead of that in Glasgow, for example.

Mr McEvoy added: “I think it is fair to say there was no real concept of these differences at the time. It was when communication began to expand quite rapidly that it became f an issue. I think generally, you would be quite happy that the time of day was your local time.”

In this day in age we takeGMT, for granted, but try and think of how it would have worked in this day and age, and the confusion that would reign!

[huntingteeth]

Random question, I guess, but what was the fandom you read your first fanfic in? (Mine was Buffy - closely followed by Dark Angel and The Tribe. I received it via email from a friend. 😅 Don’t know where she found it. The Dark Angel fic was probably from a Geocities page, The Tribe one from a Tribe forum. Partly they were in German and I did not know about fanfiction.net yet.)

Also, was the 2nd last post a hint that if your readers flail a lot at your fics, we might get a WIP? 🙈 You should know, I am flailing extensively and can hardly wait for ANY new chapter for any of your fics. ❤️

Also, I‘m currently considering to pull a "when I open my eyes to the future“ IV and move to a small town to live with friends and visit farmers markets. Alternatively I’d be up for looking for eldritch creatures in the forest, my moms says it’s ok.

i thiiiink my first fandom was lord of the rings in middle school, my friends and i would print out fic and swap it during class l m a o. and then we had proto-discord forums and ff.net for lotr and buffy and yu-gi-oh and then i transitioned into fall out boy et al bandom with livejournal. 😂😂 lot of geocities, lot of angelfire.

it could be!! i’m being a little precious with my wips lmao. it’s been a coupla years since i was active in any fandom lol; i gotta get back in the groove of it. and i know!! it’s been a little bit since i dropped anything (writing on my phone makes me want to stab my fingers i’ll be honest!!). alternatively, click the read more at the bottom of the page!

doesn’t it just sound like a dream!! oh to be a little eldritch creature in the woods, visiting farmers markets and baking bread and sharing meals with friends!!

ok here’s a sneak peak from the epilogue of ikhwghgia, just 4 u:

The time between handing off his guitar and making it to the hotel is a blur; IV couldn’t say what happened in the interim, but soon enough, he’s in the bathroom with II, scrubbing black body paint off his body.

“You missed a spot,” II says genially, reaching up to scrub a spot IV missed under his jaw with his thumb.

IV follows II into the shower and laughs against his mouth, still feeling the rush of adrenaline that follows him after every show. II wraps his arms around IV’s neck, even under the spray of hot water, as IV cradles his hips in his hands. They kiss until II pulls back with a hiss as a rivulet of water and diluted body paint runs down into his eye.

“Shit, shit,” II mutters, even as IV presses laughing apologies against the side of his head. “Could you help me instead of laughing at me?”

IV snickers one last time against the side of his head and then they scrub each other down quickly, because they’re not the only ones who need to shower.

“Why do the smalls always get to shower together?” III complains as they exit the bathroom, wrapped up in towels and tussling like puppies. The complaint is offset by the easy grin that curls its way across his face as he watches them.

Vessel huffs a laugh and drags him into the bathroom as II tips IV onto the bed and crawls in after him. II hovers over him for a moment, watching as goosebumps erupt over the expanse of IV’s shoulders and arms. “You cold?”

The air flowing from the AC under the window isn’t cool by any means – III, the maniac, always cranks up the heat as soon as they get to their rooms – but their skin is bare and they’re fresh from the steamy bathroom.

[shippymerch]

the prodigal charms have returned (ﾉ´ヮ`)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ

If you've been following along, you'll have seen me post about the logistics company losing this whole batch back in early November. Through the amazing incredible herculean efforts of Rin from MarGaLita Pizza GO (the Discord server I used for these charms + the quicksands), they were able to be rescued 😭🙏 I can't recommend the server enough 💕 Give it a follow on IG/Twitter @mltpizzago!

These cuties (pun intended 🍊) (i've made this pun three times now) will be dropping on Sunday 1/7 @ 3pm PST!

Specs:

3mm thick

7mm tall (very smol 🤲)

Gold holo foil

Translucent print areas (foil slightly shines through to other side)

PET offset printing (gap between front & back print)

The photos show the holo effect under strong direct lighting, the gold shine under diffused lighting, the translucency and backside, and a size comparison with the quicksand. A & B+ grades will be $15 and $13 respectively on my square site 💕 Etsy prices will be higher because fees ;-;

I do want to note that these might not be the final product photos as there’s a small extra thing I’m waiting on that may be added to the charm, depending on how it looks irl. I’ll update once the extra lil add-on gets to me!!

....

(also also if you follow me on Twitter and have seen the Shizuo Pudding™, that preorder will be happening in a few days...I'll post more about it soon but please look forward to it!!!)

[tea-ddie]

BALLYHOO — BOOK ONE

I am beyond delighted to share my queer-noir graphic novel, Ballyhoo: Book One. Ballyhoo will be released on February 8th, 2024. You can now pre-order it on my website. Ballyhoo is the result of over two years of work and one year of inking like crazy. It is the first third of a story I am so excited to get into the world. It has queer bars, it has theater gays, and it even has a dramatic circus backstory. This 140~ish page volume is the first three chapters of the comic, all offset printed by yours truly. Summary and sample pages below the cut.

Summary:

While traveling to a new city to see the opening of her new play, The Bally Girl, writer Oretta Adams stumbles back into communication with two old friends. Marjorie Miller, previously an unruly and gay circus performer, has now settled into her role as a classic mid-century American housewife,  much to Oretta’s surprise. Evelyn Gold, on the other hand, has transformed her entertainment skills from the trio’s carnie days into a successful career in Portapolis’ lesbian bar scene.  Evelyn and Marjorie, once lovers, no longer have contact with each other. Oretta finds herself tiptoeing across the city, trying to keep Marjorie and Evelyn apart while hiding her own secrets about what really brought her to Portapolis in the first place. 

Everything is bound to come out, especially when opening night of The Bally Girl gets closer everyday. Good intentions, unfortunately, can only go so far.

Sample pages:

If you're interested in reading, please consider pre-ordering! It really helps a small, self-published artist like myself out. Because all books are handmade by myself, there are a limited number of available copies. Reblogs and sharing is also highly appreciated.

[msviolacea]

I've been following the Hugo Awards fiasco very closely the last week or so - I've been to two Worldcons, and have sat through several days of business meetings at each one of them. (One was in Kansas City, which was when the rules that would hinder the Sad Puppies were under debate/vote, and the other was in Chicago to support the idea of the video game writing award.) And I can say that the experience was fascinating, and I probably got more out of it than I would have gotten out of panels I could have attended at that time ... which is not entirely a compliment to the system or the people who run it. It's not entirely an insult either; mostly, I learned a lot about a) navigating very political settings, b) the structure of Robert's Rules of Order, and c) what the population of people who care about Worldcon (and have the money to attend Worldcon) really think of fandom outside of their bubble.

This post isn't about the actual Hugo debacle - if anyone's missed that and is curious, this expose at File 770 is a good starting point. And this isn't about the disturbing bent of Sinophobia that comes with a lot of the community's reaction, other people have made those points about how blaming the specter of "Chinese censorship" takes deserved blame off the North Americans who made all these terrible decisions.

Mostly this is about Worldcon in general, and the scope of it. There's an exchange in one of the more recent File 770 posts where someone who helps run an anime convention asks a very good question about why the Worldcon community is so adamantly anti-corporate sponsorship. Acknowledging that what happened in China was terribly done, this person basically makes the point that a) conventions are EXPENSIVE to run and b) anime conventions have been proving for years that there is a halfway decent balance to be had between having something run for fans, by fans and taking some money from well-vetted corporate entities to help offset the costs and improve the experience for all.

Y'all, the reactions from some of the regulars there make it sound like this person is suggesting holding a convention at an Amazon warehouse.

And that, I think, is the main crux of this particular part of the matter. Worldcon wants to be the exact same type of convention as it was in 90s, 80s, 70s, and earlier - only bigger, and still attracting younger people to keep it going. But they also don't want to introduce the type of things that younger fans are interested in without a lot of kicking and screaming. They want to be a purely literary convention, which is fine. They want their version of literary to be a very narrow type of speculative fiction, written in the same formats as it always has been, in the same venues as it always has been. They want art created by people who can afford to be full-time artists by selling to the same type of venues as artists sold to in decades past. They want comics only if they're put together in neat printed graphic novels and sold by a publisher. They want SFF to continue looking exactly like it always has, and if they accept change, it's in very small, incremental movements that are opposed by the kicking and screaming parties who weaponize Robert's Rules at the Business Meeting.

(Seriously y'all, the disrespect dripping off those people when, in Chicago, one of my friends dared to try to suggest that maybe the rules for Fan Artist shouldn't exclude people who make money on Patreon, and that maybe someone who makes a few hundred a month on Patreon shouldn't have to compete with artists who draw for Marvel and DC or create book covers for major publishers for Professional Artist ... it was dumb as shit.)

But hey, if they want a convention that looks like it would have looked in 1992, great, that's their business. If they want something that will appeal to their specific friend group and anyone who might want to be like them, without expanding or working to appeal to audiences whose media habits have changed with the changing technological times, then that's a valid choice. It's not one I want to be a part of again, if so, but it's a valid choice. But also, I've heard/read things from conrunners about how fucking brutal it is to try to do, how much things cost - hotels, convention space, supplies, et cetera, and that doesn't even get into the idea of paying the artists/authors/creators who become the advertisement and draw of the convention, because this particular group of people (the ones who are acting like the idea of sponsorships are the equivalent of killing your dog) also tend to be the same sort of people who think that the honor and ~exposure~ of being a guest at a convention should be good enough for creators. But the fact is, no, not even charging attendees $100-$200 a pop is going to pay for a medium to large convention. So how do you get that money? Beg for donations? Throw fundraisers? Rely on conrunners being well-off enough to throw in their own money because they just love the thing so much? How do you expect these conventions in cities worth traveling to to pay for themselves? I don't run cons because I certainly don't have the answers and don't want to be the person who has to figure them out, but I have a lot of respect for those who do and manage to do so without, say, doing all that. *gestures to the File 770 link above* But I would be very willing to bet that if you polled a bunch of local conrunners - the kind who run conventions that aren't put on by Wizard World, etc - most of them would say they'd happily accept money from sponsors as long as those sponsoring companies didn't actively go against the general ethos of the con's audience. Because, like it or not, that's where the money is.

But anyway. That's a lot of words about an institution that continues to tell me, in words and deed, that the kind of fan I am is not the kind of fan they want to attract. And I'm a relatively affluent middle-aged white woman, I suspect I'm closer to the person they want to attract than many, many others.

... having said that, I'm leaning towards going to Seattle in 2025, because despite everything I've been part of the SFF con community since the early 90s and still care about it in some way, and will probably sit in on part of the business meeting to try to push against the winds of sentiment and inertia once again. But I'll also be giving money and attention to some of the alternate awards out there that feel like they're attempting to reflect the actual 21st century state of the SFF genre. We'll see what happens.

[uwmspeccoll]

It’s Fine Press Friday!

In the spirit of Christmas’s arrival in three days, we present a small Christmas-themed book entitled An Alphabet of Christmas Words, published in 1966. The book is a dictionary of holiday terms, with corresponding illustrations. Entries were selected and edited from the Oxford English Dictionary by American writer Helen McKelvey Oakley (1906-2003), who explains that her “interest [in this project] lies in seeing how The Dictionary treats [each term].” The accompanying illustrations are by Ursula Suess (b. 1924), a graphic designer, calligrapher, and artist. Most recently, her art was shown in a 2022 solo exhibition at the Tubac Center of the Arts in Tubac, Arizona.

An Alphabet of Christmas Words was offset printed in Times Roman on Mohawk Superfine Text paper by Hallmark Lithographers Inc. in an edition of 360 copies, published by the Oxford University Press and designed by Ursula Suess and the press's art director and vice president John Begg (1903-1974). Also included with this book are two small season’s greetings cards from the press; one has Begg’s name printed on it and the other has “from Ursel and Mutti” inscribed in black ink.

View more Fine Press Friday Posts.

– Sarah S., Special Collections Graduate Intern

[madamlaydebug]

How did we ever come to be scared of the sun? 🌞

It makes no sense to me that we would be scared of something that is so essential to all life on earth. If the sun didn’t rise tomorrow, every living being on this planet would suffer and eventually die.

We have been brainwashed into believing that the sun kills us, all the while knowing that we need vitamin D for optimal health. So how can something that is essential to life also come with such dooming fine print? 🌞

The truth is that sunshine is crucial to our health and vitality. The more of you get the better, however we aren’t all able to receive sun in the same doses and this is due to our internal state of health. Our body’s require antioxidants to offset the radiation caused by exposure to UV light from the sun and without these antioxidants, our skin will burn much quicker.

Where do we get antioxidants ? Fruits and vegetables. 🍏🍆

🌞

The sun is our bodies greatest detoxifier and will assist in drawing toxins from the body out through the skin.

It is for this reason that cleaning the skin is really important as any any build up of mould, fungus or yeast will actually cause your skin to burn more easily. 🌞

Natural sun creams are great, stay away from petroleum based creams which are toxic carcinogens. Your skin will tell you when it has had enough sun by becoming red. So listen to your body. 🌞

Get small doses of sun until you have built up a strong layer of melanin (a tan) and then be sure to get your daily dose of sun (we recommend minimum 15 min) to ensure vitamin D levels stay optimal.

[erindodge]

New MoonWake Cover Art-- A loose take on my beloved Gothic Romance paperbacks (feat. all the moths you can eat!!)

|MoonWake Comic Homepage| |MoonWake on GlobalComix| |Buy Prints on InPrnt| |Patreon| |Ko-Fi|

[Image ID: Image 1: Color illustration. Spindly branches partially obscure a young woman, standing against a bright yellow full moon and a dark blue sky. The young woman looks fearfully over her shoulder at the viewer. Her long black hair is blowing in the wind and long strands are covering part of her face. Her one visible eye glows yellow in the moonlight. Small white moths flitter about her and in the branches.

Image 2: Cover image. The same as the previous image, but with the title, “MoonWake,” written at the top of the image in bold yellow type. Image 3: Ink drawings of many different moths. The moths are mint green against a pale blue background. The colors are done in an offset, flat style, like a traditional print. End ID]