#taken my 'maybe i am not a good writer' in 2019 - 2021

[amywritesthings]

... oh ... my god?

oh my god?!?!?!?

OH MY DANK FARRIK GOD, I HIT 1,000 FOLLOWERS? I'M--

[kitkatopinions]

I’m probably over thinking/over complicating things but Ironwood and Penny have been really bothering me. It because prior to the moment that destroyed Penny’s arc the show and Ruby were really pushing that Penny not matter her body was human and that’s a very positive I like that especially when it comes to characters of Penny’s nature.

So my problem kicks in when I think of Ironwood. Namely this part in his song:

“What if it's true as they say

That I don't have a heart

That I'm more a machine than a man?”

Like wtf. I mean I “get it” especially with that dumbass line of Winter. But when it’s talked about Ironwood it was always in reference to the fact that his body is half robotic and there for we are meant to see the correlation between his body and his character.?

Put next to Penny’s message that really bothers me. Even more so since Penny gets a “reward” of becoming human, but the writers push that Ironwood sacrificing his arm to stop Watts and replacing it (a medical decision that could be debated given that he wanted to be up and able immediately to handle things not to mention that fact that nerves and muscle are severely fucked up) with a new (uncharacteristically uncovered) prosthetic means that he’s moving away from humanity. This thought has been driving nuts for a week.

I don’t think you’re overthinking at all. The writers have been pretty blatant about what they think of disabled people.

On the topic of James, 1. They wrote their triple amputee character to be coded as losing his humanity. This is suspect from the get go, but writers imo need to be especially careful and sensitive when they display things like villains with prosthetics. CRWBY is not careful and sensitive. 2. They specifically connected the loss of his limb to the loss of his humanity outside of the show, and as you said, his new prosthetic is uncharacteristically uncovered as well, and there were some pointed shots showcasing his arm and emphasizing it before showing Ironwood doing something wrong as well as a shot that particularly bothered me of them having James fall to Winter when his aura broke and then them immediately flashing to a fallen, broken robotic soldier. Tying the loss of someone’s humanity to them losing a limb / gaining a prosthetic in any way is wrong imo. There are better ways to display someone’s loss of humanity than villainizing the loss of his arm, and I don’t care what justifications people have for ‘they just meant to say that he was too impatient to-’ Idc. Tying the loss of humanity to the gaining of a prosthetic is wrong. 3. They never once treated Ironwood’s clear PTSD, history of mental health problems, and trauma with any sympathy, instead spending their time ragging on him for not wanting to feel his pain anymore and condemning him for... Trying to control his emotions. 4. CRWBY also gave him a semblance and explained how it worked by saying he hyper focused, talking about how James’ passive semblance that he can’t control forces him to focus on one single goal and fixate. I’m not disabled, but I do hyper fixate. It’s not something I can control, and to see it used as a justification for evil (in one of my favorite characters in the series who reminded me of my father lol) and being treated as something bad... It doesn’t feel good. I can’t imagine how other people must feel who are much more affected by this than I am. 5. As you say, the writers go out of their way to reference his metal body as being more ‘machine than man’ and make lines about him being heartless. And yeah, I get that he’s an allegory for the ‘Tin Man’ from Wizard of Oz but ffs the Tin Man had always had a heart and I honestly thought that was what they were going for in V3 with Qrow commenting that sometimes he thought James didn’t have a heart and the audience seeing Ironwood’s actions as questionable, only for the entire show to tell us repeatedly that he actually is a caring and good person who’s willing to destroy all the forces he was proud to show off if it means saving lives and was actually pretty freaking blameless in the Fall of Beacon and was super kind to the kids and when the chips were down, Qrow and Glynda both absolutely knew without even questioning that James would never ever willingly hurt the world or fully betray them and had absolutely no hand in the Beacon attack. Like, I’m sorry, but between Penny and Ironwood, season eight is the season of taking well done character allusions and throwing them out the window for the exact opposite moral done incredibly poorly. And anyway, getting off of that rant, making a ‘more machine than man’ sentiment tied around a triple amputee character is incredibly harmful and hurtful to people with disabilities and only propagates the real world stereotypes against people like James.

So, yes, their treatment of Ironwood, his mental health, and specifically his disabilities was so badly done, harmful, incredibly insensitive, and frankly, appalling that it came from grown adult writers in 2019-2021! But, as you point out, it’s not just Ironwood. And here’s where things really get bad for CRWBY. Because Ironwood alone is enough for me to say they were ableist - unintentionally or otherwise - and ought to apologize for the hurt they’ve caused their fans. But when you get into the rest of their treatment of characters with metal prosthetics or non-flesh elements to their body, it becomes a pattern.

Penny’s entire body is removed from her on threat of death, with the justification that it’s hurting her and that her body is just a machine and not part of who she is, contradicting Penny’s earlier themes of self-acceptance and validating her humanity in the body she already had. She then dies by assisted suicide in a way that feels unneeded, after having asked to be killed earlier in the narrative. So many people have talked about how destructive her story became in V8 and how it personally hurt them, especially non-binary people, trans people, autistic people, or disabled people who saw themselves in Penny or saw in her arc something that they could relate to, only to have Penny’s differences stripped away from her, having her conform to normal body standards and have her previous body type invalidated by her friends, and then they had her killed via assisted suicide in an unbelievable way, insisting as well that she never made a choice before she was a flesh-person and couldn’t feel things right. It’s all horribly done, but it’s important to remember that while Ironwood is accused of losing his humanity as he loses a third limb and gets a third prosthetic, Penny’s earlier validation is taken away and is instead only granted and she is only justified as a person when she loses all her ‘nuts and bolts’ and becomes a flesh person. And then she’s killed anyway.

Yang’s prosthetic is the least ill handled, but it is still dismissed as ‘just extra’ despite her former fairly strong arc of coming to terms with her disability and making it a part of her. She casually justifies what’s happening with Penny despite Penny not being in a position of adequate consent. Yang’s trauma and PTSD also vanished when Adam died at the end of season six and in my opinion, that situation was handled very badly.

Maria and Pietro, two other disabled characters, disappeared, left when Amity fell and were not even mentioned iirc since. Not even when Penny is awake, not even when they’re evacuating, not even when Penny is choosing to die. She never brings up her father. And Ruby’s supposed ‘mentor’ who never had an actual narrative role that couldn’t have been filled by Qrow and has had nothing to do since season six even past that is also forgotten out in the tundra and not mentioned again.

The writers go out of their way to have Winter say that because she was just following orders (a statement that contradicts her previous character imo) and pushing down her emotions, she was the real machine, whereas Penny had been human underneath her apparently easily tossed aside and destructive previous metal body.  And I don’t know if this means anything, but in that scene where she and Penny meet when Penny is dying and transferring the maiden powers to Winter, Winter is in her V7 character design, instead of wearing her assistive brace. Like I said, I don’t know if I’m reading into that, but with everything else, it feels like an iffy choice.

So yeah. In the past season CRWBY specifically cultivated a pattern of disrespect, dismissal, and villainization of any non-flesh attributes in my opinion. It seems pretty intentional and clear to me, but I’m willing to accept that maybe this was just a wildly bad uneducated mistake. Here’s the thing about that, though, after the Faunus/Racism allegory, the CRWBY writers should’ve learned their lesson and not touched on any real world topics that they weren’t willing to do the research on and treat with the sensitivity and care and respect the topics needed. Their Faunus/Racism allegory was harmful and hurtful and frankly could’ve sunk them in the water, they should’ve learned to put much more care and effort into their work or stayed the hell away from anything that could further spread the negative stereotypes surrounding real world people. But they didn’t learn their lesson and they’ve continued to push harmful narratives with no awareness or sensitivity. I don’t think you’re over-reacting at all, I think this is something that - intentionally written or otherwise - the writers should be called out on, or they’re just going to continue writing harmful narratives.

Also, I am not disabled, many of my opinions on the treatment of these characters comes from posts I’ve seen from many disabled or neurodivergent RWBY fans (or former RWBY fans,) or other people more affected by these narratives - minus the thing I said about Winter appearing without her brace when she talks to Penny, as it was something I just noticed while typing out this post. Since I’m not disabled, I’m not the best person to talk about these things, so if I got anything wrong in this, anyone more affected, please know you can let me know and I can edit and fix.

[peterpan-in-neverland]

2020 Fanfic Roundup

I’m following the same format as @catty-words​ so if I did it wrong... well, you can guess who I will be blaming (love you, Cori). Anyway, here I go!

Total Word Count of 2020: 112,490

Total Hits of 2020: 16,321

Other 2020 AO3 Stats: KUDOS: 1,320 COMMENTS: 197 BOOKMARKS: 149

(just for comparison)

Total Word Count of 2019: 19,242

Link and Titles to Works of 2020:

[Law & Order: Special Victims Unit] Too Close (5,342 words) - post “A Midnight in Manhattan” Amanda and Sonny discuss things she thought they would never bring up

[Never Have I Ever] Never Have I Ever… Hooked Up With My Arch-Nemesis (4,834 words) - In which Devi wants Ben to shut the hell up after she finds out he got into Princeton

[Never Have I Ever] Anemoia (n.) (2,641 words) - Rebecca is much more than just Paxtons sister

[Never Have I Ever] Sonder (n.) (11,615 words) - Five times Ben and Devi realize the other is human, and the one time it changes things

[Anne With an E] Flashover (n.) (6,986 words) - Gilbert runs a flower shop that Anne visits once a week

[Never Have I Ever] Agnosthesia (n.) (1,530 words) - the order of things about Ben that Devi falls in love with

[Never Have I Ever] let there be damage ensued and tabloid news (5,806 words) - five times Ben realizes Devi is beautiful and the one time she realizes he is beautiful, too

[Never Have I Ever] and that kind of love (2,391 words) - Paxton rescues a drunk Eleanor from a party

[Never Have I Ever] don’t expect me to play fair (5,049 words) - Eleanor is getting anonymous flowers after every performance on her first Broadway show.

 [Never Have I Ever] Ecstatic Shock (n.) (6,669 words) - Eleanor tries to have a simple rebound with a Tinder date that turns out to be Paxton Hall-Yoshida

 [Never Have I Ever] Pâro (n.) (7,328 words) - Devi asks Ben to fake being her boyfriend for a party, and everything goes wrong

 [Never Have I Ever] our coming of age has come and gone (7,566 words) - five times someone implied that Ben and Devi like each other, and the one time they admit it

 [Never Have I Ever] tried to change the ending (5,012 words) - Devi looks back on the track of her and Ben's relationship

 [Never Have I Ever] tossing pennies in the pool (4,585 words) - in the wake of Devi's breakup with Paxton, she attempts to figure out who she is

 [Never Have I Ever] rock n roll is here to stay (4,132 words) - in which Devi considers Ben and herself

 [Anne With an E] just think of the fun things we could do (5,722 words) - Anne reappears in Gilberts life

 [Never Have I Ever] and why i’ve spent my whole life trying to put it into words (16,724 words) - Paxton and Eleanor run into each other at the Sherman Oaks class of 2023 reunion

 [Never Have I Ever] Worlds of Starlight (8,558 words) - in 1878, when Shadowhunters begin to go missing, Ben Gross' search leads him to the doors of the London Institute-- run by the Vishwakumar family-- where Mohan Vishwakumar has just vanished

Favourite Fic: I really really loved my Rebecca fic, but I am also a little weak for coming of age

Hardest Fic: Worlds of Starlight has been the most difficult to write, in terms of risks being taken and just plain cultural things-- writing for characters you dont share a culture with is really hard because of nuances and such-- and I also had a bit of a hard time with tabloid news

Do you plan to take prompts in 2021?

I would love to take prompts! Alas, I am bad at writing them and overall I am not a very popular person or writer-- all of my interactions on my work are because my friends list them on fic rec pages and they are all cool and popular blogs-- so people do not tend to come to me seeking custom works. It would be lovely, though! Perhaps I should make a post about which fandoms I will write for… 

What was the best thing about 2020?

@catty-words @parkersedith @montygreen @feisties ← meeting them and tricking them into believing that I am worthy of their friendship and entrance into the writing squad

What was the worst thing about 2020?

Um… everything?

Any last thoughts for 2020?

Goodbye and thank you for NHIE

Goals for 2021:

Less fanfic related guilt (in terms of productivity) 

Actually get some prompts and have good ideas for them

Posting my friends birthday fics on their actual birthdays instead of a million years late (or not at all-- sorry, my loves)

I want to finish Worlds of Starlight and maybe come of with a better name for it

Maybe break 150K? Or 200K? That would be neat. And garner some more appreciation for eleanor/paxton, obviously

[irenadel]

i wanna talk books so I made a meme

@doorsclosingslowly here’s the answers to your questions :)

6. If you read in more than one language, is there a difference between the experience of reading in your native language(s) and reading in other languages?

Virginia Woolf has a great quote in A Room of One’s Own where she says that women writers need to develop their own “sentence” and that this can only be developed through creating a tradition of female writing. She says that while reading male writers is pleasurable, it isn’t useful for the female writer, that she can’t learn from the way men write. Their “sentence” isn’t suitable for female writing. I’m.... unsure of how much I agree with her on this but I find the theory useful for describing how I approach literature in Spanish vs English.

Especially in terms of language, not so much in regards to narrative or worldbuilding or even themes, I find Spanish to be pleasurable but not useful. I very rarely find myself reading something in Spanish and thinking “ooooh, I wish I could do that! I want to steal that! How did they come up with this?” The “sentence” for writing in Spanish isn’t one I recognize or want to imitate... except maybe for VERY few exceptions like Carlos Fuentes and Borges. Whereas I can spend a lot of time reading English un-selfconsciously and then suddenly be struck by a turn of phrase that I must somehow or other make my own. That almost never happens to me when reading Spanish.

9. Fiction or non-fiction or both? In what ratio? Where do you draw the line between the two?

Oh god, this is embarassing. Erm... fiction to a fault. On 2020 and 2019 I did try to make a concerted effort to read more nonfiction, ESPECIALLY more popular science books. I still kind of childishly consider myself to not be “smart like that” and that science isn’t for me, because I don’t understand it. I used to think science fiction wasn’t for me, for similar reasons. When I do read nonfiction it tends to be history and literary criticism.

I’m finishing my degree on English literature and though I had a period of hating hard on literary criticism, I think it was mostly me rebelling against the French brand of it. I HAVE to admit I love reading new historicism, especially now that I’m working on my dissertation and I had to read a lot on Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre.

Hopefully 2021 will be the year I read a bit more science.

11. The worst book hangover you’ve ever had

Augh... I remember two in recent years. Let me see... in 2017 I finished the last book in the Realm of the Elderlings. I had read the first book in the series around maybe the mid 2000s. I devoured it in a single weekend, still hungry for more of the story. I did not have access to the rest of the trilogy for a couple of years after, but as soon as I got them I read them as fast as I could. I remember reading those books during class, pretending to pay attention to a lecture on Linguistics but actually fully engrossed in Robin Hobb’s world.

It’s a world that was with me for more than 10 years. Characters that I knew intimately from multiple re-readings for more than 10 years. My dissertationg is about the first trilogy for crying out loud! I hadn’t wanted to read the last trilogy and the last book on the trilogy because I didn’t want that connection to end. But finally I gave in...

It was a book hangover because I was reading late at night when I realized, halfway through the book, a character I loved deeply was probably going to die and I just HAD to know, I HAD to be sure. So I read through the night going from disbelief to anger, to grief, to grim acceptance. I wasn’t able to put down the book until 11 am the next day, by which point I was openly sobbing and would have thrown the book across the room except I think I was reading in my computer.

The second book hangover I remember was less because of sprinting through the book and more because of the circumstances. Last December I had decided to finish as many books I could in hopes of reaching my Good Reads goal (which I didn’’t) and I was going through His Dark Materials pretty quickly when on the 25th I got the news that my grandmother died. I wasn’t able to go see her at the hospital or at a funeral, or even go see my dad and uncles because she had died of covid-19 and the situation was still pretty dire in the city.

Then Philip Pullman decided to be an absolute asshole to me and the characters in his book arrived to the Land of the Dead. Being an atheist fantasy series and me having just recently come to terms with the fact that I’m not even agnostic... it was very tough to go through Pullman’s exploration of mortality and the importance of life on Earth. I agreed completely that materiality and the here-and-now far outweigh any contemplations of an afterlife... but my grandmother had died very suddenly.... she had still been a pretty strong old lady before she contracted covid... I had spoken to her a couple of days before and she was still strong enough to bitch about litter getting inside her room...

I finished The Amber Spyglass in a rush as well and somehow it got mixed with my mourning process and my anger at myself for having taken my grandmother’s life for granted... for not having cherished the materiality of her existence when I had the chance... I hadn’t finished writing my dissertation’s first draft yet and there were some heavy issues going on in my household.... I was exhausted from having to survive the year and I think I still am... and it all mixed up with the bittersweet ending of Pullman’s His Dark Materials and the inevitability of loss... all I remember from between the 25th and the 31st of December 2020 was exhaustedly reheating Christmas food, trying to write, and slogging through The Amber Spyglass... it feels like it was a week-long literary hangover...

14. The book that, in hindsight, really should have clued you in to the fact that you’re _________ (queer/in love/doomed to be an academic/etc)

So this is slightly NSFW but I should have known, and stopped being such a snob about it, that I had WAY MORE in common with the furries than I cared to admit given that my first impression of Smaug the Golden when reading The Hobbit at the tender age of 8 was “wow! he’s dreamy!” *facepalm *(also betraying a worrying tendency to crushing on irredeemable assholes and other miscellaneous villains...) I have accepted my status as a weird monsterfucker AND a weird alienfucker. Inhuman anatomy makes me hot, and I should have known it from DAY ONE!

23. The book you expected to hate, didn’t, and then got angry about not hating

The Hunger Games, which I’m STILL salty about and will probably remain salty about for the rest of my life.

I hateread it because a friend told me about how he hated it, given his bitter ex loved it and though I agree with all his criticisms and have a bunch of my own... I still cannot stop finding stupid Katniss profoundly likeable! CURSES! A pox upon your house Suzanne Collins! I still think your dystopia is a cowardly, white-lady-who-has-never-feared-state-violence dystopia, I still think your love triangle was absolutely unnecessary and I still think you tried to cop out of admitting you (and your character) like pretty dresses by making the pretty dresses compulsory. Be brave! Don’t give me this “I’m not like other girls” bullshit! Be brave! Make your violent spectacle reality show as a criticism of the USA’s consumerism and callousness a voluntary thing! Don’t wash your heroine’s hands clean of the sin of wanting fame and fortune and survival at all costs!

But... fuck... I... still like Katniss... I’m glad little girls in 2008 got a heroine who kicked ass, looked good and wasn’t a perfectly strong and powerful person all the time. I’m glad they got competence and vulnerability... Fuck my life...

31. Bonus question: rec me something!

This is hard... since I get the feeling we have very different tastes in reading material but... If you haven’t heard of the Vampire: The Masquerade roleplaying game (or even if you have) take a crack at the Baali Clanbook. Even if you don’t understand the game mechanics I think you’ll enjoy the history portion because it’s about a clan of devil-worshipping vampires who do their devil worshipping through implanting evil insects on people... and I suspect it might be up your alley...

[jovialyouthmusic]

MASTERLIST

Lists updated 15th April 2021 

All series contain adult content. 

Not suitable for under 18s

Most of my fanfic is based on Choices The Royal Romance and deals with adult themes. Apart from the odd OC, Pixelberry own the characters and many of the locations, I am just playing with them. 

In the case of the Lovelink fanfics, the characters Albert Bishop and Dr Vile belong to Ludia. 

I’m also writing a period drama set in Regency Scotland, with tenuous links to TRR, as the male LI is a distant ancestor of Bastien Lykel

New Lovelink fic

Based on the phone app Lovelink and featuring my favourite character, Albert Bishop. Basically taking up the story of the reader and a soldier who met on an online dating app. Albert comes home on furlough to surprise the reader.

Adult content, no under 18s please

Albert Bishop 

1 Furlough

2 Getting Acquainted

3 Close Encounter

4 Better and Better

5 Pater Familia

6 Not All Roses

Dr Vile - Who Wants to Rule the World?

Introducing Lovelink’s Dr Vile. You, as the reader Lucy Valois, match with self confessed supervillain Dr Vile on Lovelink’s dating app. Your life will never be quite the same again

NOT SUITABLE FOR UNDER 18s

1 Secret Base

2 Getting to Know You

3 To the Universe...

4 Out of This World

5 To the Moon and Back

Time’s Winged Chariot

Intorducing Ludia’s Lovelink match, Time traveller Lord Nicholas Adley from the Georgian Era and his adventures with LI Lucy Valois.

1 The Traveller Returns

2 Making Plans

3 An Unexpected Meeting

4 An Important Proposal

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Bastien Lykel Masterlist TRR AU Fanfic

Adult content, no under 18s please

Please note that this work was written before The Royal Finale. I am beyond heartbroken by the way PixelBerry have transformed Bastien into a traitor. Please accept my stories as belonging to an alternative universe where he is competant, good and kind and loyal, as he is in my mind. 

Featuring the Captain of the Cordonian King’s Guard, Bastien Lykel and his LI Sophia Turner, my OC 

Past Times

No under 18s please

Masterlist

-------

Girl’s Night Out

No under 18s please

All four of my female MCs meet in the virtual world on the eve of Lizzy’s wedding. 

Masterlist

No under 18s please

------

The Many Lives of Drake Walker Masterlist 2019

No under 18s please

Featuring the writer exploring Drake Walker’s virtual existence - through the screen. Multiple AUs

Charlotte’s Choice, a Royal Romance AU Masterlist 2019

No under 18s please

In which the MC is Charlotte, Princess of Cordonia, and Drake is her childhood friend. Other characters from TRR appear. Series complete.

Uneasy Lies the Head 2019 -2020

Not suitable for under 18s

Follow up to Charlotte’s Choice. Charlotte is now Queen - or is she? Anton Severus stakes his claim.

Two’s Company, Three’s Allowed, a TRR Fanfic 2018 - 2021

Not suitable for under 18s

If you found it hard to choose between Liam and Drake - you don’t have to! You can have your cake and eat it. MC is Lucy Valois, in a threesome with Drake and Liam (Brad). All characters belong to Pixelberry, I have just borrowed them and taken them out on a little test drive

Prompts

Not suitable for under 18s

Drake’s Birthday Bash (2021)

From the AU Two’s Company - Lucy and Brad have the heir to the throne, and Drake’s birthday approaches. Lucy has a special present for him.

A Not So Creepy Halloween Tale

Brad, Lucy and Drake celebrate Halloween with the children. All fluff with maybe a hint of smuff...

Part one Part Two Part Three

A Thousand Words photo prompt

The Dynasty Grows Occurs in the future of Two’s Company

The Softer Side of Neville Vancoeur

Neville and the Devil  Neville was not always odious - find out why he changed

ABC of love by @cora-nova

OTP Drake Walker and OC Princess/Queen Charlotte of Cordoniav

[junker-town]

Our 10 favorite predictions for the 2020 NFL Draft

Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images

Where does Tua Tagovailoa go? What are some trades that could happen? We have some guesses.

The NFL Draft is one of the most unpredictable events in all of sports. Just when you think your mock draft is perfect, a wild trade happens. Or Aaron Rodgers nearly free falls completely out of the first round.

But the fun of the league’s annual selection process is making predictions, and the 2020 NFL Draft will be no different.

Below, I’ve assembled an all-star draft roundtable featuring writers from SB Nation NFL and several team sites, asking them to submit their favorite draft prediction this year. Let me start things off with my own first-round guess.

The 49ers make two first-round picks

After trading defensive lineman DeForest Buckner to the Colts, the 49ers now have pick Nos. 13 and 31 in the first round. The belief by many is that the team will trade down at least once to acquire more picks. After No. 31, San Francisco isn’t scheduled to pick until the fifth round.

Trading back is plausible. But what if it doesn’t happen? Coming off a Super Bowl run last season, San Francisco’s roster is loaded up pretty well. The 49ers go into the draft with few needs, wide receiver and cornerback chief among them. They could find starters at both positions in the first round. Maybe it’s a combination of cornerback CJ Henderson at 13 and wide receiver Jalen Reagor at 31. Or maybe it’s wide receiver Jerry Jeudy at 13 and cornerback Trevon Diggs at 31.

The fact is, more impactful players are found in the first round of the draft. Accumulating draft capital is fun, but getting instant starters to make another Super Bowl push is more so. — Dan Kadar

The Dolphins trade up, but not for Tagovailoa

When the Miami Dolphins trade up to the third overall selection, everyone will know that it is to take Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.

Everyone will be wrong.

In the first shocker of the 2020 NFL Draft, the Dolphins will select Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert.

Herbert has some critics in the media, but big, tall quarterbacks with cannon arms still get NFL execs all hot and bothered. Herbert’s arm talent is what made him a top prospect all along, and nothing has changed.

This may not have been Miami’s plan nine months ago, but at the end of the day, the Dolphins will not be willing to risk drafting Tagovailoa without being able to have him on site and examined by their medical staff.

The Dolphins will be thrilled to get their guy, but the fans who have coveted Tagovailoa will not be happy and will complain that if they wanted Hebert, they could have stayed at No. 5.

— Matt Minich, Cincy Jungle

The Dolphins end up with the QB they wanted all along

To say this NFL offseason has been unordinary would be a grave understatement. Free agents were unable to visit team facilities, and draft prospects have put their NFL fate into virtual interviews.

Sure, this impacts every team. But for the Dolphins, things have turned bizarre, during the most critical offseason in franchise history.

By the time you’re reading this, the Dolphins have now been linked to every QB under the sun. And what once seemed like a forgone conclusion — they would try to move heaven and earth to land Tagovailoa — has slowly shifted to Herbert and Jordan Love by the masses.

No one knows what Chris Grier’s master plan is. But when all is said and done, I think Tagovailoa will still be the Dolphins’ pick. And whether they need to trade up a few spots to make it happen, or they stay at No. 5 and let him fall mercifully into their lap. Miami will get the QB it’s always desired.

Tagovailoa, no matter what.

— Josh Houtz, The Phinsider

Tagovailoa gets drafted in the top three

Of all the interesting storylines and surprises that are sure to unfold at the 2020 NFL Draft, Tagovailoa’s landing spot may be the most fascinating one.

Much has been made of Tagovailoa’s medical status. The spread of Covid-19 has made this draft process the most unique in NFL history. NFL teams just haven’t had many chances to get up close and personal with the prospects, and they certainly haven’t been able to get their doctors to form an opinion on the long-term medical outlook of these young players

It’s no secret that Tagovailoa suffered three lower-body injuries during his time at Alabama, and there are still questions surrounding his recovery from last year’s hip surgery. Of all the rumors and speculation circulating around this year’s top prospects, a slide for Tagovailoa has been the most popular projection.

My bold prediction is that we will not see that happen. In fact, I am predicting that Tagovailoa will be selected within the first three picks of the 2020 NFL Draft. I believe that the need for a franchise quarterback always wins out, and a desperate team like the Miami Dolphins or Los Angeles Chargers will complete a draft-day trade with either the Detroit Lions or Washington in order to secure Tagovailoa’s services.

— Justin Melo, Music City Miracles

The Patriots shock everyone and trade up for a quarterback

The New England Patriots have done nothing outside of bringing back Brian Hoyer to help replace the major void that Tom Brady left at positions after he signed with the Buccaneers. They have to be eyeing one of the top quarterbacks in this year’s draft and calling around seeing how much it would cost to move up. Picking 23rd will make it tough, but some team looking to trade back and acquire 2020 and 2021 picks could be enticed to make this deal.

My crazy prediction is New England trading up with the Cleveland Browns to 10th overall and selecting its new franchise quarterback. That quarterback will be Tagovailoa. Teams will feel iffy about his medicals and Bill Belichick will pounce.

— Scotty Payne, Mile High Report

The Falcons trade up to draft Jeff Okudah

It wouldn’t be a surprise if the Falcons traded up from the No. 16 pick. After all, there’s been lots of speculation lately about them jumping up to get cornerback. It also wouldn’t be a surprise if the Lions — the most projected landing spot for Okudah — traded out of the No. 3 pick.

But could Atlanta trade up high enough to get the clear-cut No. 1 cornerback in this draft class? Don’t count out the possibility.

The Falcons have been tied to CJ Henderson, who is a very good player in his own right and widely considered the second-best cornerback after Okudah. If they’re going to give up valuable draft capital to fix one of their biggest needs, though, why not go with the guy who’s elite?

Okudah was in coverage for 865 snaps in his three years at Ohio State, and per Pro Football Focus, he gave up only two touchdowns. TWO. When opposing quarterbacks dared to throw his way during Okudah’s All-American season in 2019, they had just a 45.3 passer rating.

That kind of lockdown ability might remind the Falcons of another cornerback from Ohio State: Marshon Lattimore, who is currently a thorn in their side with the Saints. Building a secondary out of Buckeyes has worked out well in New Orleans. Maybe the Falcons have taken notice and want to do the same with Okudah and his former college teammate Kendall Sheffield.

— Sarah Hardy

The Bills trade up on Day 2

The Buffalo Bills will trade up on Day 2 of the draft. Their roster is filled with quality depth, but do they have enough high-end playmakers to run to the Super Bowl? That’s part of the logic that led the Bills to trade a first-round pick and change for Stefon Diggs last month. I expect the pattern to continue when they begin picking on Friday — packaging picks outside the top 100 to move up in Rounds 2 or 3 and snatch falling talent.

Buffalo doesn’t have room for a handful of late-rounders, but positioning to add Jonathan Taylor or Trevon Diggs or Terrell Lewis? It makes too much sense.

— Dan Lavoie, Buffalo Rumblings

The Chiefs trade out of the first round and select a RB in the second

It’s not what I would do, but it’s what I think will happen. There is simply too much buzz surrounding the Chiefs’ affection for this running back class and their desire to get Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes another talent in the backfield with an early selection.

With limited assets, the Chiefs should be active in looking to move out of the first round to gain additional picks. If they do trade back and wind up with their first selection in the late 30s/early 40s, there is likely to be a talented running back available. A player like Clyde Edwards-Helaire would be a high-floor, low-ceiling move but would likely provide production in a year that will not have the same kind of offseason program to catch most rookies up to speed.

— Kent Swanson, Arrowhead Pride

Laviska Shenault Jr. lands in Round 3 — or later

Shenault, the hard-running, do-anything wideout and offensive weapon, may shrug off the pain from his numerous injuries at Colorado, but football staff, deprived of reassuring medical exams, won’t.

At one point Shenault was considered maybe the best receiver in this draft, but now has a long list of injuries. Let’s review: turf toe and a torn labrum in 2018, both needing surgery. A core muscle injury in 2019, requiring surgery and hampering his combine workout. The stats, talent, and character all suggest a potential star, but I can’t see him getting drafted early given those ailments.

— Dan Lavoie, Buffalo Rumblings

Something wacky happens during the first round

The coronavirus has obviously impacted the way we live our daily lives as well as the 2020 NFL Draft. Teams will be attempting to go through the draft from their homes and communicating via Zoom or whatever route they decide to go. Even commissioner Roger Goodell will be announcing the picks from his basement. So things are going to be much different than we are used to.

I think some teams are going to do something wacky. Maybe we’ll see someone’s internet crash, computer freeze up, or something crazy to cause shenanigans while a team is on the clock (looking at you Cleveland). Maybe, we’ll even see a Goodell pet (does he have pets?) do something funny in the background. Either way, I think we’ll come out of Day 1 of the draft talking about something unforeseen happening.

— Scotty Payne, Mile High Report

[jamjamwriting-blog]

And so 2017 draws to a close. I for one can not be more relieved.

This year has been a tumultuous one indeed: I moved countries, got married, began a new day-job, bought my first car, and moved again (domestically this time); I said goodbye to my Grandmother, a second mother who raised me alongside my own; and lost two public figures (Chester Bennington and Kim Jonghyun), who have been a source of love, comfort and inspiration, to this terrible illness called depression, of which I also chronically suffer. It really has been all over the place–I have been all over the place. Personal rollercoaster aside, though, and my writing career(?) has been a pleasantly stable fixture. Let’s take a look.

  Chester Bennington: A musician who understood me…

Kim Jonghyun: And one who comforted me.

  THE YEAR THAT WAS

What I Read:

Admittedly, I fell short of my reading goals for this year. Twenty-five titles in 12 months for a snail who averages one book every three was perhaps a little lofty. I’d like to blame my lack of reading on all the reasons previously mentioned but a great deal of my free time (that which doesn’t go to writing) is lost to video games and tumblr. I am human after all.

Of the twenty-three titles I actively attempted, seventeen were completed; four were started then chucked into the read-again-at-a-later-date (maybe) pile; and two were straight-up DNF–John Gwynne’s tediously written mantasy epic Malice, and Lian Hearn’s bitterly disappointing The Tale of Shikanoko. I do hope to finish Interview with the Vampire in the future–I was listening to an audio version–but am not 100% committed to The Bane Chronicles, Prince of Thorns or Left Hand of Darkness. I have a feeling Ursula leGuin and I are not going to be the best of friends and, while there was nothing wrong with Prince of Thorns, I didn’t like any of the characters so I wasn’t overly compelled to find out what happens to them. As for The Bane Chronicles … what can I say? My love for Harry Shum Jr as Magnus Bane in the horridly trashy yet strangely addictive Shadowhunters TV show does not transcend into the written word. I don’t particularly care for Cassandra Clare‘s prose nor does the character shine as much as he does on screen. Disappointing.

Moving on to the books I did stick with to completion and I’m pleased to say it was a fairly decent year, averaging a respectable 3.5 stars, made of up some truly wonderful reads and some far less ones. I’m actually struggling to pick a favourite title this year because when the books were good they were good. To make things easier for myself by excluding books part of a series I’m yet to complete, I am left with three: Uprooted, the Golem and the Djinni and the Darkest Part of the Forest. All written by female authors, I might add–go girls, go! I can honestly say I adored each and every one of these books and the stories and their characters are still with me now at year’s end. But, gun to my head, and I’d have to say the Darkest Part of the Forest takes home the accolade due to the outrageous speed my slow-arse devoured it. Holly Black has been a great discovery for me in 2017 and, having received Coldest Girl in Coldtown for Christmas and eagerly awaiting her soon-to-be-released Cruel Prince, I feel this relationship is only going to heat up in the year to come.

I finished 2017 in the middle of three titles:

His Majesty’s Dragon (Temeraire) – Naomi Novik 62%

Puppet Master, Vol 4 – Miyuki Miyabe 46%

The Obelisk Gate – N K Jemisin 45%

Technically, I have also started Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic #2) and Kings Rising (Captive Prince #3) but haven’t touched those for months and will no doubt restart from the beginning once I conquer my current reads.

You can see My Year in Books over on my Goodreads page.

What I Wrote:

As of December 31st, the second draft of Garden of the Gods sits at 46 563 words, which is approximately half-way through the rewritten manuscript. Despite my initial plans to have had this draft with beta readers in November, I’m not entirely disappointed with my progress. The major plot and structural changes I had to make to Book One, now tentatively titled Torn Sky, are finally coming together and I’m really getting excited for beta readers to jump in and shoot off some external feedback. The prose is tighter across the board compared to the first draft, which I had been working on for three years prior to completing it November 16 2016. So things are moving slowly. But they are moving.

In addition to the progress made on Garden of the Gods I published a handful of book reviews and the following short stories:

[teaser 01] the morning of

[teaser 02] the collector’s lost things

[short story] the cottage on peppercorn tree hill

A number of other short stories and additional teasers are in the works and should be published here throughout the course of 2018.

  THE YEAR THAT WILL BE

I’m not one for making goals as I hate failing and my own expectations are often hard to meet. One of the big changes I hope to implement in 2018 is to make myself accountable for my own achievements. I’m going to set deadlines for my work and I’m going to reach them, not shrug them off because I only have myself to answer to. In my personal life, I hope to live by a simple More/Less structure:

move more/eat less

read more/watch less

write more/play less

smile more/worry less

Career-wise I have given myself far less ambiguous goals as I have mapped out the entire year and where I want to be with my writing. Because life happens, I didn’t want to be so rigid in setting specific dates and times for things to happen so have instead broken the year into quarters and assigned actions I wish to take place in them:

Q1

Finish Torn Sky

Build online presence (that means more content for this bad boy!)

Decide between traditional and indie publishing options

Q2

Send Torn Sky to beta readers (now seeking volunteers)

Begin work on Book Two: Blood of Demons

Continue rolling out blog content

Q3

Consolidate returned beta comments

Address feedback and complete final edits of Torn Sky

Begin querying/approaching graphic designers

Q4

Continue Book Two–aiming for 80% completion of first draft

Publish Torn Sky teasers on blog

All of this is building to my ultimate goal of being a published author–however that may occur–before November 2019, when I will turn dirty thirty. If everything flows smoothly along my desired trajectory, then books two and three will be released in 2020 and 2021 respectively.

In addition to all this writing and work on making myself known I have pledged to read 20 books in 2018, most of which I intend to be finishing series I started in 2017. This includes but not limited to Shades of Magic (VE Schwab), Mistborn (Brandon Sanderson), The Witcher (Andrzej Sapkowski), The Raven Cycle (Maggic Steifvater), Puppet Master (Miyuki Miyabe) and The Broken Earth (N.K Jeminsin). Stand alone titles on the TBR this year include They Both Die at the End (Adam Silvera), Cloud Atlas (David Mitchell) and The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood).

It’s going to be a busy year. But (currently) I am positive! I’m not going to have the same issues with books two and three of Garden of the Gods as I have had with Torn Sky. I don’t intend on rewriting entire manuscripts from scratch after completing the first draft, as I have done with the first installment. There were serious plot and character issues that came to light the more I worked on Torn Sky and so rather than start again again (again-again-again: this story has been with me since 2004) I pushed through just to get to the end. I am confident this time (I hope) I now have everything where I want it to be and have set up the through-line to carry the rest of the series.

Having taken the effort to put a timeline in place (albeit a rough one) I hope I can stay motivated enough to actually follow it through. With everything that happened in 2017, I’ve learned nothing if not life is short; that passion can drive you anywhere; and that just because my mental illness tells me I’m a untalented piece of rubbish, doesn’t mean the world will agree with it.

Come at me, twenty-eighteen.

  j.a.m

    So long, 2017! [blog] The year that was & the year that will be #amwriting #writer #fantasy And so 2017 draws to a close. I for one can not be more relieved. This year has been a tumultuous one indeed: I moved countries, got married, began a new day-job, bought my first car, and moved again (domestically this time); I said goodbye to my Grandmother, a second mother who raised me alongside my own; and lost two public figures (