#think I will upload the few covers I actually like as designs

[sepostscreencaps]

Pointy panel from Soul Eater post chapter 28

[thegainingdesk]

The Grommr Profile of Dorian Grey

Dorian finished the last chicken wing, delicately wiping his hands with a napkin, before dabbing at the sides of his mouth. “And one hundred!” He beamed at the camera, and rubbed his middle, not-so-subtly lifting his t-shirt to reveal taut, flat six-pack abs. “Guess that will sort me until dinner,” he said with a wink to his audience.

He looked at the comments on his livestream. Most were in awe, as usual, at how much he could eat while maintaining his stick-thin figure and classically handsome good looks. Others, frustratingly, accused him of being a fake - of using some contraption or camera trickery to make the food disappear, of editing in CGI food, of bullimia. He'd done live shows, week-long streams, streams in nothing but his boxers, but nothing would ever convince some of his viewers.

One in particular caught his attention: lol, why are you all commenting like he'll respond? everyone knows he films these over like a week and then edits it together after

Dorian gritted his teeth. “Actually, user WelcomeToMyFistedMind, comment at fifteen thirty-two and eighteen seconds, this is very much live. And actually, I don't think I am done quite yet.” He stood and walked to the kitchen, coming back with a box of two dozen donuts he'd bought for tomorrow's stream. He sat back down and pushed the first one into his mouth, grinning around the custard that oozed out.

Forty-five minutes and twenty-four donuts later, Dorian flashed one last smug grin at the camera and closed twitch. He leant back, lifted up his t-shirt and ran his fingers lazily up and down his treasure-trail, following the center line between his abdominals. Despite the literal pounds of food he'd eaten in the last couple of hours, his stomach was as flat as ever, his twinkish frame showing none of the effects of the food he ate day in, day out.

His channel, MukbangBangYoureDead, had exploded in viewers ever since he started it a few years ago, until he was now one of the most famous mukbangers on the internet. He could not only eat more than all of his competitors, he made it look easy, and all without gaining a pound.

Of course, he had something that they didn't - the deal. He'd been hesitant at first, didn't believe the strange visitor that had come to him one night could or would deliver on its promises. But here he was, years later, making tens of thousands of pounds a month, all without consequence.

Thinking about the deal, he opened Grommr on his phone and brought up his profile. He whistled as he saw the updated weight - 576 pounds. He'd been flirting with 570 for a while now, and was pleased to see how far he'd stepped over that threshold. Time, he thought, for an update for his loyal fans on that platform too.

He pulled his trousers off and threw them to the side, leaving his t-shirt on. He walked to the mirror and admired his toned, pencil-like legs, his lightly muscled arms, the way his t-shirt draped from broad shoulders and tight pecs over his narrow waist, and his large bulge constrained by a designer jock-strap in bright yellow. He raised his phone up and took a picture, and proceeded to take his shirt off. He raised one hand to a lightly-haired pec and gave it a squeeze as he took a second picture. Finally, he lay down on his bed, snaked some long-slender fingers into his waistband, and raised his phone to take another photo from above.

He uploaded the pictures to Grommr without even looking at them - he knew there'd be no point, that they'd look completely different in just a moment or two. They appeared one by one as they uploaded.

Each showed a behemoth of a man. In the first the man stood in a mirror, wearing a t-shirt that cut into fat hanging from his sides and strained to cover large, pendulous breasts. His gut hung out and down, covering his genitals - a small pop of yellow beneath his love handles was the only hint that he was wearing any underwear. The man's face was huge and round, his features almost amorphous. Small, piggy eyes sat above bulbous cheeks, which merged into a ring of fat around his head, his chin a mere dimple in the fat around his neck. Even in the still image, it was clear that the man's arm was straining against its own weight to hold the phone up.

The next photo was much the same. The same morbidly obese figure stood in the same mirror. This time, the pitifully small t-shirt had been discarded to reveal cascading flesh hanging to the side, lying on the mountainous belly. One hand grasped one of the tits, bloated fingers digging into the soft flesh.

In the next, the figure was laid prone. Gravity had pulled down on the soft flesh and caused it to drop down and pool around the figure. The moobs lifted up towards the man's non-existant neck and chin, his gut spread out, his face expanded in all directions. New rolls and folds had formed - where arm met shoulder, where joints bent, or where his gut bunched up against itself. In the brighter lighting, painfully red stretch marks bloomed across the man's skin, circling his thighs, his love handles like loaves, across his dropping breasts. The man's left hand struggled to reach around his gut to grasp at the waistband of a straining jock strap, within which a small bump suggested some long-forgotten nub of a cock, sunk deep within the fat that spilled out around the underwear’s pouch. The man’s face was red, and seemed to strain as he struggled to maneuver his own flesh.

Dorian watched on in boredom as the first few comments rolled in. The usual adoring fans, begging to know the secrets to his titanic weight, proclaiming they’d soon look the same, asking to meet up. He would wait until a few of his regulars sent their customary tips, then go on with the rest of his day. In the meantime, a couple of the comments caused a smile to spread across his angular face.

MayContainDonuts: MealWithTheDevil looking great as ever! I don't know what it is, but he always looks so much like that one mukbang guy? Obviously fatter, but just the eyes and nose and stuff? I wonder if they're related?

BloatGoat: Do you mean MukbangBangYoureDead? If you can find some of his old photos the resemblance is uncanny. People used to think they were the same person but obviously not. Definitely could be related!

Dorian smirked and went to close the app, stopping only to check a small notification that popped up at the top of his screen. There would be routine server maintenance the next day, and the site would be down for around eight hours, starting mid-morning for the UK.

Dorian sighed. He hated server shutdowns, and this would be the longest he'd experienced yet. Still, he had a while to prepare. He'd have to cancel some lunch plans, but he could make up some lie about being ill. He got dressed, stood up and left to go buy enough food for tomorrow.

Dorian paced around his flat nervously the next morning. He checked his watch - 10:01. He quickly tried to bring up Grommr - sure enough, he was met with an error message about the server being down. It would start soon enough.

The first sign of it was his t-shirt. Previously loose, after about five minutes he found he was having to fuss with it to get it to sit right. another five minutes and it had begun riding up around puffy lovehandles and a firm paunch, while his sweatpants were starting to slip down an expanding rear. Another ten minutes and he took the t-shirt off, freeing a large beer gut that bounced when he walked. His sweatpants had grown almost skin tight around hefty thighs and would soon be too tight for comfort. He knew that this was only the start.

The hunger started then; sickly, stabbing pains in his newly expanded gut. He put two pizzas in the oven and sat with a donuts while he waited, knowing that soon his body, and his appetite along with it, would soon be able to accommodate all the food.

Just under thirty minutes in, Dorian's gut started to rest on his lap when he sat. He leant back, the swollen sack of fat at his middle dragging along his lap as he did so, and his cock began to harden. He reached a hand up to scratch the pink stretch marks beginning to form below his budding moobs.

While stuffed to the point of breathlessness just five minutes before, his stomach was still expanding, and he could feel the gnawing hunger begin to creep back in. He belched and stood, tottering slightly at the near-total shift in center of gravity since he’d sat down. He peeled off his sweatpants, struggling past his wide arse and flabby thighs, then gathered as much food as he could in his arms, using the top of his gut as a shelf and cautiously made his way back to his sofa, where he collapsed down, put on a trashy movie, and continued to eat.

Dorian continued to grow as his pile of junk food diminished. He savoured the feeling of soft, supple skin sliding past skin as he swelled - his growing tits pouring out onto his behemoth gut, his underbelly coursing forwards across rotund thighs dimpled with cellulite, his fat pad oozing around his perpetually hard dick. He knew to wait though; the bigger he was, the hotter his eventual orgasm would be.

Dorian looked down and surveyed himself. His body was beginning to be defined by rolls upons rolls. He estimated himself to be around the size he reached last time there was some server downtime; his profile had put on at least a hundred pounds since then. He lifted a heavy arm and used a hand to probe his plush flesh, sighing at the way his newly chubby fingers sank into the fat.

Still, the hunger increased. Dorian tried to lean forward to grab his phone, but found his own sheer bulk resisted him, pushing him back. He spread his legs and allowed his gut to fall down between them, the shift pulling his body forward in his seat and causing a dull ache in his lower back. He picked up his phone and with clumsy sausage-like fingers brought up a delivery app. He allowed instinct and hunger to take over - spring rolls, beef, chilli beef, sweet and sour chicken, duck pancakes, chilli chips, everything he saw he was ravenous for. He'd not been this big before and the hunger was deep. He pressed order, only briefly worrying about how he'd answer the door when he had no clothes that could hope to fit him.

Dorian’s body continued to expand. There was an alienness to his new size; his thighs had to splay around his hanging gut, his arms sat uncomfortably on top of thick pillows of fat at his sides, each joint filled with lard, and most of all was the awareness of gravity, how it pulled at his body and how his body answered in kind by dropping down and down.

Half an hour of nagging hunger later, his doorbell rang. He threw himself forward, but fell back to the sofa. Even that unsuccessful effort left him winded. He rolled to the side, fat cascading over fat as he did so, and staggered to stand sideways, his arms shaking as he heaved with all his might against the sofa. He grabbed a blanket and draped it over him; it barely covered his torso, but it was the best he could do.

How had he never realised how easy walking was before? Now, every step needed to be purposeful and required a conscious effort to propel his weight forwards. He had to wheel each thigh out and around past the other, each one a lead weight to be lifted. Dorian reached the door panting and sweaty, his hips burning with the beginnings of pain. The delivery driver looked on in shock, and then in slow horror. Dorian didn't care, he just grabbed his bags and slammed the door, before making his slow way back to his seat.

As he fell back, the sofa made a loud crunching sound and he felt himself sink deep into the cushions. He shuffled over the other side as best he could, each movement sending shockwaves across his body. He piled his bags into the crater left on the other side of the sofa and ate directly out of them, the table now wholly unreachable.

Dorian suspected he stopped growing around the time that he'd finished his food. If nothing else, the hunger had stopped. His torso had become a series of rolls, each one wrapped around his entire body and piled on top of the next. His limbs had become huge sacks of flesh, spreading out beneath him, the only evidence of his joints small, soft dimples in the thick casing of his body.

Dorian knew he'd waited long enough now. He pushed a stubby paw into the deep fold underneath his gut, reaching for the hard nub of his cock not yet swallowed by his fat pad. It was no use however, the heavy weight of his belly pressing down and closing off his own groin from himself. He leant to the side and spread his thighs, freeing up access and shifting his weight off from his lap, but still his fingers had to squirm past sweaty flesh into the small crevice left of his crotch. He grasped at the hard head of his cock, finding it in a shallow depression of flab nestled in dense pubes. With two fingers he did his best to jerk himself off, but to no avail - there was simply not enough cock left and not enough space to handle it in. Desperate for release he began to thrust, rocking his pelvis back and forth, so that the thick shaft of his penis slid within his own blubber, fucking his own body. He closed his eyes and ignored the tortured groans of the sofa below him as his pleasure grew. It only took a few minutes for him to cum, semen coating his fat pad and thighs as he yelled out.

Dorian slumped back, gasping for air, and exhausted, drifted off into a sleep.

When he woke up, it was dark. He could still feel the weight of his body pulling down. This wasn't right. As slow as it took for the weight to pile on, usually it melted away in seconds once the servers were back online, which should have happened hours ago. He checked the time - 23:24. Had something gone wrong?

He checked Grommr - the site was back up. He tried to log in - nothing. App - no. Browser - no. He tried to type his password in again, fat fingers mashing against the keyboard so that he had to try again slowly, deliberately. Nothing worked. He felt his heart pounding somewhere beneath his bosom.

Finally, he noticed an email in his inbox.

Grommr admin team - lost profile

During our recent scheduled server update, a small number of user profiles were unfortunately lost. We are sorry to tell you that your profile was one of those that we have not been able to recover. We are doing everything we can to recover lost profiles, but we are sadly not…

Dorian stopped reading. He looked down at the acres of flesh that were now his body. He lifted an arm up and let it fall, watching it shake and wobble in the dim light. What would he tell his family? His friends? His fans? This couldn't be happening.

Through his panicked breathing and heavy heartbeat, another feeling began to grow - Dorian Grey was beginning to feel hungry.

[justin-chapmanswers]

If you don't mind me asking, is there any old Inanimate Insanity video that isn't available, lost media if you will. The only thing I can think of is the audition for fan character in season 1, it was mention on episode 5.5 and the Taco Show. I wonder if there is a way to view these video again, maybe saved somewhere. I think they are important part of the history of the show, but I understand if you don't want to reupload these video.

Golly golly. I think that pre-5.5 video is the main loss in terms of things that never got saved anywhere, especially before the hacking/deletion incident. There's also no record of the Inanimate Insanity Audition video, but that was on DuncanEpic not AnimationEpic. Nothing crazy about it, but a neat little archival of all the original character designs and requested audition lines. Bonus would be if there were video responses also still embedded, I watched all of those auditions back in 2011 so many times to see if I felt I could be the frontrunner for any of the roles.

Paper also gets the short end of the stick haha. Nothing that was uploaded, but I recorded two or three things for him in that 2011-2012 window that were started and never made. There was a short written/voiced with the start of animation starring Paper that I really remember super little about. Except for like... I him having a tough day and then tumbling down a hill. He was also the main guest on The Taco Show 2 (I think it was going to start inviting each contestant on to guest after their elimination?). Also don't remember anything from that script except for the fact that Knife was introduced late as Taco's bodyguard and he had to forcibly remove Paper from the premises. Paper had a repeated string of bad luck in all of these, which by-coincidence was replicated with the gag someone added into FFF 4.

And of course can't forget the Friday (Rebecca Black) cover music video that was organized by Nate Groth and started animation. Starring Balloon, with his pals Nickel and Knife. Good times.

But yes! The recommended character video you mentioned earlier, that was a FINALIZED gem lost to time when the April-August 2011 slate was wiped from the channel. STORYTIME.

Adam was going away to camp for the Summer, and he left Nate Groth and me with channel access and each a different responsibility. Nate was to create from scratch the entire video that asks the audience to submit a recommended character for consideration to join the game. Nate and I would pick the ten concepts we liked the most, Adam would pick which of the ten joined the game. It was like a five minute video narrated by Knife explaining everything.

Meanwhile, just Adam gave me episode 5 to upload on August 1st (in a time before scheduled videos). And Nate was not having it.

Nate felt like getting to upload an actual episode as opposed to the recommended character video was a MUCH cooler job. Envious, while Adam was away at camp and in the days leading up to August 1st, Nate changed the password to the account and locked me out in protest. I had to calmly address the situation, remind him of how awesome his recommended character video is, and assure him he can do the next episode upload whenever Adam cannot do it (which would of course never come to fruition cause he was only on the team for another month or so).

Nate shared the password and the episode got out on time, but Adam was frustrated with what happened and understandably locked out everyone else from the account. Nate, of course, got back into the account via (admittedly easy) security questions a few weeks later in his next fit of rage and deleted all of the videos- ironically, erasing his own video creation for all time.

[archandshri]

23rd Feb '24 - [arch] OH RISO my beloved!!!!!! ft. cyberpunk hermitcraft soup group

A cliffhanger!!!! And now I have to wait a month for you to upload the second half?? How will I cope :’’0

For real, it’s so awesome to see your process and the sheer amount of inspiration you take! In particular, I thought ‘Sit on Two Chairs’ and ‘This Was Our Pact’ were particularly yummy. 

I think book covers are really hard. You have to sum up a book’s energy in one image, make it stand out and show just enough so people want more. Exploring the narrative through those full pages is really interesting - though this is something you did for fun, it could be a really useful technique for getting to know a narrative. When I’m designing my comic covers, I always do it last - that way I’ve had practice with the visual style and I’m thoroughly familiar with the themes, so I guess spending a bit of time with the characters and narrative in this way helps for standalone book covers too. Of course, it helps if you have the time for that XD

Okay!! Onto what I've been up to!!! [warning this is a beefy post I'm sorry for your poor reading brain]

The past two weeks have been really enjoyable! I’ve been playing a lot with slow world-building, in sketchbooks, google documents, and voice notes to friends. Letting myself really sit with concepts, think about the characters, let them play in my head with no expectations. With this relaxation and lack of pressure, some beautiful narratives and interactions have been developing. I’m starting to need a name for a world/ the story. I’m not quite ready to give them a full introduction to the internet - I know it doesn’t but it feels like there’s some accountability to *produce something* and this slow development is really important for the quality and my skill building. It’s really hard to take on, but we actually don’t have to make the perfect thing now! In fact, it’s impossible. Pressure on ourselves makes it so hard to make something good if we’re always grasping at the final result.  In the meantime, while those characters develop, I have been working hard on my basic skills. I wrote about characterization last post, but this week I focused on setting and colour. I was inspired (once again) by Hermitcraft. I’ve seen some really incredible illustrations of Minecraft builds in the fandom, and it seems like a great exercise.

Bdouble0's Season 10 Base illustrated by @applestruda [source] and The Red Zone, built and illustrated by Bdouble0 [source]

One of the creators on Hermitcraft, ImpulseSV, created this build in a recent episode. It takes inspiration from the last season of Hermitcraft, where he was part of the ‘soup group’ with two other players, and his current base concept - a cyberpunk city.  I also LOVE his new character design, so I wanted to place him in the scene.

Screenshot from Impulse's video and new impulse design by @maxx-doodles

Here are some initial thumbnails I did, trying to figure out the composition. I wasn’t sure of the vibe yet, so I tried some rough thumbnailing, and drawing on an isometric grid and other perspective techniques. I’m going a bit mad for characters at the mo, so I wanted to place some in the scene. I found the angle of the isometric grid steep to place characters comfortably, so decided against that.

Looking back at it, I love the second! But I believe I was struggling with the perspective. I decided on the last one eventually.

Now, I absolutely adore all of the players in the Soup Group, and I am BIG fan of redesigning their notable characteristics to suit different settings. So yes, I decided to put all of the soup group in the image.

PearlescentMoon (left) from my comic and GeminiTay's Hermitcraft Season 10 design [from this thumbnail] (right)

Here's the sketch of the final image. I really enjoyed coming up with cyberpunk versions of them all. I used the impulse design almost exactly, with a few extra interesting details since he's mostly viewed from the back. For PearlescentMoon (middle) I kept her fringe, dark hair and gave her a glowing moon symbol on her top. For GeminiTay, I kept her long ginger hair, antlers (but glowing!) and took inspiration from her new season 10 design - a dark blue jumpsuit to match her dark blue clothes in her new design, and the braids she is often drawn with. I also gave them edgy new hairstyles. And a robot arm. I don't have lore for that.

As usual, I filled each flat colour-to-be with black and lowered the opacity to play with the values. Then I added colours one at a time, aware might be riso printing it. Originally I stuck to trying to make it printable (making the colours out of ones I could make my layering 2-3 colours at different opacities), but as I went on, I decided to drop that and focus on the quality of the image in a digital format alone. I did keep the grayscale version above with all the separate layers in case I needed that if/when I came to riso printing it. Below are the main two digital colour schemes I tried out.

I settled on the one on the left, with the blue tones - the foreground characters really pop. I put a few details in Gem's hair, colour variations etc, and cropped it for Instagram. I actually much prefer the cropped version - it sits better in a rule of thirds.

Now the moment we've all been waiting for :'')

RISO!!!!!!!!!!!

I returned to Cardiff after a couple of months away and was delighted to spend my first day back at The Printhaus, an awesome shared print studio where I have basically made my home. A few of my awesome friends happened to be there, so I spent the day playing around with this image with their help! (please check them out they're very cool - Gavin helped me a lot (we hung out at Thought Bubble, remember? and Rhi gave good crits too!!)

For those who don't know, risograph is basically a shitty photocopier that can only print one colour at a time. However, you can play with gradients and opacities, and layer colours really nicely to combine. I've done a lot of single-colour tonal work with riso but this is my first go really layering.

First, Gavin showed me how to separate the channels in Photoshop, using the flat image uploaded to the 'gram. We copied and pasted these layers in grayscale and added blending modes to each layer to replicate what they might look like when printed.

With blending modes, the digital mockup looked like this!!

This bit goes into technical details for replicating what the print might look like for those who might want it - feel free to skip :)))

I copied and pasted the Cyan, Black and Magenta layers as greyscale (as you can see above)

I made all of the greyscale layers multiply layers since risograph ink is transparent and we wanted to see how it layers. The ink usually comes out a bit lighter than you think, so it's good to bear that in mind. I used a clipping mask over each greyscale layer and a blending mode. WHEN YOU PRINT, PRINT IN GREYSCALE, NOT COLOUR.

Here's how I split the colours from CMYK to the riso colours, their hex codes and the blending mode I used to replicate the colours:

Cyan - Mint [HEX#82D8D5] Screen Magenta - Fluorescent Pink [HEX#FF48B0] Screen Black - Blue [HEX#0078BF] Overlay Yellow - scrapped for colour scheme purposes

Blue, Mint and Florencent Pink layers in greyscale in Procreate.

Riso printed Mint and Florescent Pink layers on separate paper, followed by the two layered together.

We always start with the lighter colour inks first, because sometimes the rollers can pick up the ink and cause extra marks where you don't want them. The first two colours came out great!

The first time we printed the blue, it came out very dark (left, first image). I have had this issue before - my last book, Winter Wellbeing, came out much darker than I wanted. Now I realise that the blue ink is super sensitive. All the 'white space' that is covered by a low-opacity blue on the left is only 2%, and yet it has come out pretty strong. We tried printing it on one of the misaligned images just to see, but it took all of the brightness out of the neon soup sign at the top of the image (second image). So I changed the values and pushed them way lighter, so it just pushed the values of the darker bits slightly, and brightened some of the lineart (right, first image)

And this is the final riso printed version!! I'm so so happy with how this came out. It's so different from the original digital version, and I actually love that.

I didn't create new colours in the way that I intended to - I wanted to play with overlaying purposefully to create specific colours eg. orange for the hair etc. But!!! I'm really happy with how it came out. That will have to be a project for next time.

Also, many copies are slightly misaligned, so in future I think I'd do flat layers for the colours a more blobby style with the linework on one layer only so there's less of a chance for obvious misalignment. design for the riso, rather than riso the design.

Overall though, this feels like a super cool step up and a milestone for me. Super happy with how it came out!! And I'm excited to play with colour some more. Can't wait to see the rest of the Lionheart brothers! Enjoy your weekend :)))

Archie 🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺 <3

[audistorium]

How I Even Got Here: A Letter from Lemon to Hopeful Creatives

This is going to be a lot. But maybe that's why we(I) made a tumblr. This is a place stories like these can be told.

Four months ago I was not a showrunner.

Four months ago I had no idea what to do.

Four months ago I had little to no friends in Audio Drama as a whole. There were a small handful of twitter people I knew, and I was a ghost in a few discords because I was afraid to ask anyone anything. But.. I was mostly riding solo.

I spent several years learning nothing but sound design after becoming completely enthralled by The Sandman. Shortly after I found SCP Archives and indie Audio Dramas that blew my mind.

Yet even with all that time making soundscapes and learning the intricacies of sound design under my belt, I still felt that gnawing imposter syndrome of creating a show. I've now learned this is pretty widespread in AD creators. Funny how that works, isn't it?

Who was I? Some broke kid from Arkansas that's fascinated by productions of sound and theatre of the mind? A less than well known comedian that wanted to tell the weird tales that manifest from nothing in my brain? I guess in the end that didn't really matter to me. I wanted to tell the scary stories that popped into my head and combine them with later episodes that tell funny ones. An interweaving web that I couldn't get out of my head until I brought it to life.

I talk about the night I uploaded my first episode a lot. My hands were shaking. My heart was nearly beating out of my chest and my face was buried in my palms for a while. I ended up saying "Fuck it." and hit upload. I sat there for a while just watching the episode pop up on different platforms one by one.

There it was. The thing I built up and wrote and worked my ass off for so long for. "What now?" I wondered.

I sat there for an hour kind of looking at the Spotify cover art that had been done well over a year before this point. Yet somehow it felt more real now. More tangible. This was something I could hold in my hands now and say I created. That was an unreal feeling. It was even more mind bending to think that this was only the start of the journey.

I got on Twitter that night and posted about it. It did not take long for someone to reach out. That person was Jesse Hall. Someone who showed me enough kindness to say all of these things that spelled out to me: "Hey, there are communities out there of people that want you to keep making these"

I ended up finding my home, The Liminal Lands discord. A show hiding out in a discord for another show. The thing is, though..

There really WAS this sense of community in it.

Since that point I have been in shows that previously I was only a fan of. I have met people that have been doing this for like 10+ years that treat me as a peer. I have other friends now that are also new showrunners.

I've been asked to be the sound designer in two different productions that are aiming for Tribeca. How nuts is that?

While it does mean my own show has to wait a second, this is incredible that people actually want to involve me at such a level when I feel like the biggest imposter in the room.

It has not been an easy past four months. Not even remotely. I wrote, voiced and sound designed episode 2: Lemonal in 24 hours because I felt like I needed to tell that story. It was one that was very personal. I've been able to share experiences of helplessness, death and fear. But also personal growth.

Soon, of my own humor.

I can put all of myself into this and I never have any intention of stopping that.

Four months later, I am a showrunner. I am the writer, sound designer and often one of the voice actors in my own show.

Four months later, I am confident in what I am capable of, and I am extremely proud of what I've been able to do because so many caring people pushed me and told me that I can do this. That If I stop punishing myself and telling myself my work is bad, I'll learn to love it more. So I did.

Four months later, I have friends that I would not trade for anything in the world and I think that things are only going up from here.

If you stumble across this as a hopeful creative, and you're not certain that you can accomplish what you want.. Well. Look at me.

I had nothing and no one. Our very small budget got us 3 covers and published. Good enough.

Now I have people that care enough to make me better every day. People that just want to be involved in what I made. That is extremely cool, and nowwww, every time I make something new I improve. I couldn't ask for anything better.

Take the leap. People will help you. People will support you.

I promise.

[copperbadge]

Genuine question; how is it self publishing with Lulu and are there any copyright issues? Thinking about taking some of my older world building and turning it into a Actual Novel.

I hope it's okay if I answer this publicly, I've had a few questions about it recently!

I've been doing it long enough that my frame of reference for difficulty may be a little skewed, but it's relatively straightforward -- Lulu has a publishing wizard that walks you through selecting options, uploading a document, adding a cover, and such. There is still a lot you have to do yourself that they don't really tell you how to, but it's not hard to google for some and they do have forums that cover other bits.

There are generally speaking no copyright issues with going through a self-publisher, but it depends on the services you obtain from them. With Lulu -- as with, I think, most Print-On-Demand printers -- there's an array of routes to go from unpublished document to published book.

So you can do it all yourself -- you can edit, proof, typeset, design the cover, purchase an ISBN, and do all the marketing. Or, at any step in the process, you can purchase services from Lulu that will do that for you. I can't recommend purchasing their proofing/design/marketing stuff; on the one hand it's where they make their money, but because of that they're not providing super great value for what you pay. And as a self-publisher, unless you have a massive platform or great marketing and hustle, you probably won't recoup in sales what you paid for.

Whether or not you buy other services, Lulu charges a per-book print fee, but you set your own prices, so like the book might cost $5 to print, but if you set the price at $10 you're making a pretty sweet profit per book. Some other POD publishers also charge a "setup" fee, but I'm not familiar with what that entails.

In any case, there's only one point at which copyright becomes an issue, which is the ISBN -- the serial number and barcode that identifies your book so that (for example) bookstores can sell it and libraries can stock it. You don't HAVE to have an ISBN, but it makes it much harder to get it distributed if you don't.

You can obtain an ISBN on your own -- cost varies by country, many make them available for free but in the US a single ISBN is $125 or you can buy like 100 for $500. If you want to have one but don't want to buy one, Lulu will give you one, but they then become the publisher of record. I don't really know how that works in terms of copyright, but it does impact some rights to the book, so if you use a Lulu-issued ISBN that would be something to research. If you're just publishing a book through them without using their ISBN, they're basically a printer -- they have no right to your book as an item of intellectual property.

Now, outside of copyright considerations, it is certainly more work to self-pub. If you want it to look professional you have to have access to a good program for typesetting, you have to know how to set margins and gutters, title/author headers and page number footers, and if you want to do an epub that's a whole other ball of wax.

I don't get super fancy. I typeset in Word, because Libre Office and Open Office (at least last I checked) didn't have a few of the features Word has, but any other program has a much higher learning barrier to entry. You also have to upload the document as a PDF, so you have to be able to save/print it as a PDF.

Lulu does have a cover-design app you can use to make a cover, but it's extremely basic, so if you don't want your cover to look like it was designed in Canva, you'll need access to a design program like Photoshop or Glimpse, or to commission a cover from someone who does. Once you've uploaded your document, Lulu will give you a template that tells you exactly what size your cover should be, where the bleed margins are, and etc.

And then we get into the nitty-gritty stuff like how only certain fonts can be used for the document (there are twelve fonts that Lulu allows, it's listed on their site somewhere, I just use Garamond) and you need to make sure any art that goes on the cover is either free for use or Creative Commons or similar (or you buy the art for use). Google does have a handy Creative Commons filter on their imagesearch function, which has been useful for me in the past, but on the copyright pages of many of my books you'll see credit given for images used.

So to do your first book there is a bit of a steep learning curve, but once you're past the curve, you'll have some pretty good skills for future publishing. I did a book a year for several years, in my twenties, and then didn't publish at all for several years, and had to relearn a lot when I started publishing again, but it came back pretty quickly. And depending on how fancy or professional you want your book to look, you don't necessarily have to put in a TON of work. Like, I try to make mine look as much like pro-published books as possible, but some authors on Lulu just shove a formatted word document into a PDF and call it a day, they don't bother with headers/footers and fancy formatting and such.

In any case, while I think going the professional route of querying publishers and agents is laudable and certainly I wouldn't advise anyone to go to selfpub first thing, selfpub can be awfully satisfying, and it starts to feel kind of like a fun hobby after a while.

[peridyke]

How many comics do you have? and where can I find them?

thank you for asking!!!!

sadly right now i don’t have any finished comics to show off as I only recently got the time to seriously work on my art BUT i do have a variety of projects that i can show off! there’s some stuff i’m actively working on and other stuff that’s more of a back burner thing but let me list out everything i’ve done/have planned on doing

1) angel bites

ok so my current project i’m working on right now is called angel bites and it’s actually going to be a fun lesbian erotica comic about an angel girl and devil girl who are bandmates and who secretly hook up on the side. i’m currently in the process of thumbnailing this one and i’m guessing it’s gonna be around 60 or so pages. once im done i’m gonna have the comic up on patreon/have it for sale digitally on a platform like itch.io BUT the first 20ish pages are sfw so I will post those publicly for free so i can show off my work and characters.

i designed these in universe pin ups that i haven’t posted publicly yet and even though i wanted to wait until i finish the third one in the series that’s a little sillier theyre my most recent and best looking art of the characters

2) sacrificial lamb

sacrificial lamb was my main focus for a bit but i’ve taken a break from it for the time being to work on other projects. it’s a more serious project than anything else i’ve been doing but it’s one i’ve been planning out since 2021 and that i do want to seriously look into getting published when it’s finished. it is a lesbian horror comic about a butch lesbian rabbit whose femme cat girlfriend gets sucked into the darker side of new age spiritualism. here is my WIP of the cover and a finished page

3) claw wrench

this is a lower priority project of mine but one i still want to make exist in some form one of these days. it’s about a teenage cat named milly going to live with their estranged super genius mad scientist half sister named mindy and her robot assistant mr. rogato. it would be a newspaper strip style comic with a few larger plot threads. i might start it up one of these days after i’ve gotten some other comics under my belt and i feel like i have a better mental image of what i want the writing to be like. here’s some designs i did in 2021

4) be mine, valentine

this is a project featuring characters of mine who i’ve had for a few years but only recently decided i wanted to turn into a short story. it’s about a peryton coder named cupid who is unbeknownst to herself a trans girl egg discovering her identity after being hired by a trans girl sex worker unicorn named valentine to help build a website for her work. it’s a short but sweet little love story that i have to plan out better before i seriously work on it but i can see it being something i make in the near-ish future. there will be some nudity and sexual themes but nothing pornographic so i will upload it for free online when it’s done ^_^ sadly i um…don’t have a sfw drawing of valentine yet LOL so you’re just gonna have to deal with a cropped pic

5) thalassophobia

this is probably most relevant to peoples’ interest who follow me and something probably remember. thalassophobia is a really big steven universe fan comic i started writing to give lapis a more complete arc. i had a lot of passion for it back in 2022/23 but steven universe hasn’t been on my mind as much recently so it’s gone on the back burner. still i put a ton of work into it so i’d like to come back and finish writing it one day, although for the actual comic process i might see about getting some help on pages and colors and such since considering the scale i think it’s way too big for me to do solo. here’s a cover and a few test pages i did

I HAVE ONE MORE COMIC TO TALK ABOUT BUT IVE USED UP THE IMAGE LIMIT i’m gonna finish in a reblog so give me a second

[acaplaya-musings]

Voiceplay Visuals: Drunken Sailor

Man I've been waiting to get to this one!

Drunken Sailor was uploaded on the 12th of August, 2023, and like the other pirate-themed video Voiceplay did akmost two years prior, it features Jose Rosario Jr! It also features Matthew Buckner (aka "Bucky") in an acting role, as the "drunken sailor" that Voiceplay sing about. "Bucky" used to be a vocalist in "4:2:Five" for a while (iirc), and he's good friends with Geoff, and even helped with the choreography for Geoff's Monster Mash video! Just like Hoist The Colours, both the arrangement and video were done by Geoff (who also wrote an original bridge for the song! (genius that he is)), and he also co-directed the video (with Tony), and worked together with Eli on lighting design. This might be one of those posts where I get close to the picture-upload-maximum and have to start counting them just in case, but still, it would be for good reason! So let's go!

Group shot! Shoutout to Pattycake Productions for the set design!

I'm not sure if any of the group are wearing any of the same clothing pieces they wore in Hoist The Colours (I did a brief bit of visual comparison), but Jose, acting as the captain of this "ragtag motley crew" once more, is pretty close.

Also, Geoff is going with the bare-shoulders look again (we always stan), but so is Cesar! (Good For Him)

Not even 10 seconds in and I've already found a funnier-than-first-expected/realized screencap! I'm not sure whose face I love more here - Layne's or Geoff's 😂😂

Obligatory comment that Geoff was absolutely serving looks in this video! The subtle "guyliner" plus the light stubble and the black sleeveless shirt/tunic? I freaking live for it 👀👌

Jose staring right down the camera, and Cesar giving 110% as per usual 😄

Pfft XD

Crazy Eyes Layne back again! 😆

Also look at Eli's face! He's terrified by the story that Layne is 'telling'!

"I'll have that!" (also notice that when Layne makes the whale "eat"/bite the boat, Eli covers his head with his hands in distress! The Lore! The Lore!

PFFFT, if looks could kill! 🤣 (and the fact that he's still beatboxing the whole time really makes this 👌)

Voiceplay said in the comments (in a reply to someone) that "there were a few different takes of this shot, and this was the one where it looked the MOST like Layne was gonna burst into flame." I think they nailed it 😝😁

"Stick him in a scupper with a hosepipe bottom!"

Firstly, it sounds at least like Cesar is singing "hosepipe bottom", but the original line is "hosepipe on him". And despite what Cesar is implying with the wooden toilet seat, the line has nothing to do with toilets or bathrooms. A "scupper" is "an opening in the side walls of a vessel or an open-air structure, which allows water to drain instead of pooling" (according to Wikipedia). Ships have scuppers at deck-level, to allow for rainwater and/or seawater to drain off. So basically the line about "stick him in the scupper with a hosepipe on him" is about spraying the drunken sailor in question with a hose[pipe] (to try to sober him up with a dousing of cold water), in a part of the ship where the water can easily drain away afterwards.

"ew I can't believe I just touched that!"

Yes, that doll is definitely creepy, and I have no clue where Geoff got it from or what gave him the idea, but, according to Geoff in the comments section (comment from Voiceplay's channel, but it was almost definitely him who wrote it): "Her name is Clara and SHE HAS FEELINGS!" 😅

Also, the line "put him in the bed with the captain's daughter" probably isn't actually meant to be taken literally either. The main consensus that I've seen online is that "the captain's daughter" actually referred to a cat-'o'-nine-tails whip. (Not talking about the vocals or arrangement, I'm talking about song background/context! Which I've done before!)

EAR-LY IN THE M O O R R R N I I N N G G G

*YEET*

"Hey that's my cup!" (rip Eli)

Hey look it's the screencap my profile pic comes from! (And for good reason - Geoff is positively unhinged and Cesar's reaction is priceless 🤣)

Also apparently Geoff holding a wooden spoon while singing "I'm gonna carve his heart out" is a reference to the 1991 movie Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves. "Why a spoon, cousin? Why not an axe?" "Because it's dull, you twit. It'll hurt more!"

"And we should make him listen to Voiceplay while we do it!" "You... are a monster"

(I freaking died laughing first time I watched this bit, also look at Eli's smug grin! 😂)

Have I mentioned that he's gorgeous and I love him?

This video is really just pure unbridled/chaotic fun. It's the best 😁

Cesar twerking! Get it!

It took me an embarassingly long time to release that Geoff isn't actually sitting down in this shot here; he's kneeling instead 😅

Also note that while Layne, Eli, Cesar, and Geoff all freeze into place (in what is apparently sometimes known as a "tableau shot", Jose doesn't, instead doing a little bit of fourth-wall-breaking to give the audience a lighthearted half-shrug 😄

And no, I haven't forgotten the "bonus scene"!

"HEY! Hey, I'm not drunk!"

I'm just tired, because you simpletons been singing all night!"

(Also ayyy another Eli Eyebrow Raise!)

"Wey, hey, and up she rises. Wey, hey, and up she rises. Wey, hey, and UP she rises! Ear-ly in the morn... ONCE AGAIN!"

Aaaaand I've officially hit image limit! At least I did make some attempts to be conservative with screenshots! 😅

This cover is utterly fantastic - all the silliness of "Classic Voiceplay", with the serious skills and high-quality video production of "Modern Voiceplay"! The video is hilarious, the cover is ridiculously creative, and really it just highlights all of the things to love about each person in the video, visually/performance-wise and vocally!

Not many Voiceplay videos left for me to make posts about now, but there are certainly still ridiculously-amazing things to come, so stay tuned!

[animehouse-moe]

Animerica Extra Volume 1 Issue 1: A Closer Look

Finally, finally finally I managed to get the first two volumes uploaded to the Internet Archive, which you can find here, and I really do recommend because of Tumblr image compression being kinda gross. Anyways, I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about the first issue of the magazine and what I really found interesting and cool!

First off is the advertisements that appear in the magazine. Considering the scope and popularity of the magazine, the "type" of companies that would advertise are somewhat different. I mean, AnimeVillage got the front cover ad. Not that they're a tiny company, but much like others in here, they're not a company that lasted incredibly long.

Still, what is incredibly interesting though is their website, which is still saved in the internet archive, though in a somewhat incomplete fashion, which you can find here. Anyways, getting to visit an old site like this is a lot of fun, mostly because of the personality that appears with it. Offensive and sharp color palettes, more than a few moving pieces, and a very blocky layout. Honestly, I think sites like this have a considerable amount more to offer in terms of heart and individuality than what modern web design has given us, but that's not the point. The point is that Animerica Extra provides people, specifically the community in this moment, with an experience from the past. I mean, AnimeVillage is from 1998, there's no way that the vast majority of anime or manga fans would even know about them as a company today.

Getting to the actual magazine itself though, there's just two things that I find interesting with the Table of Contents. Firstly, right at the bottom, just above the "Printed in Canada" statement, Viz offers a disclaimer (which you can't read here because of nasty Tumblr compression, so I'll transcribe it): "For the purposes of publication in English, the artwork in this publication is in reverse from the original Japanese Version".

Now, I don't have any OG manga volumes that were printed more like graphic novels, so I can't say for sure, but I find this disclaimer interesting. Either, a) this is a general disclaimer Viz gives about the difference between JP and English publication, or b) Viz is required to provide this disclaimer for the materials. Either way it's a very curious piece.

And then there's the "Vizit our World Wide Web Sites at www.viz.com...". Yes, Viz actually printed "Visit" as "Vizit" alongside "World Wide Web sites". Just such a blast from the past as to how the internet was viewed and interacted with.

And then there's the Yuu Watase feature from the first issue. I think it's something that doesn't immediately stick out to people in the modern day because hey, you just go to MAL or Manga-Updates and you can see everything that Watase's ever done like it's nothing.

But in the 80s that sort of accessibility was non-existent. I mean, like you'll see later on with the letters, people only found out about Animerica Extra through Animerica. It really highlights how valuable this sort of information was to the community during the era, because you simply just would not know anything about Yuu Watase without these pieces.

Similarly, you couldn't go and look up what a series was about on the internet, you only had word of mouth and direct interaction, so excerpts like these that give readers an idea of what is is they're about to read is incredibly important.

Just a quick aside here about advertisements. I know a lot of people will say, "but hey! There were TV ads during the 90s and 2000s that could be run for this stuff! Surely they could provide information and advertisement via that!", and I think the easiest answer is another question: can the modern day animanga industry manage that? Obviously not, no. The avenues that Viz could approach to advertise via were incredibly narrow, largely focused on anime specific storefronts or general comic stores, placing physical advertisement at the top of the pyramid, followed up by ads distributed via their tapes back in the day.

Anyways, back on track to the editorial for an interesting conversation! This one's very interesting to me for just one thing, really- the original sketch giveaway.

It happens today, rather frequently, but with caveats. It's not, "Hey we're running a giveaway so make sure to participate", it's "Hey we've got X mangaka appearing at a con so come for a chance to win their sketch!". The difference in the approach to the giveaway is entirely different. I don't know if I can really say that it's more accessible, but I think that it gives fans a greater opportunity to participate purely because it's cheaper, running on a far longer schedule (as the editorial mentions), and doesn't require in person attendance for the opportunity.

But to be fair, even those giveaways are only a recent thing as the animanga market's boomed. There was quite a long period of dead air in terms of this sort of activity, so I find it really interesting how the landscape has changed in how these now corporations approach these aspects of interaction with their communities.

Also, here's a link to the archived version of the website in the advertisement on this page.

And this magazine really just keeps giving more and more crazy information. This News Notes panel really surprised me. Yes, it's got a lot of plain information like upcoming or finishing anime, but most interesting is the information that the left column provides.

They talk about the mangaka of Steam Detectives appearing at San Diego Comic Con, and not only that, but bringing some early footage of the anime. I mean, that sort of thing has only just begun happening again in the last few years.

It's crazy to see how advanced and engaged Viz was back in the day with the industry overseas. Not that they aren't today, but that the curtain's been pulled across so we no longer get stuff like this in English.

Speaking of things like that, because of the disappearance of things like this, we don't get to see interaction between individuals and the companies. The letters section in this first volume is so interesting because of the era it comes from. The accessibility of information is immediately addressed with the first letter that talks about them finding out about Animerica Extra via the mainline Animerica. Then there's the very talented letter sending that sewed a decorative pillow for their friend. But I think my personal favorite is the nonsensical letter penned by Jonkani.

These magazines are just a gold mine of history and culture pertaining to the North American animanga industry and community, that I really think is important to be able to experience and understand as it contextualizes where this slice of entertainment lies in the modern day.

And this just the first issue of the first volume, there's still 73 more to go that provide all sorts of wonderful and curious information and interactions. Incredibly happy to be able to provide this to the community, but also very hopeful that being vocal with this will both make people more aware of a history that is "ours", and inspire those that have pieces of history like this to archive them.

[electriczayre]

give me scarab one eight ten fifteen lets go

(i don't feel like making a new scarab doodle rn so just take this drawing i made trying to design a good idol outfit for her)

1. Whats their favorite food?

Scarab doesn't really have a particular favorite food. She'll eat mostly anything, as long as it's actually edible/safe to eat/meant to be eaten. Maybe she likes dark chocolate a little more than other foods

8. What is their dream job? What do they hope to achieve in it?

Scarab is content being an idol in her group, SUGAR☆SWARM (an OC group with a few different people contributing OCs!). She actively fought against being replaced in the idol scene with v4 units when they came out, after all. Singing is something she loves to do! If she wasn't an idol, perhaps she'd be a youtaite uploading covers of songs she likes on YouTube.

(long post, rest under cut)

10. How do they feel about their friends/acquaintances?

Currently, Scarab's friends are limited to SUGAR☆SWARM. She also knows *of* Wick but never knew him personally. Her relationship with each S☆S member is as follows:

Scarab is quite fond of teasing Mothball because of the reactions she can get out of him. A little bit goes a long way with this guy because she barely has to do ANYTHING to get a rise out of him. All that being said, the minute she realizes she crossed a boundary she will back off and apologize

Something about Hive makes Scarab really, really uncomfortable. Which is weird, because usually she's pretty chill with super cheerful and/or ditzy people - even if occasionally they can get on her nerves. But that really isn't the case with Hive? Something about her feels off to Scarab. Because of that she tries not to talk with her too much. This, unfortunately, also leads to her being less close with Mothball because of MB and Hive being longtime best friends

Scarab thinks Spider (friend's OC) is really bossy and overly nosy, but despite that she respects her as a team leader and as the glue keeping S☆S together. If Spider disappeared randomly Scarab would certainly miss her. She just wishes that Spider would chill about idol stuff for more than two seconds

Scarab kinda views Butterfly (friend's OC) in a younger brother sort of light. She likes to tease him (less than Mothball), and also makes sure to encourage him and not let him get too down. She also heavily questions his taste in men. Affectionately.

Orchid (friend's OC) and Blue (friend's OC) joined S☆S at the same time and Scarab has a similar opinion of both of them. She views them as the silly younger twins of the group and finds joy in taking up a role as the chill older sis to them. Sometimes she tries to encourage them to help her play jokes on Mothball. She respects Orchid for her boundless optimism and energy, and Blue for her go-with-the-flow attitude. She probably calls them both "kid."

How Scarab feels about Dragonfly (friend's OC)... I'll just let this image do the talking

15. How do they react to being recognized as a vocaloid/android?

She'd probably be like, "Yeah, I *am* v flower, thanks for noticing~" and be all smug about it. And then if someone asked her something like "isn't your hair supposed to be short now? why is it long again?" she'd get really annoyed lmao

[cross-armageddon]

I got too silly (again)

Before I say anything though, I must add something offtopic - this will not be a daily thing

I've uploaded the PJO AU sorta daily until now, because I had thoughts already - the rest of the characters' powers will require more thinking on my part. Also, I'm going to London for a few days soon, which means I won't have access to my tablet.

I MIGHT make an update for Prima Vista though, so when you're lacking in content from me, just head to AO3 to catch up with my prsk OCs

You can also send me asks with ideas for the PJO AU or questions to both the AU and Prima Vista during my vacations (Wednesday till Sunday) and I will reply to all of them as soon as I will have a break from sightseeing and have wifi (I'm silly like that).

Well then.

Leo/need (1/2)

(if you're disappointed it's not niigo or vbs, im disappointed in myself too)

The Honami Hephaestus is honestly a really cool idea in general, I'm very confident it fits her the most.

You wouldn't expect her to be a fire wielder after how Leo was in the series, but yet - that's exactly what she is to me. She has way more control over it, as she has to focus really hard and be extremely calm to get a spark, so exactly the opposite of Leo, that can straight up blow up if he gets too angry or excited.

As a Hephaestus daughter, she's naturally good with electronics and machinery. Everyone just kinda assumed she learned how everything worked while homekeeping, but in reality she doesn't actually know any theoretical stuff. She just moves something or hits it and the thing is fixed.

Also, I'm spreading Honami buff agenda. Her training at the camp gave her some muscles and yeah

yeah

Usually it's not noticeable, so people get shocked if she doesn't cover her arms or stomach, because "wtf where the fuck did she get those??"

Also, I feel like Honami would become a huntress of Artemis. Whether or not the rest of Leo/need would follow her is purely up to interpretation. On one hand I feel like they would, but then again - Saki would get extremely close to pararelling with Thalia and. I d

I don't think Tsukasa wants to follow Jason's footsteps actually.

On another note

Why is Ichika unclaimed?

I could make so many fucking excuses as to why she's unclaimed, but I will actually stay silent about it. Yall can give ideas and your reasoning for certain godparents tho 👀

hmu in my askbox

Anyways, since Ichika is unclaimed, she sometimes gets some weird looks and is a part of the "weirdos" from her Cohort.

(You WILL get dragged into my OC content, because I cannot shut up about them)

Ichika is a demigod, she has the same ADHD and dyslexia and she can see monsters. It's just that she doesn't know what potential she has, since she doesn't have a godparent. Her story is about finding out which god will claim her and what will make her godparent proud of her.

(Ichika is Kaii's older cousin in the Prima Vista canon, Kaii's mom is one of her parents' older sister. Which one? I dunno, the one that looks more like Ichika.)

Because Ichika doesn't know her powers, she spends a lot of time fighting, because what else could she focus on?

I must admit, her weapon idea is so fucking badass tho.

Percy had a pen that could transform into his sword and Ichika has something similar, but I kind of went crazy with it

The hook snaps very easily off her neck and after it snaps, the guitar pick transforms into her longsword. The handle on said longsword has the hook and loop still in tact, for whenever she doesn't need it anymore - it goes back to being a normal guitar pick necklace and she can wear it without unhooking it.

She plays the guitar with it too and finds no issues with it, actually amazing weapon, I'm very in love with that design.

Awawawa that's all I had for now, I'm going to have to actually start thinking of more powers now oh no

I might have to research the gods (aka refresh my memory from 7 years ago) again for inspiration and hope for the best.

Also, I think I should've done it earlier, but this is the list that like, 5 people maybe, worked on

If you see anything you like and any ideas for their powers, yeah go ahead and hit up the askbox 👀

I'm very interested to keep this AU semi-open - I allow people to engage in it! If you wish to make your own content with my ideas or add something of your own too, you can! If you're still unsure about things, you can also ask for my permission (if that makes you feel better).

[fourseasonsfigs]

Wenzhou Set 1 (Handcrafted)

Following up yesterday's Dong Fang Yuechu, we have this little Wenzhou set by this same, extremely talented artist.

If you think I can't get enough of this artist's hand-crafted figs, you'd be right! I have more on their way to me even now, including, yes, Wenzhou set 2.

If you haven't read yesterday's post, or if you haven't read this previous post where I talked about Mid-Autumn, Snow Mountain Edition, then you should know I bought this fig set from a fan artist on Xianyu that designs and creates Word of Honor / Junzhe figures. This set are made-to-order figs, meaning that she has this style up in her store and will make it when ordered. She says that she needs a few days to create the fig, but I've noticed that everything I've ever bought from her has shipped immediately, in-stock or otherwise.

These figs arrived wrapped in plastic wrap and cushioned with a bit of polyfill. I did have the warehouse wrap these in air column bubble wrap, since I don't trust something this small and delicate to anything else. Since it's just polyclay, it seems to be pretty resistant to breaking, but crushing damage would absolutely destroy it.

Unlike yesterday's fig, I gave these a nice dusting with my untrustworthy but still useful feather duster, and then brushed the travel lint off with a clean makeup brush. I did pretty well, although I did notice during upload of the pics that a few pieces of grass from the green grass base made their way onto the figs. It's just so hard to see - these figs very small, and my close up vision is not as good as it used to be.

How small you say? Tiny. So small! I'd say a little over half the size of a normal fig, not counting the bases. Here to illustrate relative fig sizes is our Ghost Valley Master. Thank you for your service!

I fell in love with this set immediately. Their faces are so, so cute!

The level of detail is all the more impressive for being so small.

Oh their faces. Just too adorable!

Hmm the detail on these pics are not astounding. The light I took them in wasn't great. I'll take some close ups too so you can actually see all the wonderful detail.

I really like how she did all the hair detail and of course both of their hair ornaments. I particularly love whenever fig makers replicate this particular hair tie of A-Xu's. It's so great!

The little poses with the hands are just so cute. We can't see much of A-Xu's face here since his bangs cover it up, but we can see Lao Wen smiling away!

Why not smile? He's walking along with his favorite person in the jianghu! Who also looks very sweet and happy! I just love them.

Swapping sides so you can get a better view! Alright, let's finish up the two up and down sides so we can get to the details.

Hehe, not too much to see here, although I'll note they look just as cute from this angle.

There we go! Onto the details. I'm going to bring these figs downstairs and see if I can't get some better light somehow.

Well I'll tell you what, the better light did an exceptional job of showing me where I hadn't dusted all the lint off! My goodness. I went back and cleaned it up, but ignore any stray bits. Hopefully this gives you a good amount of detail of his beautiful waist ornament and the painted detail on his robes.

His hairpin is so beautiful I had to show you a picture of it. Just for something like this, can you imagine how long it took to make? To keep referring back to the costume to make sure it was perfect in every detail? Just incredible.

He's so beautiful I just wish my photographic (and dusting!) skills were up to the task. I see my camera decided to focus on his lovely costume instead of his expressive eyes, but hopefully this is at least a little bit better than the further away ones.

Yes, A-Xu, you're perfect, and you've never done anything wrong in your entire life. No I will not be taking any other opinions from the jianghu, thank you!

His hair tie is perfect. I really like how she modeled his hair here, it's lovely. You can see the details and beautiful lines of his robe here - even the sleeves are so artfully done.

Just so delightful. I'm so happy with these figs! I can promise you when the next set arrives, they too will jump to the head of the fig-posting line.

Material: PVC modeling clay

Fig Count: 357

Scene Count: 24

Rating: Just two zhiji out for a stroll on a beautiful day!

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

[java-dragon]

Bookbinding for Beginners by a Beginner Part 3

*braces self on a door frame* Right there's a lot of information I still need to cover so lets get into it.

I don't recall if I told everyone to set up the document to be booklet type or not but here's how to do that (I'm not re-reading what I wrote my brain stopped working at some point)

But Layout Tab, Page Layout, hit the little arrow pointing towards the document:

I have the sheets per booklet set to 32, but this site is helpful for helping you get the exact number of signatures (a portion of the fic you are printing it is one section of the book, whereas a text block is the whole thing together)

That's if you want to print through the program you're type facing (the text within the pages all of the formatting and indents and everything we started covering in part 2 is type facing). I have totally done printing through the word processor but there is a different option that I will cover later down this post.

For now I'm going to try and remember all of the extra stuff I need to cover. A lot of this is trial an error and fiddling, farting, and sometimes sobbing your way through this.

OH! Right if the fic you're type facing has a fake email. Like.... I don't know "lighthousekeeper@email.com" Word will sensor it automatically when you paste it onto the document. The only work around I have is to have the OG link to the fic you're working on, and try your best to locate the email copy it, and find it within the text of the document using the headers to skip to the chapter in question and scan for the brackets with [Email redacted] or some such, it's usually blue text with "[ ]" going on.

I can't truly think of anything else at this time pertaining to my tips and tricks for Word. There is more I may know but my mind is fizzling out I may circle back to this but I think I'll move on towards downloading and uploading fonts to use in your bookbinding adventures and some Canva stuff.

DaFont and 1001 Free Fonts work

Dafont:

1001:

I'll be using these two Fonts as my examples cause... well I actually quite like them.

Hit "Download"

This will pop up on your screen hit "OK"

Go to your Downloads or where you put your downloads,

Right click on the file in question and hit "Extract All"

Hit Extract.

Click on the folder post extraction. The file type you're looking for is "Open Type Font File" Right Click, "Install" or "Install for all Users" works as well and the font will be available to anyone that has a User key for the computer you're on.

Sometimes the file will look like this:

The Greyed out one? That's the type file.

There will be a pop up that says "Installing Font" give it a few seconds and it will disappear.

You will now be able to open up your word processor and go to the font section and be able to find your newly downloaded font

Enjoy your new found power in getting fancy pants fonts on your word documents!

Now... Canva...

You can download it for free like I said. I have it on my phone and on my computer as a software application:

So I don't accidentally doxx myself this is all you really need to see- you can do much much more than bookcovers, I've done bookmarks, and logos and a few other things.

but for our purposes we'll open up a document and make a few pages:

At the very tippy top that I did not show there's "create Design" I usually hit either "Bookcover" or "ebook cover".

There will be a document with some template examples and you can scroll and see if you like any of those. OR You can just go down to "Elements" and start playing and toying around with that.

You can also grab screen captures of decorative lines to replace the "***" on your document.

How to do this- in elements there should be a search bar type in "decorative lines" and you can refine it "Decorative Rainbow" "brush stroke" "ornate" then open up the application on your computer that allows for screen shots Snip and Sketch for Windows, I don't know for Mac. Sorry.

Select something you like and when it appears on the document click outside of it.

open up your screen grab and grab the line in question

Here's my example.

Now in your word document feel free to go into the Pages tab of the Navigation bar and find whatever the author has used to break up the text. Highlight, right click, hit "search" There will be a pop up on the right hand of word hit the tab that says "Search this document/file" you can see how many times "***" or the equivalent has been used. I would suggest opening this link and reading all of the other tips and tricks since they break it down better than I ever could.

Edit as of November 18th 2023: But the root gist of it all is to highlight the "***" or equivalent divider on the document. Right click, "Search" there will be a prompt that opens on the right hand side of Word hit the "In this Document" and it will bring up every instance of what you have highlighted.

Have the image you intend to replace "***" with right click "Copy". Back in Word, hit "Replace" there will be a box that pops up with "Replace with" Type: ^C . What this does is take the image you've just copied and will override the highlighted "***" Hit "Replace all". You may have to scrub through the document to center it properly but thankfully it's easier to find especially with the Navigation Bar on the "Pages" tab open.

End Edit

Though you can just scroll and find the breaks highlight and drag and drop the image to break up the text if you so choose. Do what works for you.

Now you can also do the same thing with decorative chapter headers, just choose or fiddle and make something that works for the fic in question. Remember when I made you do all of those "Next Page" breaks for the fic? Well on the top of that page with the chapter, double click the header insert an image and "warp image" to "Behind text" and you are free to resize and move the image around.

Just so you know whatever is next to the image will repeat with this example it's the author's name, it will appear no matter the page number odd or even. I don't know the work around and it doesn't bother me much at the end of the day. At this point I'm just trying to pull all of the tips and tricks I've learned over time out of my ass to help people out.

Back to Canva. You can make your Covers if you'd like in this and you can do decorative cover pages. Just go to the page that you want the title page on, insert an image, and warp image to "In front of text" You will be free to stretch and fill the page as much as you please. I do the same thing with my logo placement for the logo page.

Now... if you're still with me... Congratulations I'm not sure I'm still with me or not.

So I'll move on to the "OK I like how this all looks and I've saved everything I've done"

GREAT you can calculate the right number of signatures and print from here OR you can take a few extra steps.

Hit File, Export, hit Create PDF/XPS. I hope you have at least a free Acrobat or PDF reader. Wait. Don't panic if it looks like the processor is freezing up on you. there should be a pop up of a PDF after that minor heart attack.

Now. With your new PDF you're going to go to Bookbinder JS

Upload the pdf file you've created and I'll walk you through the steps.

Letter 612 x 792 is your standard 8.5 x 11 paper.

Printer type- Duplex I hope you have a duplex printer. You'll need it or else you will be manually flipping the pages to make this book bind.

Folio- That is just 8.5 x 11 paper folded in half to make 8.5 x 5.5 booklets. Keep these numbers in mind.

Signature format- there you can select "Perfect bound" AKA Paperback. Or Standard signature. Here I select 20 page signatures. Keep in mind that there will be four pages per one sheet of paper.

Preview output ALWAYS preview output because it will tell you how many signatures will be with the upload. For example:

What this means: Total pages of the file uploaded, since the fic I'm type facing is 300+k words I divided the chapters up.

so you know what a 100+k word fic looks like printed folded and the air compressed (I will cover this as well) Keep this in mind this was Celestial Navigation now add similarly stacked pages atop of what's here. 100+k fics it's wisest and best to split this in half. Keep in mind your wrists. 500-600 pages is comfortable holding. You can get to around 800 pages but if it's 900+ pages I would think about dividing the document up.

After you are happy with the number of everything. Hit "Generate Output" wait for the popup for the save file to appear and hit "Save" this will be in a zip file as well. Head over to your Downloads and hit extract, open up the file and some terminology that will help with this:

Aggregate book means "the whole damn thing" Signature 0 is the first signature.

To spare the wrath and protest of my printer- I print one signature at a time and fold it since I don't have to worry about getting the page numbers to line up.

Take however much time you please. Next post. Folding signatures, pressing signatures, stitching, gluing end bands and ribbons.

aka- welcome to the world little fic. We hope you enjoy your stay. You're going to be a real book soon.

If I wasn't running out of steam I would cover Quartos. But if you wanted to print a smaller fic know this- increase the text size through out the whole document, these things are SMALL. 4.5x5.5 all said and done. I would go to TikTok and Youtube and look up "Quarto Book bind" if you want to see the smallest, cutest most pain in your ass book you've ever wanted to try and make.

I've done those as experiments as well... they can be fun but my god I'm bad at mathing at times.

[selfindulgentsillinessbracket]

Why Each Character(s) Were Chosen, or, Why These Sillies Are Special To Me - CHAPTER 1 of ??

This is a series of posts documenting why each silly in this bracket is in this bracket & why they're each special to me.

These will be getting fairly personal & I may ramble on too long but I want to be sincere so I won't hold back my overly silly manner of typing if need be.

These will be covered in order of appearance on the brackets from first to last contestant(s).

#1. Wario & Waluigi

Wario is straight up my favorite mario character. No cap. He's number 1. His character, his games (Wario Land is peak 2D platformer with the only series beating it in existence being Donkey Kong Country), his moveset. He's a king if you ask me. Waluigi is by all accounts my other fav. I'm so mad they refuse to use him in the Wario land games. The one series he SHOULD be in. I demand they treat him better. Anyways love these two goofballs & they've always struck a chord with me. I'm all about the goofy rivals. Wario & Waluigi are just pure fun. Love em. Also play Wario Land 4 because it's literally peak. I promise you it's worth your time.

#2 Calvin & Hobbes

Back when I was a wee lad, the thing that made me wanna do art in the first place? That was comic strips. In particular, Calvin & Hobbes, & Garfield. These two series are why I'm an artist. I owe it all to these two along with that fat orange cat. But we'll get to Garfield later, for now, let's focus on Calvin & Hobbes. They were the first ones I was introduced too. I didn't read Garfield til a few years after I met Calvin & Hobbes. I loved these two. And their comics are timeless. The writing is just out of this world with how smart & hilarious it is. It doesn't matter that it's from the 80s or 90s, they still ring true now. They're still God damn hilarious. These guys made me wanna make my own comics. Which led to me making my own characters. Which led to me becoming an artist. Thank you Calvin & Hobbes. Thanks for shaping who I am today.

#3 Squeek

Ok so there's not much to cover here. Squeek here is from a game called Oddworld: Squeek's Oddysee. Never heard of it? Yeah of course not, it was canceled. Like many Oddworld games sadly are. See the teason I have SO MANY oddworld reps on this bracket is 1. Yeah oddworld is extremely special to me. But 2. I'm hoping it'll cause more people to give the oddworld games a shot. They're so underrated. Legit my favorite story, world, lore & narratives in all of gaming. Squeek is a character who from what little we know, he's got so much potential. His lore is tragic and depressing but that makes you want to see him beat the odds like how Abe & Munch did. Squeek was meant to be our third protagonist. And maybe someday he'll get that chance again. Anyways please I implore you guys to give this series a shot. They're not perfect, but there's so much to love.

#4 Zoey

Ok Zoey is a character who I need to get personal to explain why she was a special enough OC to be in this bracket. So this is gonna be a long one. Zoey has been around for a while now. I mean like a while. She was created back in March of 2016. Yes I actually remember the exact time she was made. So yeah, that's her origin. The very first artwork of Zoey ever made has the original time saved on the upload date. Lucky us, bc we know her time of creation.

Zoey was officially created on March 3rd, 2016. Here was the first drawing of her. Comparison to her current look included :)

Now I know what you're thinking, yes this does look awful. I was not nearly as good at art back then. 2016 was a terrible time. But after that Zoey was just left forgotten, never had a real idea what to do with her. Until this past year, I uncovered her. And with a new design and finally having a solid personality to give her, she was given life. My life. Because the personality she ultimately found was just mine. She is quite literally the definition of a self insert. When I write Zoey I am literally just writing myself. Or to be more accurate, I'm writing a very cartoonishly exaggerated version of myself.

The fact people vote for her at all, it genuinely got me to cry more than once. It means so much to me. Bc Zoey means so much to me. So, thank you. And Zoey thanks you all too, she's humbled & would hug all of you if she could (and if we both were more open to physical contact but autism yknow yeah)

Next Chapter of this coming idk anyways Polls are still open so voting is still here for group 1 & 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[dojae-huh]

I have mixed feelings about the hard versions of Fact Check album. The presentation doesn't help to persuade to buy, really.

The order the versions were uploaded on X was confusing. The Storage version that is meant to be the main one was shown last.

Storage ver. seems to be silver. If it will have embedded cover, then it should look good. On the other hand, a flat cover surface would look cheap and boring. Fingers crossed. The photoalbum is yet another compilation of pictures with no effort for layout design. The only saving grace is neos' clothes and make up. The designer picked the worst spreadsheet for the ad, heh. I hope the final print is not as dark as it seems. No play on money, art objects, no peculiar inclusions... another distilled "pretty boys" album. *sobs in Limitless*

Exhibit ver. Making a separate package solely with pocas and posters is a good idea. Fans can buy their bias without needing to throw out a photoalbum. SM gets additional sold albums for the charts. Most will buy Storage/Chandeliar+bias Exhibit. I think it's the first album/photoshoot version among all 127 albums where I would buy (having money, which I don't, heh) all the versions because everyone looks good. What a difference a proper concept makes, huh. All the clothes and the styling is impecable. I also like that eventhough neos portray rich Auctioners/Art buyers, there is still that Circus feeling present. It connects to Chandeliar. The small black and white icons in the left bottom corner of the posters were also selected well.

This! The matching flowers, the poses, the characteristic hairdos. I'm in love.

5. Chandeliar ver. Looks very plain. But has 128 pages. If the photoshoot is nice and the print is good quality, than it should be OK. The blur on the pictures looks promising. It gives the mysterious/otherwordly feel to pictures. I like the sticker set. Bare minimum, but cute.

6. QR ver. I don't know what to think about Taeil's absence. It's not the main album version. Still, personally, I'd prefer the animation version of Taeil over the lack of him. He is going into the military soon. It's his last album for some time. Even if most of his fans won't buy such a version, the inclusion would count, the unit complete. Also. This version is very simplistic, and Taeil's character was dressed in a simple suit. It was possible to come to his house, put him in a suit and take a few close up shots. If he thought of coming to the Seoul concert, he was not bed-ridden. Another way: take some old pics of him, draw clothes like in the animation on top.

7. QR ver. is called Nemo ver. in the ad. Should I consider it as "fact check" esster egg or blame stuff's forgetfulness? Heh. There is also a missed space after a comma in the copyright words in this version.

In conclusion: definitely better than Ay-Yo. A well defined concept thanks to the clothes, fresh looks. However, the hard albums themselves remain very simplistic, unimaginative. There is little play on the concept, which actually gives a lot of room for creativity. No decorative elements, no inclusions, no mysteries. There is no additional effort really. The selling point is still "pretty boys".

[copperbadge]

Some Discourse On Fictional Chefs

I collected up all the discussion of Simon’s potential love interest in the Shivadhverse (and one about Twelve Points) and threw it in a post :D 

katestamps

If it is realistic at all, I’d love to be able to hand 12 Points to my musician daughter when she gets home from college around the 18th of May. That’s also the week after Eurovision. No pressure, I’m just excited for her to read it!

For a second I was like “If the book is realistic? Well, it kinda is, I’m working on that now” and then I realized you meant datewise :D I hope it is -- the book’s in final edits but a few of them are taking some time. I have to finish the edits, typeset, design the cover, upload, order proofs, approve the proofs, and then the thing can go out, which is not NOT doable by May, but it’s slightly iffy only because my April is super hectic. But most of the delay is usually in ordering the proofs (they take longer than they used to, to print and ship) so if I can get shit done BEFORE the hectic, we should be good. 

And now on to the chefs. I was a little amused, admittedly, because I didn’t vocalize clearly what I was asking about when I asked what people would like to see -- I was thinking more in terms of gender, sexuality, disability, race, etc. but I didn’t specify that, so instead I mostly got fascinating ideas for backstories and character aspects. Which is so fandom! I love it, I’m not mad or dismayed, it’s just also really funny. :D 

dignitywhatdignity

Are you thinking someone from Eddie's TV Chef circles, or more along Simon's own, more classical background?

spaci1701

A protégé of Eddie's who has taken over his show comes to do a special on the Country that Stole Our Star and had gotten a little big for his britches?

1968bullittmustang

It's probably too close to Eddie's character, but... What about one of those chef's that travel the world cooking the most awful (or best) local dishes with home chef's. Or maybe just a National Geographic photographer in country to do a piece on the 'One Highland' 😁

I’d like them to be a native Shivadh, only because most of the books to date have involved either total foreigners or expats returning, and both Royals/Ramblers and the football novel will as well. I’m hoping for someone who has moved to Fons-Askaz from the rural backcountry, but the idea is that Simon comes into conflict with someone who has a much less “fancy food from a classical background” style -- part of the conflict comes from each of them initially assuming the other has the inferior way of cooking. So -- more on Eddie’s line BUT not one of Eddie’s folks, because whoever this person is, they’re relatively local. 

Mind you, I do like the National Geographic angle. And I do kind of like the idea that someone else took over Truly Tasty. Eddie said that might happen. And that’s something I’d need to work into Royals/Ramblers so hmmm, making a note. 

dignitywhatdignity

(Or you could steal from the foodieverse! A classically trained hipster with a Michelin-starred food truck! A chain pizza scion with a flair for molecular gastronomy!)

Actually nicking some from the Foodieverse might be helpful -- maybe taking and twisting around Steve’s plotline from that universe a bit, though that doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be a Hot Male Hipster. But perhaps someone who trained classically and then decided it was all bullshit. 

spinningprincess

It's in my brain because it's what I'm writing, but I bet someone who's a little bit New Agey and leans hard into the symbolism of EVERY dish, whether from a "traditional foods of XYZ culture" standpoint or a "historically used for $magickal effect" standpoint, and like, talks about the energy of the kitchen, would be a great and interesting counterpoint to Simon's lack of that. And it's such a GOOD romance trope. (to be clear, I'm writing two different stories right now where no one ever cooks a food because they're hungry and want to eat A Food, it's all "well, basil is good prosperity magic, but cabbage is good prosperity magic and also the traditional food of my people, and...")

On the whole it’s an idea I like, but I’m not sure it’s fitted to this particular plot -- might be something to revisit with another character at some point, though. 

I’m discovering just how difficult it is to write hippie/new-age characters with Royals/Ramblers in part because so much of that mythology eventually traipses around towards anti-Semitism. Not necessarily food symbolism, and not ALL new age stuff is that way, but it really is a razor-fine line at times. 

knottahooker

My first thought was that terrifying lady chef from Ratatouille, she was fantastic. Someone with her personality, maybe? Cactus with a heart of gold who will absolutely stab you anyway.

My instinct is along those lines, at the least someone who is a trifle confrontational, but I feel like so much of it depends on other aspects of who they are, which is what I’m struggling to pin down. 

robinade

it would be funny if Simon's "nemesis" was, like, lactose intolerant or something so they have objections to French cuisine (so heavy on cheese and butter) but Simon doesn't know this at first and is mortally offended

musegaarid

What if Simon falls for a bodybuilder or a ballerina or someone on a really restrictive diet? If they were older and getting ready to retire, he could reintroduce them to good food.

I like both of these -- I think there’s particularly something to the idea of an athlete who has eaten a restricted diet, since that’s something that can alter more easily than allergies. But to make the story work they really do need to be a fellow chef. Which, there’s no reason they couldn’t have dietary restrictions AND be a chef, but I’m not sure I’d do either side of them justice that way. 

katestamps

Ooh, I just had the thought of Simon’s nemesis as a French chef which was actually an espionage cover. Think Julia Child, Cold War edition. (I also think of Simon as 5-10 years older than Michaelis which may or may not be accurate.)

Man, there is something to the idea of a spy. I’d say from Galia, but I don’t think Ofelia either wants or needs someone to spy on Fons-Askaz for her, she could just like, ask Alanna if she needs to know something :D Might turn this over in my head a bit, although it would again mean someone coming from outside the country. 

Simon is actually a trifle younger than Michaelis -- Michaelis was around 34, 35 when he hired him, and Simon and Hugo were both in their twenties. It still puts him in his fifties -- I do enjoy writing romances for older people, especially because there is something of a dearth of romance novels specifically featuring older men (they do exist but you run face-first into the “daddy” trope a lot, and “older man” in romance-speak often clocks in at “definitely under fifty”). Older women as the POV character are more common, I would imagine because older women are a huge target audience for romances. 

annechen-melo

Thinking about the love interest for Simon, someone who Absolutely Does Not Have A Media Presence beyond their cookbooks, and there is a Very Good Reason for that. That reason may be anything from an acerbic personality whenever someone points a camera in their direction to being just not good at Peopleing. Hmm. How international is the idea of Witness Protection Makeovers?

They could also just be crap at social media -- I’ve come to realize that every social platform EXCEPT tumblr is basically incompatible with my brain, and even the ones marginally compatible like Reddit, I just don’t find a ton of value in them a lot of the time. Which would be a nice foil to Simon starting up a recipe blog at the same time. 

strix-alba

I wish for Simon's love interest to be a salt-and-pepper-haired butch woman *shakes the genie's lamp*

There’s definitely a salt-and-pepper butch woman coming into the Shivadhverse at some point. :D I had her set for a later book, and not sure that’d be right for Simon, but I’m not ruling it out -- a fairly mouthy, fairly masc woman about Simon’s age is one of the strong potential characters I’m considering. 

Anonymous asked:

Shivadhverse: Concerning Simon’s love interest: would you consider someone like Catherine Bordey, owner of La Kaz,  from “Death in Paradise”? Or possibly even a French POC like her daughter? I’d really love 💕 to see a character who is both French and a POC. 😊

I’ve seen an episode or two of Death in Paradise but I don’t think I’ve encountered those two characters! I’ll have to see if my folks can educate me on them, they love that show. I am trying to figure out how to work more racial diversity into the books, so that’s a thought. Not necessarily French, but French-Shivadh; they do share a border. 

Anonymous asked:

maybe not a fit but I'll try anyway. what i'd like in a chef character is someone who tried something, really got into it, then backed out of it so hard. like the foraging culture, which could net you a research hole into local greens. what if they believe it's now too polluted to forage safely? and yet they have an encyclopedic knowledge of the seasons and life cycles of sidewalk dandelions. tl;dr cursed knowledge

As an aspect of the character that could work, although it gets difficult because like...the deeper someone is in something, the more I have to learn in order to put it out there :D I was looking at something along those lines, or at least something similar that might make them a bit brusque. Lots to mull on overall, anyhow.