#while drawing this I learned the tweet is referencing a bit from some show

[gothicswiftv]

Is that for Here or To-Go ?

[steverogersbingo]

✨ STEVE ROGER BINGO’S ROUND UP - POST 1 ✨

Check out the fills our participants posted from the first month under the cut!

🎨 ART

heaven isn't in the sky (it's underwater) by agron T // Steve/Tony // Mermaids Summary: when steve went underwater he was discovered by three mermaid tony stark instead

Untitled by ABrighterDarkness G // Steve/Bucky // Alpine Summary: Steve and Bucky get distracted, Alpine enjoys every minute.

Space Stone by AriaFandom G // Gen // Moodboard Summary: Galaxy aesthetic for the space stone

Untitled by sanguineterrain G // Gen Summary: Magical, canon-divergent Steve

Untitled by call-me-kayyyyy G // Steve/Bucky // AU; Fantasy; Loin-cloths Summary: Steve and Bucky are elf's who ride their unicorns to check the perimeter.

Steve Rogers becomes Cernunnos by pinkybitesu T // Gen // AU Summary: Steve had always felt connected to the Earth. Becoming the God of the Forest, Cernunnos, made it all make sense.

"That Is America's Ass." by bleedxblack T // Steve/Bucky Summary: Steve Rogers straddles Bucky's waist with booty shorts that read "it ain't gonna spank himself".

📝 FIC

Clean Up These Bloody Fists by dontcallmebree E // 8,657 // Steve/Bucky // Shrunkyclunks; Mob AU Summary: Bucky can’t decide if Steve’s unendingly generous with his care for those around him, or if Bucky’s simply been lucky enough to scale the wall built up over decades, and had somehow proven himself worthy of the affection. Either way, he knows he’ll never take this for granted. Spend some time with Steve and Bucky this week in the perpetually fluffy ‘verse of Do The Things You Never Showed Nobody.

Scars by Kimberly T // 1,888 // Steve/Bucky // Post-CATWS Summary: The serum means that Steve can't scar anymore, though he's retained his pre-existing scarring. While in the hospital recovering from the fight on the helicarrier, Steve does a little introspection about this. It's bittersweet.

Without Regret by ABrighterDarkness E // 5,284 // Steve/Thor Summary: It had been a very long time since Steve had last felt like this. There was a buzz in his mind and tingling through his body. His movements were just slightly slower, clumsier and his were words spoken a little more loosely with a tongue that felt more weighty than it ought to. Even that, though, felt different than the last time that he’d had the opportunity to overindulge with a friend.

Love and Learning by ABrighterDarkness T // 7,746 // Steve/Natasha Summary: It reminded him, a little bit, of stepping into a machine seeing everything in varying shades of grey. Only to stumble out again into a world of color more vibrant than anything he could have possibly imagined. Overwhelming but entirely breathtaking and welcome.

Good by hawkeyeandthewintersoldier T // 1,062 // Steve/Bucky/Tony Summary: Steve returns to the compound and finds that the two men he loves, but never told his feelings to, are a couple now.

Lie to Me by Kit T // 2,102 // Steve/Bucky // Body Swap Summary: After a mission gone wrong, Steve and Natasha end up trapped in the others body. Instead of telling everybody, they make a bet. Who will be able to conceal their identity the longest?

Dream a Little Dream of Me by buckybleeds E // 5,719 // Steve/Bucky // Dub-con; Self-cest Summary: Steve goes back in time to comfort himself after Bucky fell and ends up having sex with himself. 

Pride by Kit T // 1,726 // Steve/Bucky Summary: Tony wants to take Steve to pride to watch him freak out. Natasha tags along to do damage control.

Take Care of You by hawkeyeandthewintersoldier M // 1,756 // Steve/Bucky // Daddy Kink; Age Difference; AU Summary: Steve has been so busy with his work as a commander at shield lately, that he has barely had time for his partner Bucky. Bucky’s worried his Daddy might not want him anymore and Steve has to rectify this by showing how much he loves his baby.

Love Has Left a Printed Trace by Girl_Back_There E // 1,726 // Steve/Bucky // Vampires; Dub-con Summary: Steve is obsessed with finding a mysterious figure named Winter in paintings throughout the years. James is a Vampire named Winter charged with keeping Vampires a secret from humanity.

with the weight of the world at the tips of my fingers by avintagekiss24 E // 4,420 // Steve/Reader // AU Summary: You and Steve share a morning in bed.

Always You by hawkeyeandthewintersoldier M // 1,691 // Steve/Bucky // AU Summary: After a year of traveling, Steve finally comes home and confesses his feelings to Bucky.

Stop the World by Rex E // 6,828 // Steve/Scott // AU Summary: When Steve got hired to entertain at Cassie Lang's thirteenth birthday party, he had thought it was going to be like every other kid's party he'd booked. He'd show up, play Captain America, get paid, and go home. He never quite gets to that last step, but to be fair, there was no way he could have anticipated the draw of Scott Lang.

Always by Rex G // 437 // Steve/Matt Murdock // Canon Divergence Summary: Even the Devil of Hell's Kitchen needs an angel from time to time. This one just happens to be from Brooklyn.

Glass by Rex M // 859 // Gen // Non-graphic torture; Implied non-con; Referenced suicide Summary: "We'll lose." "Then we'll do that together, too." Sokovia crashed, Ultron won, and he always had hated Tony the most.

We are already home by Bitters E // 4,948 // Steve/Bucky Summary: Steve carries an injured Bucky through a portal into…somewhere else? But they’re together, like they always have been, and that’s all that matters.

end of the line, time to go home. by moonythejedi394 M // 3,484 // Steve/Bucky // Canon Divergence; Daddy Kink; Age Play/Regression Summary: Steve and Bucky always said they were together 'til the end of the line. But even they have to get off the train eventually. Everybody always figures, at the end of the line is... Y'know. The End. But actually, at the end of the line is happily ever after. It just took them a few decades and a couple suitcases of trauma to get there.

Not Technically A Bromance by dontcallmebree M // 8,657 // Steve/Bucky Summary: “A bromance?” Bruce asks, voice tinged with restrained laughter. “Yeah, we have one of those.” Steve glowers at Bruce, who’s patently laughing at him, eyes bright and twinkling with mirth. Bruce composes himself, biting at his bottom lip. “And you’ve had sex how many times?” (Inspired by that tweet, you know the one.)

At the Top of My Lungs by ralsbecket T // 1,646 // Steve/Tony Summary: Two months had passed since Tony had lost his life; since they had laid him to rest six feet under. It was two months of trying to keep his world from further falling apart, and it wasn’t really working in his favor. So, no. No, he wasn’t okay.

Thor’s Art Class for the Heroes of Midgard by WinterSabbath T // 6,338 // Steve/Bucky // Canon Divergence Summary: In which Thor makes it his mission to help mend the broken, cold relationship between Steven and James through the only way he can think of: Art class. As a bonus, he also helps the team loosen up.

So Let It Happen by Bitters E // 2,287 // Steve/Bucky // Canon Divergence Summary: Steve comes home from a tough mission and needs to get out of his head. His husband and retired Avenger is only too happy to help him with this.

Made of Glass (The Way You See Through Me) by ralsbecket T // 1,132 // Steve/Tony // AU Summary: Steve wasn’t sure what came over him when the model walked out from the back room, wearing a robe; from the moment his eyes landed on his face, he was just… awestruck. Dark hair, bright eyes, full lips. He was fucking beautiful. Or, the one where Tony is the model in Steve's life-drawing class.

for your cooperation by xceru E // 3,145 // Steve/Nat // Canon Divergence Summary: Hydra kidnaps Natasha on a routine mission in Cairo. When Steve finds her, Natasha decides that it's his turn to play prisoner.

my heart in the still winter air by xceru E // 11,887 // Steve/Bucky/Nat // Canon Divergence Summary: “He will,” Steve says, and suddenly Natasha understands. This is the man that Steve altered his heart for, the one he thought only the serum could love. But now Steve knows better—he knows he’s bisexual—he knows his love is real, and the man that it belongs to is undead.

Won't Let Go by afalsebravado E // 2,358 // Steve/Bucky // Canon Divergence Summary: Steve is on the hunt for the Winter Sold-- Bucky. He's on the hunt for Bucky when the leads dry up and he heads home to regroup. But a package from Tony Stark arrives on his doorstep and makes him re-evaluate old promises.

The Truth of Who I Am by hawkeyeandthewintersoldier T // 1,203 // Steve/Bucky // Canon Divergence Summary: Steve Rogers is not a cis straight man and he is tired of people erasing that and other parts of his identity so he fits into the image they already had of him.

Bruise of a Rose by marvelousmoons G // 1,710 // Steve/Bucky // Canon Divergence Summary: It’s moments like this that get under his skin the most. The way Steve can just… be Steve. Be dramatic and give Bucky the cold shoulder for simply caring. But Bucky was stronger. He could play Steve’s game. He wouldn’t cave, no. He would sit and wait for the silence to overwhelm Steve first.

... And all I got was this lousy t-shirt by RainbowNerds M // 3,126 // Steve/Bucky // AU Summary: A month ago, Steve had the best sex of his life with a guy he met in a bar, and went home with the most hideous shirt he'd ever seen but no phone number. Enter his new roommate, Becca. The two instances are not connected, right?

Love you too, jerk by WinterRaven G // 636 // Steve/Bucky // Canon Divergence; Fanart included Summary: Steve makes breakfast for Bucky and their 'kids' help him wake up his husband.

[ameliarating]

I read through @pumpkinpaix‘s deeply thoughtful post about cultural appropriation and dismissal of Chinese cultural concerns (two related but distinct phenomena) in non-Chinese MDZS/CQL fan-spaces and should-be-obvious-but-painfully-is-not disclaimer: 

When it comes to these things, the voices that should be rising above the rest are the Chinese fans speaking out about what they’ve seen.

I’m only here because I feel I have what to say on this bit here: 

For context, we are referencing two connected instances: the conflict described in these two threads (here and here), and when @/jelenedra tweeted about giving Jewish practices to the Lans. Regarding the latter, we felt that it tread into the territory of cultural erasure, and that it came from a person who had already disrespected diaspora’s work and input.

Context

The Lans have their own religious and cultural practices, rooted both in the cultural history of China and the genre of xianxia. Superimposing a different religious practice onto the Lans amidst other researched, canonical or culturally accurate details felt as if something important of ours was being overwritten for another’s personal satisfaction. Because canon is so intrinsically tied to real cultural, historical, and religious practices, replacing those practices in a canon setting fic feels like erasure. While MDZS is a fantasy novel, the religious practices contained therein are not. This was uncomfortable for many of us, and we wanted to point it out and have it resolved amicably. We were hoping for a discussion or exchange as there are many parallels and points of relation between Chinese and Jewish cultures, but that did not turn out quite as expected.

What happened next felt like a long game of outrage telephone that resulted in a confusion of issues that deflected responsibility, distracted from the origin of the conflict, and swept our concern under the rug.

Specifically, we are concerned about how these two incidents are part of what we feel is a repeated, widespread pattern of the devaluing of Chinese fans’ work and concerns within this fandom. This recent round of discourse is just one of many instances where we have found ourselves in a position of feeling spoken over within a space that is nominally ours. Regardless of what the telephone game was actually about, the way it played out revealed something about how issues are prioritized.

(Big surprise, I’m going to talk about Jewish things and MDZS)

I haven’t read the fic in question, but I have certainly made many posts about Jewishness and the Lans, imagining certain traditional Jewish educational settings and modes of learning and argumentation as superimposed onto the Cloud Recesses. I’ve also written other posts, mostly for me and the three other people out there who would find it funny, imagining different sects as different Jewish sects - or at least, who they have most in common with.

Never was I imagining these characters or worlds to be actually Jewish, but, as people often do in fandom, I was playing around in the spaces, delighting in overlaps I found, out of a deep-seated wish that I could have anything like MDZS or so many of the other fantasy I loved with Jews.

I’m jealous. I’m so jealous. 

Here’s how I was relating to it: 

China is a country of billions with an immense media audience of its own, its own television, movies, books, comics, etc. The only Jewish equivalent could ever be Israel, very tiny, and while there is a lot of good Israeli television, books, etc out there, it doesn’t approach what’s available from China, and certainly none of it has broken through to be a fandom presence of its own, not even in Jewish only or Hebrew speaking spaces. And even when that happens, the creators don’t often draw on Jewish history and myth. (One example I can think of a show that does is Juda, a Jewish vampire show from Israel, but I know exactly one (1) person on tumblr who’s seen it.)

So I was treating MDZS the way I treat American media - as a playground. Since I can’t find Jewish stories, especially in fantasy, I’m going to play around with it in non-Jewish stories.

Here’s how I should have been relating to it:

There are so many people who, like me, have been hungry to find themselves and their stories and their magic in fandom spaces. They have a show that’s made it big. Is it fair to, even playing around in tumblr posts, set so much of that rich cultural context aside in order for me to find room for my own? 

In the U.S., at least, where I am, it’s not the same as doing the same thing with, say, The Lord of the Rings (where I wrote a fic making use of Jewish mourning practices and assigned them to the Beorians) or Harry Potter, because that’s taking a dominant culture which is all I usually ever see and make room for myself. 

In MDZS, especially in the English language fandom where the Chinese cultural context is never dominant and is often shouted over and overlooked, and where there just aren’t many other examples of media that made it big in the fandom, I am only making room for myself by shoving aside something else that barely has any room at all.

In many ways, I became the fan that frustrates me, that writes about Jewish characters celebrating Christmas, rather than the fan that I wanted to be, which gets excited about cultural overlap and similarities. I’m sorry and I apologize.

My first reaction was not to. My first reaction was to say it’s not the same. Because it isn’t the same. It’s never the same when minorities do things to each other. But even if that’s less destructive, in some ways it’s more painful, because that’s where we should be able to look to each other for solidarity. (Obviously this is in English language fandom - Chinese fans are not a minority in Chinese language fandoms!)

I do believe that there should be room to make silly posts about the Lans doing things that Jews do, because the Lans do do things that Jews do. When I made an edit where Lan Wangji was responding to Lan Qiren quoting in Hebrew from the Jewish prayerbook rather than the sect rule to distance from evil, I did that because he was saying the exact same thing. It was wonderful to me, that a Lan sect rule could be exactly the same as something I pray every morning.

That’s very different from when I wrote imagining the Lans as Jews which left no more room for the Lans as Chinese Buddhists. It’s those later things I apologize for and what I’ll be careful about in the future.

I do still want to return to something I said just above, however: “Because it isn’t the same. It’s never the same when minorities do things to each other.”

I worry, as I wrote in a separate post, about the tendency I see in anti-colonial, anti-imperialist spaces to look at Jewish practices and laws and culture and see it as an example of Western hegemony rather than as a survivor of it. Especially in a post that talks about the Chinese diaspora experience, where the very word diaspora was coined to describe the Jewish scattering across the globe and only much later was used for other cultures and peoples.

I don’t object to its now much more universal use as a word. It’s useful and it’s powerful and I believe it can be used to build solidarity. I do ask for, however, recognition that while Jews, especially in the West, might reproduce Western hegemony and use it against others, our own ethno-religious experiences bubbling up is not one of those reproductions.

In other words, when we erase, accidentally or purposefully, the Chinese cultural and religious contexts of characters in MDZS/CQL in our rush to write in Jewish cultural and religious contexts, we are doing harm as ourselves, not as representatives of Western/European/Christian hegemony. And in fact, what inspired us to write in our own contexts is that there are certain things (deference to elders, life carefully regulated by a series of laws about everything from interpersonal-ethical behavior to food habits to modes of speech, cultural horror regarding desecration of the dead, etc) we find in these stories that we don’t find in many Western stories that resonate with our own cultural background.

Which is not to erase the harm itself. I am sorry for it and I will do my best going forward to write about overlaps without erasing or replacing what is already there from the beginning and should remain so.

[sufferingsapphire-blog]

What did you think of the new bomb? :O

OKAY so tl;dr: much better than sb5. which yeah, is still a pretty low standard, but this bomb had far more interesting elements to it! the first three eps had a season 1 vibe that i really liked, and the last two were pretty engaging as well. that isn’t to say that my sentiments are all praise though. i’ll put an episode-by-episode opinion under the cut!

lion 4: alternate ending: the art and colors were actually really nice in this one! steven and greg were visibly chubby, too, thank god…….and the reappearance of lion. too bad he won’t come back for a while since his voice actor is so expensive :\

this episode would have worked wayyy better as a season one or two episode though. ive heard people say that the point of this episode was to show that you shouldn’t overhype things (i.e., steven overhyping what he was supposed to find given rose’s key only to find out it’s an alternate tape), but it just immediately fell flat when you realized that the tape for “nora” was pretty much a carbon copy of the tape for steven. i felt really sad because it ultimately robbed the emotional value of lion 3′s ending for me. 

lion 3 is the first time we really get to see rose quartz, and she’s shown as this beautiful, all-loving being. and then we get into some darker stuff as the series progresses, learning she kept a bunch of secrets and has done some questionable things. so when we see her again, it would have been really nice to balance that out and have her with some deleted messages for steven, perhaps (like…actual alternate endings)? to sort of show she still genuinely cares about her son instead of making him seem like “just another outcome.”

(annnd this is just me perhaps but GOD that line from greg, “you could be steven or nora or anyone else, you could always change your name” just made my mind scream TRANS GIRL STEVEN but yknow. idk if theyd ever go in that direction but wishful thinking :’) )

doug out: HHHHHHHH i LOVE doug maheswaran so much. what a dork. i kinnnd of felt like the writing in this was…a bit stiff, though. perhaps it was just doug’s va’s delivery?? it felt kind of text-to-speak. but perhaps they were just trying to go for the effect of doug clearly putting on an act to impress connie and steven which i can get! 

only negative things aside from that i can really give for this one is that the art was just…hoo boy. i think you know.

im usually pretty lax on art inconsistencies (which are still valid criticisms since this is an entirely animated show by animation professionals! it’s just not my main beef w/the show), but sweet jesus what the actual fuck i am laughing so hard rn

the good lars: OKAY this is gonna be extremely biased bc i love lars (well, loved his potential, anyhow) and we actually got development from him holy shit. this is probably one of my favorite human-centric episodes of seasons 3 and 4 (it still won’t beat s1/s2 eps like lars and the cool kids andhorror club but it’s definitely a step up from, like…rocknaldo, yknow?

and i’ve known from the start that he was nonwhite (it was confirmed by burnett via tweet back when s2 was still airing), it was nice to have some specification on that! although i really do wish the term “filipino” was actually used in reference to him.

the cool kids were just. they were perfect. and i liked all of the characterization in this episode! steven still felt a little bland personality-wise, but the little things such as lars picking up “bingo bongo” from him and buck thinking it was cool was cute!

are you my dad? + i am my mom: I HATED THAT DRAWING JOKE SO MUCH. garnet just going “uh, i like me” was so ooc. she’s…supposed to be intelligent, right? that was honestly one of the worst garnet lines ive ever heard. and yeah, of course pearl has to be the ultra-talented one who modestly shrugs it off. like god. amethyst was the one who spent time with an artist (vidalia), shouldn’t she be the “artistic one?” it would have been an okay joke (in regards to pearl) if she wasn’t shown having 320840810382110930+ interests and talents prior in the series.

the designs for aquamarine and topaz seemed really bad when we first saw them but i steered clear of that discussion until i actually got a chance to see the two animated and in action. and i was…pleasantly surprised (halfway, at least).

aquamarine’s design was actually really cool in action! and the whole bow turning into a wand thing was cool. topaz still seemed kind of bland to me though. im totally fine with her body type and such but she just…doesnt look visually interesting, you know? like at least lapis had her wings going for her before aqua stole them and owned them better than her

the fight choreographed between aqua + topaz and the cgs was pretty weak, though. it felt like they were just kind of standing there attacking one at a time. and it’s not like the crew isn’t capable of doing better, you know? like the alexandrite vs malachite fight was REALLY good, along with the lapis vs the cgs fight. everyone was fighting simultaneously in the fight in ocean gem which made it so much more interesting! now, theyre just attacking one at a time like what is this?? attack the light or smth?? did garnet’s gauntlet punch use up all of their stars?? idk

BUT GOD I LOVED JAMIE SO MUCH. his lines were gold, esp “no garnet i’ve moved on i swear” that was funny. 

aqua seemed pretty overpowered though. like if you give a gem the ability to move other gems around at their will at least give it limitations, or else the “fight” won’t be interesting at all. or have aqua’s weapon get lost temporarily or something.

i actually thought referencing the “list” given by peridot was pretty clever, but having steven blow it up so much…was a bit too much. like if anything, peridot should have been the one upset over it and i seriously hope we get to see her reaction later on. 

ANYWAYS im actually looking forward to stuck together a LOT! they left lars on the ship for a reason and im interested to see how that’ll pan out. honestly?? thank god they didn’t try to make this bomb another “conflict solved in five episodes” like week of sardonyx.

[sophygurl]

And now that I’ve written up the panels I attended*, I will attempt to write a little bit about the ones I was actually on. I’m not multi-taskented enough to take vigorous notes while actually panelling, but I’ll try and get some basics down at least. Please feel free to comment with additions and corrections!

(* - I did not write up the Leverage panel because 1) I was super exhausted, and 2) it was mostly a FEELS/SQUEE panel anyway, and 3) I figured (rightly) that it would be heavily live-tweeted anyway, so instead of my trusty notebook and pen, I brought my pillow and I got there early and took up two chairs - I apologize as I know it ended up being standing room only but I decided this was an access issue as if I could not put my feet up my gimpy ass was going to have to go back to bed - and I kinda hugged the wall while sobbing freely, cheering loudly, and generally having an exceptional time. Check the #LeverageFandom on twitter for actual accounts, including some of the show creators tweeting back at the fans awwwww)

Anyway, the first panel that I was on was Science Fiction on TV (#SFonTV) with moderator Carrie Pruett and fellow panelists Sigrid Ellis and Candra K. Gill. 

I was super excited to be on this panel because TV is my JAM and also all of those panelists are excellent people that I’ve had the privilege of panneling with in the past. 

It was primarily a squee panel and I recall raving about 12 Monkeys, Dark Matter, Lucifer, Orphan Black, Luke Cage, Colony, The Expanse, and Timeless among other shows.

Candra and I bonded over being some of the few who prefer Dark Matter over Killjoys (I like them both but DM is one of my absolute faves and I feel like KJ gets a ton more attention).

We discussed some SFF comedies such as The Good Place, The Last Man on Earth, Powerless, and my personal rec: People of Earth (seriously watch this show). 

We chatted about the proliferation of superhero shows (”when is Marvel going to get in the game?” LOL), and also time travel shows - some that succeeded and some that failed. 

OUaT was brought up and many of us agreed that it’s one of those shows we just can’t quit even though we want to. 

And then we did talk some about how much more representation we want out of our TV - specifically out of SFF TV because if they can have magic and super powers and time travel and futuristic sets and space travel - surely they could also have more people of color, more fat people, more disabled people, more queer people, more people of all shapes and sizes and colors. Why is this so hard!?

A few recs that others gave that I wrote down include: The Celluloid Closet documentary (that’s been rec’d to me before, I should really get on that), following Vincent D’Onofrio on twitter, and the show 3%. 

At the end, I did my usual “I love TV - come talk to me about it” spiel, and my MOM from the audience said some embarrassing thing about how I also write great reviews (I don’t even really DO that anymore mom!) so I waved my hand and said “that’s my mom everyone - don’t listen to her!” - and then gave her a big hug after because that’s just such a my-mom thing of her to do and it’s so adorable how she always wants to come to WisCon to “see me talk”. 

The next panel I was on was Where Do We Dystopia From Here? (#WhitherDystopia on the tweeters), which had a pretty good turn-out for a 10:30 pm panel. Our mod got sick so we had a sub-mod who had to kinda jump in to the subject matter last minute. I had some issues with my fellow panelist which isn’t worth getting into on a public post but otherwise I think the panel was good and the audience contributed a lot, which was cool, especially since we were across the hall from the Vid Party!

The hashtag for this one got some good rep, so check that out for a complete idea of how the panel went. I know I started off giving some history of the terms dystopia and utopia because I am a nerd who looks these things up ahead of time. 

I also brought up “whose dystopia? dystopia for who?” a lot as a theme because so many dystopias focus on specific privileged groups who are suddenly having to face conditions that actual real populations of people are already dealing with, which can be frustrating. Also a main theme of dystopias is that some small group of powerful people are in control and wielding that authority in horrific ways - so for that small group of people - it’s not a dystopia. Basically, I just really want to encourage people to be constantly asking themselves whose dystopia is this, for whom is this a dystopia - both in their fiction and in real life.

We talked some about the differences and similarities between post-apocalyptic and dystopian fiction. One thing I’d noted when looking at examples myself was that post-apoc. fiction tends to be in more rural settings with themes about survival, and dystopian fiction tends to be set in more urban settings with the main theme being resistance. Of course, the two can be put together - especially when a dystopia arises after some cataclysmic event. But another form of dystopia is the kind I related to the frog-in-the-pot analogy of it happening slowly and gradually around people so that before they realize they’re in a dystopia it’s already too late.

Themes of dystopian fiction we discussed included: those in power using propaganda to make citizens believe they’re in an utopia; that the totalitarian control of a dystopia can come from any direction - both socialist and capitalist dystopias, dystopias where religion is suppressed or used to oppress, governments taken over or corporations have or technological advances have, etc.; constant surveillance being either a reality or a belief held to keep people under control, dehumanization of the groups being controlled.

When defining dystopia, especially in relation to similar genres, I said it’s kind of like the old saying about porn in that “I know it when I see it.” There’s a specific feel to dystopias - they don’t always fit exactly, but we recognize these common themes and kind of settle in to it.

I talked some about real life examples including the often-used Nazi Germany one, but also stuff from our own history in the U.S. - slavery, conditions after Hurricane Katrina, and frankly what’s happening right now in Flint, MI with the water crisis. 

We talked about what is useful about dystopian fiction - how it reflects a society’s deepest fears and hopes for itself, can draw attention to current real issues, and can provide us with hope and even ideas as to how to resist dystopian aspects of our current situations - or where we see things going in the future.

As far as limitations and problems with the genre, I know I talked some about how most dystopian stories only focus on one or two issues and then take them to a sort of ridiculous extreme which can undermine the multiplicity of issues actually facing us and make us take them less seriously. Also, a common trope of YA dystopias specifically is that one special person who alone has the power to topple the powerful regime and how that trope can lessen the idea that we can all fight back and overcome these things. 

We talked some about the increase in sales of 1984 and BNW after Trump’s election and what that means. I specifically found it interesting that it was these classics written by white guys and not more recent dystopias that may be more applicable or female authors, authors of color, etc. 

I remember being asked about dystopias from more marginalized voices and wondering aloud about examples of poc authors writing dystopias - I could think of Octavia Butler’s Parable series and posited that N. K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth series might fit (got some questioning looks there so IDK if I sold that or not), and someone in the audience reminded me of Alaya Dawn Johnson’s The Summer Prince (which I need to read!), but I don’t think we came up with anything else. 

There was an audience comment about having trouble relating to urban dystopias where they just don’t have skills that could keep them alive because they feel like those would be fairly easy things to learn how to do. I talked about a common theme in dystopias being that either nature no longer exists because we’ve destroyed it or it’s being forbidden in some way - such as in The Hunger Games. 

Some of the sources I referenced included: Brave New World, Nineteen Eighty Four, Woman on the Edge of Time, The Handmaid’s Tale, Parable of the Sower, The Hunger Games series, 12 Monkeys, Mad Max, The Matrix, The Purge movies, Continuum, Colony.

Recs from others that I managed to jot down: Paolo Bacigalupi’s work, Lois Lowry’s The Giver, The Roar and The Whisper by Emma Clayton, Jennifer Government by Max Barry, the Silo series by Hugh Howey, Red Rising by Pierce Brown, The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu, Underground Airlines by Ben Winters, and the Snowpiercer movie.

(I was pleased after attending the other Dystopia panel the next day that we hadn’t had too much overlap. Ours was focused primarily on fiction with a little bit about real life where the other one focused more on real life stuff as it pertains to fiction.)

The third and final panel I was on was The Age of the Scifi Cop Show (#ScifiCops) with moderator Candra K. Gill and my fellow panelist Samuel Steinbrock-Pratt. 

This one’s got a lot in the hashtag too, so check it out! Candra and Samuel had a lot of cool stuff to say, as did our lively audience. Samuel especially had a great perspective because he’s a criminal defense attorney.

We discussed issues of surveillance and privacy as it relates both to tech-heavy sci-fi shows and more paranormal shows where, for instance, the zombie can eat a murder victim’s brain and gain their memories like in iZombie. 

We talked a lot about superhero/vigilante shows and how they represent who is and isn’t allowed to break the laws and why. Samuel had some strong feelings about Daredevil, especially, as a defense attorney who 1) only wants to represent the innocent and 2) goes out and breaks laws all the time himself. I added that Luke Cage did some interesting things in regards to intersections with vigilantism and law enforcement, as well as race, class, and gender. 

Person of Interest was another show we talked about a lot, both positive and negative. 

One topic was why there are so many scifi cop shows, and just cop shows anyway. Part of the reason is that it’s a nice formula for a show to follow in a serial format. Another is the ability for lots of excitement and drama involved. Also examined was the idea of who profits from having a common narrative where the cops are our protags?

We talked some about how these shows, in a genre that’s supposed to be about stretching the imagination, still don’t address so many systemtic issues in the police such as racism and abelism. Some shows actively reinforce these things by having us rooting for cops who are corrupt themselves, where other shows just gloss over these problems by having active surveillance and yet not dealing with things such as stop and frisk laws.

Samuel and Candra had some great things to say about cop shows set in the future and how they tend to criminalize the same things we do now, but that what we decide are crimes changes over time. For example - drug crimes are a thing that a futuristic cop/legal show could show having been abolished. Or what about a future where there are no cops? What about reparative justice?

An audience member asked about an epidemiological approach to crime. They used the example of lead poisoning leading to violence, which another audience member refuted, but the issue of taking an approach of what health issues might be causing crime remained of interest. The Reavers from Firefly were brought up.

I talked about a Canadian show called Cracked, starring David Sutcliffe, which is not a Sci-fi show, but does deal with cops gaining a greater understanding of how mental health issues intersect with crime - from either the perpetrator or victim side of things. The show paired cops with psychiatrists or psych nurses in a unit specially created to deal with crime relating to mental illness. 

We talked some about shows coming more from the outlaw angle such as Mr. Robot and Leverage.

Other shows I brought up included Stitchers, Limitless, Lucifer, Lost Girl, Minority Report, Continuum, and IDK a bunch more. 

Some stuff that got rec’d that I wrote down to check out included: Ultraviolet (the TV show not the movie), and the book A Door Into Ocean for it’s portrayal of banishment and reconciliatory justice. 

Phew! And so. Those were my panels. Or at least, what I can recall of them a good week later. 

I always appreciate getting feedback as a panelist - so feel free to chat with me, privately or publicly, about how you think the panel went if you were at any of these! 

[tradeshowguy]

How I Self-Published Two Tradeshow Marketing Books

“Write a book!” they said, so I did. Two, in fact. Here’s the short version of how it unfolded.

As a kid I thought the best job ever was to be a Beatle. The second-best job would be a comic book artist. But the third-best job? Being an author. A novelist! Reading those great science fiction novels by Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke and other I dreamed of creating a life in the stars (on paper). I tried my hand at a number of stories but was never satisfied. So with my love of music I gravitated to a job that was more fun: being a radio announcer.

After 26+ years of radio, I arrived in the tradeshow world. I wanted to do something to differentiate myself that involved ,y love of writing and creativity (which I never really gave up). Hence, I blogged. Quite a bit, in fact. This blog, the TradeshowGuy Blog, published its first article in November of 2008. Ten years!

Along the way I published a pretty popular e-book called “101 Rules of Tradeshow Marketing” which was downloaded over 5000 times (I obsessed about the stats back then – I don’t obsess on stats any more).

The First Book

But a real book? One that you could hold in your hand and give away or sell? That seemed like a big challenge. My thought was to write a book to use as a heavy business card that thudded when it hit someone’s desk. To differentiate myself from others. To be, well, an author!

In 2010 I started. And fizzled. Tried again a year or two later. That fizzled as well. Long-term focus on this goal was difficult with lots of distractions.

But in early 2015 I started again with renewed focus determination, and was not willing to take no for an answer. After about six months I came up with a first draft. I reached out to Mel White at Classic Exhibits, who has been very supportive of me and my business over the years. He offered to go over the manuscript and offer his comments. This was critical to keeping the project moving forward.

In the meantime, I’d been reviewing a number of self-publishing platforms and kept seeing and hearing about CreateSpace, which was by then an arm of Amazon. It seemed easy-peasy to be able to submit a manuscript in almost any shape and by choosing a specific package you could have yet another editor or two or three do their magic. CreateSpace also handles the registration of an ISBN number, and since they are owned by Amazon, the seamlessness of having your book appear on Amazon for sale as both a print-on-demand paperback or Kindle download. CreateSpace also wrote marketing copy based on your outline.

Based mostly on budget, I picked one of their mid-range packages which meant they would have two editors look at it. One would do “line editing,” which is where a professional editor helps “strengthen your manuscript’s content with one round of feedback and connections to structure, plot, characterization, dialogue, and tone from a reader’s point of view.” Then a copyeditor goes over the manuscript with a fine-tooth comb, picking it apart grammatically and with an eye to classic punctuation and editing standards: “includes an average of 10-15 typographical, spelling, and punctuation revisions per page that your readers will notice – but your word-processing software won’t.”

The whole process of editing was eye-opening, and a learning experience. I disagreed with a few of the suggestions made but kept most of what the pros advised. I figured the best thing was to humbly submit to the process and do what was necessary to make the manuscript better.

Something I really wanted in the book to break up the big blocks of text was a series of cute black and white line drawings that supported and enhances the “fun and educational” feel of the book I was going for. I looked first on Fiverr.com but didn’t find any style of drawing that I liked that much. Eventually I landed at Thumbtack.com, asked for some examples and ended up choosing an artist named Jesse Stark. His drawings were exactly what I had envisioned, and his price was reasonable and fair.

Now for the cover. Not being a graphic designer, but wanting to at least give it a try, I mocked up a handful of potential covers. I didn’t really like any of them (did I mention I’m not trained in graphic design?), and asked Jesse if he would be interested in doing a cover. He was, and after some discussion, came back with a mockup. I wasn’t crazy about it, and thought it needed a photo of a tradeshow floor that showed dozens of booths from a high vantage point. I finally tracked down a photo I had taken at Expo East in the early 2000s from that angle, and had him use that to complete the cover. (Side note: Jesse also designed the TradeshowGuy silhouette that I use in the company logo).

As you might imagine, the hardest thing to do when assembling all of the pieces of a book project is what to name the damn book? I rejected a handful, but only debated a few over the nearly year-long project:

Deconstructing Tradeshows: 14 Steps to Tradeshow Mastery

Create a KickA$$ Tradeshow Experience: 14 Steps to Tradeshow Success

There were a couple of others that were floated, but those two got serious consideration. Eventually, though the book was titled Tradeshow Success: 14 Proven Steps to Take Your Tradeshow Marketing to the Next Level. You’ve got to settle on something sometime, right?

The book made it to Amazon on late October 2015, and I officially launched it the next month with a video series, a flurry of press releases and some giveaways. My view on publishing a book, though, wasn’t to sell as many copies as I could. It was to have something that no other tradeshow project manager had: a book.

The book was mentioned in some local business publications, and I’ve showed it off at networking meetings (who else has their own book?!), but the most notable mention came when Exhibitor Magazine published a multi-page article on the book and me. As one LinkedIn colleague said, “It doesn’t get any better than that!” So true.

The Second Book

Time passes. After the initial excitement of having a book to promote and giveaway fades, thoughts turn to what to do as a follow-up. It’s been said that one of the best ways to sell and promote your first book is to write a second book. But what would that second book be when I felt I put all I knew into the first book. And I knew I wanted a second book to follow up the first one.

It took a while, but I came to settle on the idea of taking the dozens and dozens of list blog posts I’d written for the blog. It took some time assembling all of the posts – many covered similar topics and had to be combined and edited – but once that was accomplished, I reached out to Mel again for help.

This book didn’t write itself, but since the content had already been created it was a matter of grouping the lists into specific topics was the main task. And of course I wanted the same illustrator so I emailed Jesse to see if he was interested. He said yes, so we moved forward.

The second book, still untitled, was a lower budgeted affair. I enlisted Mel again, and he also had his English professor wife, Mary Christine Delea, do through it once. Once their two edits were done, I uploaded to CreateSpace, agreed on the more modest single line edit requested before going to print.

Now…what to title the book of lists? I had a couple of lists that referenced zombies, and one that referenced superheroes, so I played around with them for awhile:

Quirky Interactive Activities, Exhibiting Zombies, and Tradeshow Superheroes: A By-The-Numbers Guide on How to Take Advantage of the Most Effective Marketing Vehicle the World Has Ever Seen (I think this won a record of some sort for longest proposed title!)

Exhibiting Zombies, Tradeshow Superheroes and Quirky In-Booth Activities:

A List Manual on How to Take Advantage of the Most Effective Marketing Vehicle the World Has Ever Seen

Exhibiting Zombies, Tradeshow Superheroes and Delighted Visitors:

Exhibiting Zombies, Tradeshow Superheroes and Elated Customers:

Exhibiting Zombies, Tradeshow Superheroes and Delighted Customers: etc…

After some back and forth, it came down to Tradeshow Superheroes and Exhibiting Zombies: 66 Lists Making the Most of Your Tradeshow Marketing.

For publicity, I did a little, including sending out copies of books to tradeshow publications and press releases to local business publications. I also spent a very modest amount of money on a Twitter book-promotion platform that promised tens of thousands of views of promotional tweets. Modest: less than a hundred bucks. Nothing came of it. Again, the point was to have another book to give to prospects to differentiate myself, and if a few copies sell, well, great!

Interestingly enough, sales have picked up in the past few months with no further promotion. Maybe having both books out there and easily found on Amazon is working!

If you have an idea for a book, should you self-publish, or should you pursue the traditional route through a publishing house? Both have their pros and cons, but to me having complete control over the look and feel of the books and getting a much higher royalty rate made sense for my approach. Yes, the distribution at this point is ONLY online, but to me that’s sufficient. I didn’t write to sell a trainload of books, I wrote to differentiate myself from other exhibit houses and project managers. And to that end, I feel I’ve succeeded.

Now my main thing is making sure that potential clients have a copy of one or both books. That, and thinking about what I might write for a third book in the next couple of years.

Got any ideas?

The post How I Self-Published Two Tradeshow Marketing Books appeared first on Tradeshow Guy Blog.

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[lucyariablog]

Why Marketers Need to Think Like Data Scientists (And How to Do It)

Your company may not employ data scientists today. And you might be fine with that. Consider, though, that if you’re not working with a data scientist or at least thinking like one, you’re missing something: the ability to say “I know” instead of merely “I think.”

That distinction matters when you’re talking with executives, says content marketer and consultant Katrina Neal. “If you walk into a meeting in a next-generation data-driven organization and announce, ‘I think this campaign is going to work,’ you could risk being humiliated in front of your colleagues and asked to leave the room.”

A marketer who says “I think” in front of data-driven execs may be asked to leave, says @Katrina_Neal. Click To Tweet

On the other hand, if you walk in with what you know, people listen. They might even approve your budget.

Katrina spoke on the importance of data science and why data scientists need to be marketers’ new best friends at Intelligent Content Conference (see that talk here) and Content Marketing World (see that talk here). This post summarizes her main points. All images come from her slides.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Building Your Content Marketing Team? 14 Skills for New, Growing, and Mature Programs

Why does data science matter in content marketing?

I like this straightforward definition of data science: the practice of “surfacing hidden insight” using data in a way that helps “enable companies to make smarter business decisions.”

Smarter business decisions come from better predictions. As a marketer, when you think like a data scientist, you make predictions that keep shareholders happier, you make customers happier, and you increase respect for your profession. Your content teams make better decisions, you build support for the content initiatives you propose, and your company gets more value from its content.

As NewsCred’s Neil Barlow says, predictability is “how the world’s largest brands continuously delight Wall Street investors and increase stock prices. Within many businesses, CMOs are under particular scrutiny to transform marketing from a cost center to a predictable profit center.”

When you work with (or work like) a data scientist, you build predictive models that enable you to say “I know” instead of “I think” – an important part of transforming marketing into a profit center.

Marketers: Talk like a data scientist, and people listen, says @katrina_neal. #intelcontent Click To Tweet

What is a data scientist, anyhow?

A data scientist is someone skilled in math, tech, and business, as shown in this diagram:

Image source

Data scientists care about three types of analytics:

Descriptive

Predictive

Prescriptive

What are marketers doing with these types of data today?

Most marketers collect descriptive analytics. This data, gleaned from a tool like Google Analytics, gives a sense of what has happened – the historical results such as cost per link, click-through rates, and so on. Looking at this kind of data is a bit like looking in the rear-view mirror of your car.

Few marketers use predictive analytics. This data enables people to predict the most likely outcome based on historical and real-time data. For example, using predictive lead scoring can give your hard-earned marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) the best start with your sales teams. It’s a bit like using a navigation app that predicts your car’s arrival time, updating the prediction on the fly as circumstances change.

  Prescriptive analytics kick things up a notch, beyond where most marketers are today. This kind of analytics tells you not only what’s likely to happen but what you should do to capitalize on what’s likely to happen. It’s a bit like an autonomous driving car that not only predicts your arrival time but also drives you to your destination.

Prescriptive analytics kick things up a notch, beyond where most marketers are. @Katrina_Neal #intelcontent Click To Tweet

Katrina points to the example of a simulated interaction between a marketing professional and IBM’s artificial-intelligence agent Watson. The marketer asks Watson to set up some social media ads. After setting up the ads and collecting data for a few weeks, Watson recommends replacing an image that has a low click-through rate “based on the performance of similar images for this category in other channels.”

That’s some serious prescriptive analytics: A machine crunches a bunch of data, draws conclusions from it, and says (in a distinctively human-sounding voice), “Here’s what you might want to do next.”

Peek into that conversation between Watson and the marketer. While this kind of conversation may seem like science fiction, it’s becoming increasingly feasible.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How SecureWorks Took Content Strategy From Guesswork to Game Changing

How can data scientists help you?

Data scientists (or a data-science mindset) can help you plan your content, refine the content you create, and measure your results by building predictive models using a number of techniques and statistical models.

Planning your content

Data scientists can build predictive models to make content marketing more effective. Here are some common things these models predict:

Total addressable market (TAM)

Segmentation and account selection

Demand generation

Lead scoring

Refining the content you create

Whether you’re working with a data scientist or cultivating your own inner data scientist, Katrina emphasizes the importance of testing. Scientists in any field start with a hypothesis and then test against it to see what they can learn.

You might do A/B testing, serial testing, or whatever kind of testing gives you the feedback to determine what’s working and how well.

For example, LinkedIn conducted A/B testing on sponsored content – native advertising in the feed – to determine which word performed better, “guide” or “e-book.” The post that used “guide” had a 95% higher click-through rate. In a similar test, “register” outperformed “join” by 165%.

Imagine having quantifiable certainty that one word performs better than another to help optimize your demand-generation engine. Even data that simple could make a difference in your content’s performance. Here’s how Katrina puts it:

Think about your demand-generation funnel. If you can tweak the percentages at each stage of your funnel, you can have a huge impact on the number of leads you bring to the bottom.

Test and learn. Test and learn. That’s what a data scientist does, and that’s what you must do, too, to make content-related decisions that you can defend with confidence and credibility. Katrina’s advice is to do your homework: “Don’t rely on generic content best practices. You need original thinking and a test-and-learn culture to find your own unique blueprint that works for you.”

Test and learn. That’s what you must do to make defendable #content decisions, says @Katrina_Neal. Click To Tweet

For an inspiring, informative, and relevant story, see this GrowthHackers post: The Growth Initiative That Cut Our Customer Acquisition Cost in Half. It gives insight into the way a data scientist might work with a marketing team, showing what’s possible when marketers commit to making business decisions based on what they know instead of what they think.

Measuring your results

To prove that the content you produce helps generate revenue, work with a data scientist to build an algorithmic multi-touch content-attribution model. This kind of model shows which content was read along the customer journey and which pieces of content, or combination of pieces of content, were the most effective for an audience.

That’s the language of numbers, the language that your CEO and other executives understand. As Katrina explains:

When you show up to a board meeting, take a marketing-sourced revenue goal, maybe 20% or 10% of the overall revenue goal. Then walk into future meetings and talk about pacing. How am I pacing against that revenue goal? How many marketing-qualified leads have I got? How many sales-qualified leads have I got? How many bookings have I got? And map that success into a multi-touch content-attribution model. That’s the kind of conversation we need to be accountable for to get a grown-up seat at the table.

JavaScript enables the “magic” responsible for tracking those online touchpoints. HubSpot, LinkedIn, SlideShare, and Facebook, among others, use JavaScript tracking code to enable you to follow people “from your content through to your website.”

Here’s how Pawan Deshpande describes the reason that marketing attribution is integral to the success of content marketing:

The vast majority of touchpoints (instances where potential customers interact with your brand) happen online. They occur when someone reads your blog post, e-book, or infographic, or watches your video. Marketing attribution models enable content marketers to more accurately understand how their content is influencing buyers, and to get full credit for their work.

#Marketing attribution models enable content marketers to get full credit for their work. @tweetsfrompawan Click To Tweet

Katrina referenced Bizible as leading with great educational content related to attribution models, such as this linear multi-touch attribution model:

A data scientist could help build an algorithmic multi-touch attribution model specific to your organization. While at Cisco, for example, Katrina worked with a metrics dashboard based on insights gleaned from the Cisco data-scientist team through a Bayesian network analysis. The team used website data to predict which activities or pieces of content would result in a sales-qualified lead (SQL).

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Understand How Content is Influencing Buyers: A Primer on Attribution Models

How to get started

If you don’t have the data-science expertise you need, here are some ways to get started:

Understand what numbers matter to your C-suite.

Choose ways to measure your content performance.

Hire a data scientist or explore a predictive-modeling SaaS platform.

Understand what numbers matter to your C-suite

We all know that the language of business is the language of numbers. We know that executives’ hearts melt at those three little words: return on investment. Yet for many content marketers, it’s tough to bring data into the conversation in an effective way.

For starters, Katrina suggests marketers get comfy with these terms: ROMI and CLTV.

ROMI (return on marketing investment) is distinct from ROI, which technically applies only when a business asset is sold. See this online ROMI calculator. Talk in terms of ROMI any time you have costs and sales that you can tie directly to a marketing campaign. Katrina gives this formula:

ROMI = incremental net profit (additional income minus additional costs) ÷ cost of campaign x 100%

CLTV (customer lifetime value) indicates how much a client or customer is worth to your company over his or her life. This number indicates the maximum amount your company should invest in acquiring each customer. Katrina shares this formula:

CLTV = average revenue per user x lifetime x gross margin (the ratio of total revenue to cost of goods sold – cost of providing services)

To come up with ROMI, CLTV, and similar numbers, engage a data scientist or calculate them for yourself. “It can get complicated,” Katrina says. “What I want to embed is a mindset change. We can all go into our jobs with a mindset of being accountable.”

Choose ways to measure your content performance

When it comes to measuring content performance, Katrina proposes that marketers strive to create a multi-touch algorithmic attribution model as discussed above. And she assures you that this kind of model is within your reach even though it’s not easy to decide which content-related numbers to track.

She also touches on UTM parameters, which are components (codes or tags) you build into a URL that appear in a long string after a question mark. UTM parameters enable you to track user behavior. They give you a way to see how many visitors come to one page from another page – be it one of your own pages or a page on a third-party site you’ve provided the link for. When your link is clicked, the parameters are sent to Google Analytics.

In devising your metrics, the main thing to consider is what you’ll want to do with the results.

Hire a data scientist or explore a predictive-modeling SaaS platform

If you can hire a data scientist, do so. If you can’t, explore a SaaS platform that supports predictive modeling. These platforms act as a data scientist in a box – data science as a service.

Here are some of the companies in this space:

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: New Tech Friends on the Marketing Block

Conclusion

Fellow CMWorld presenter Alicianne Rand essentially summed up Katrina’s main message when she said in her own talk (How the Estée Lauder Companies Drive Sales Through Content Marketing), “All the best modern marketers I know know how to look at data. They don’t need to be data scientists but they know how to ask the right questions.”

All the best marketers don’t need to be data scientists, but know how to ask right questions. @aliciannerand Click To Tweet

As Katrina says, “The best bit is that any of us can think more like a data scientist.”

In what ways do you think like a data scientist? Let us know in a comment.

Here’s an excerpt from Katrina’s talk:

Learn to think more like a data science – or at least improve your content strategy – at Intelligent Content Conference March 20-22 in Las Vegas. Register today. 

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post Why Marketers Need to Think Like Data Scientists (And How to Do It) appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

from http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2017/11/marketers-data-scientists/