News Attention to Deadly Conflicts Since Year 2000, measured in pages published per fatality.

hey

hey friend

dont kill yourself tonight ok

you have a really pretty smile and i know its not always easy to manage one but itd be a bummer if we never had the chance to see it ever again

youre really important and you matter a lot so stay safe and try and have a nice sleep

I just used this for my new Citadel Oracle, with unexpected results!

Interview your deck spread

If you recently got a new deck and you’re keen to use it, clear yourself some space, light a candle if you wish, and try out this neat interview spread! This spread will help to introduce yourself to a new tarot deck and allow it to introduce itself to you. Basically, it’s a conversation about your potential working relationship, where you can examine the deck’s strengths and limits and discover the best way to approach and use these cards. Certain decks, for instance, work best for love readings and others are more suited to spiritual path. Either way, this interview spread is a convenient way to explore those ideas in more detail.

Fleshing out that vague idea

YOU HAVE A PLOT. Well, okay, you have a character. Or maybe just this one cool image. Problem is, that’s all it is, and it’s hard to write an entire novel on a month with just a vague idea.

Now, you might say, “but I’ve worked on my character for so long they’re a wizard/vampire/space pirate rolled into one, how can I possibly fit that into a plot,” and I say to that, weirder books have been published, you’ll be fine. Our main goal is to figure out how to get that sweet space vampire fighting bisexual cyborg into a book you can write in thirty days. Though that seems challenging, never fear, for we are going to give you a working framework with which to move forward with. It goes like this:

A [character type] has [a problem], and [tries to fix it]. However, [plot twist/inciting event] happens, and [deadly complication ensues].

Yes, we are talking about loglines. Don’t groan, I know these are hard. Our goal is simply to end up with a starting point. It doesn’t have to be pretty, or succinct. We are merely trying to find a starting point, so let’s tackle each one by one:

A Character: Your characters are complex individuals, but we’re going to distill them to their most distinctive, plot important aspects. A sixteen-year-old wizard. A trans lady dragonrider. A lonely accountant, etc. Since we’re not trying to sell anything, we can expand a bit and give into cliches. “A eighteen-year-old werewolf with a chip on his shoulder.” “A trans dude with a terrible crush on his married landlady.” “A lonely accountant into the sanguinarian scene.” Etc. Have fun with it.

A Problem: We’ve got two main types, external and internal. External will be the outward issue being dealt with - solving a murder, finding a girlfriend, stopping an asteroid from destroying the moon, etc.An internal problem will be the driving force of the character - needing to fix a broken relationship, facing a fatal flaw, confronting an addiction, etc. Both will be important to driving your plot, so consider how connected they’ll be both in tackling the plot and complicating it.

An Inciting Event: No way back, this it what thrusts your character forward. The discovery that their mother was a werewolf. The loss of an important necklace. Realizing you’re a magical girl in a world where magical girls are evil, etc. You are going to ruin your character’s life, so I advise doing it as gleefully as possible.

A Complication: We’ve got the basics of our plot, now we have to figure out how to keep it moving. Your protagonist’s mother was murdered for being a werewolf, and now they’re after your character too too. The necklace was more than important, the mob desperately wants it back and knows your character was the last person who had it. Your sixteen-year-old wizard has cast a spell to raise the dead, and now the Wizard Council is out to kill her to stop it.

You now have the beginnings of a plot and where it’ll take you. There’s going to be more complications to carry you through to the finish line, and good god don’t stop writing them down if you’re on a roll, but this should at least get you out the gate. Good luck!

Am I Saramago

Or, the exercise to not use punctuation:

there were easily a dozen people lined up behind the door I shuddered looking out at them we had been up late the night previous preparing to today's grand opening the shelves were stocked the registers attended and the cameras were on and recording I however was not prepared I felt like a lone gazelle in front of a pride of liens or perhaps a corpse beneath a tree of vultures a corpse definitely perhaps a zombie except the humans were the horde my sister shook me out of my spiraling thoughts with an easy smile are you ready no absolutely not yes I said aloud we opened the doors

                   the tragedy of anakin skywalker (x)

So there I was, sitting down to coffee, e-reader prepped and ready to go, when the doorbell rings. Now, see, it was a time where doorbells were heard _of_ but very rarely outright heard. I checked my phone, but I had no deliveries announced, neither food nor package waiting on my doorstep, and yet the doorbell had most assuredly rang. It wasn't quite the time that video cameras were commonplace, so I couldn't open up that feed as I had never been above the curve for that sort of things.

While I was mussing and checking apps for notifications I had turned off, the doorbell rang again. With a huff I got up and approached the door. I rarely considered the door except as that thing that I passed through on my daily travels, yet now that worn wood was all that stood between me and the unknown. I stood in front of the door for a long moment, readying myself even as I braced for a third impatient ring. And then I opened the door.

I expected a lot of things. I'd heard tales of traveling salesmen, youthful entrepreneurs, and well meaning evangelists. I'd even heard of animals who had discovered the secret of opening doors.

But nothing quite prepared me for the sight of G-d on my welcome mat.

being an adult is just saying to yourself “this is the weekend i’ll clean my [x]” and then proceeding to not do that because it’s the weekend and you deserve to relax, goddamnit

Why did you give the last of your food to that poorly disguised mimic? You were finally at peace with letting go, but now this odd thing won’t leave you alone and is even turning itself into various items in an attempt to aid you.

A BEAR ATE MY BEST HUMMINGBIRD FEEDER.

Rude.

Some poor suffering gobs!!

May I submit a tiny salamander for your consideration as well? Picture from back when I used to do fieldwork with them! It always blew my mind to think about how something so tiny could still have bones and organs and things.

Oh I love these little dudes so much. Thank you for showing me!

You’ve always had ridiculously good luck. About to get hit by a car? Sudden burst of wind knocks you onto the strangely soft ground. Accidentally slip on the icy stairs? Miraculously find your footing as if someone had caught you and set you back on your feet. Not enough money to get home safely? Find the exact amount you need, two feet away in the gutter. Knock a cup of boiling hot coffee off the table? Somehow lands upright on the ground without spilling a drop. Person bullying you relentlessly? Abruptly looses their voice or trips over their own feet. There’s lots of other weird little things that happen, that just make your life brighter and easier, but there is one strange thing that you’ve never really told anyone. Every time one of these things happen, you catch the faint scent of burning. Sometimes you catch the scent at other times, but you always smell that scent when some weird, lucky or happy little incident happens. 

Lately, you’ve been finding large beautiful feathers around the place, each singed, and carrying that familiar burnt smell.

Here is “Knot”, a short comic I drew to sell at Mocca and TCAF this year. The printed version is going to be SO PRETTY. I’m in love with the cover (which I will post later).

I just wanted to do something fairy-tale-like that talked about doubts and frustrations and how to deal with them. I’m really happy with how colorful and adorable the story turned out to be. 

If you enjoyed “Knot”, please consider reblogging it and/or checking out my ongoing webcomic Namesake! HUGS TO ALL OF YOU!

Here’s the english version ;)

btw please don’t say “maybe he was just drunk”, bc there’s no excuse.

Sorry, Dropped Your Coat! - Part 1/?

Short comic about a human and a selkie based on this post by @howtobangyourmonster

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