Lot 6: Indonesian Statue of Unknown Deity.

"In his journals, Moertono described the statue as "hideous" and "shapeless" and "malformed," indicating it was but a deeply-imperfect attempt at capturing something else, some shape beyond the mastery of human hands or human eyes."

This is one of the illustrations I made for the Dagon Collection book, along with an extract from the accompanying story, written by Nadia Bulkin! You can get the book here:

Toku anon:

(insert one of those memes of a burning hybe building with, I dunno, Beomgyu eagerly watching in the foreground)

Okay, so the circumstances were very different, since the... infrastructure??... of the toku fandom is a little different. Basically, very few of these toku shows actually have English subs or dubs. The ones that got dubbed were only on TV in a few countries and a lot of them are lost media. The official subtitles, if they exist, are often terribly translated. And if it's available on YouTube, it's often region-locked

Enter the fan-subbers. They're fans who translate the shows as accurately as possible, add them to the show, and then post it on the web for the rest of the fandom. And not just the episodes either: some also translate movies, bonus features, show ads, book/manga spin-offs and (in the case of that show with the bench) audio drama spin-offs too.

Here's the thing: a lot of the biggest toku shows (in terms of fandom) are made by this one company called Toei. For an idea of how big they are: nearly every Toku show I told you about ever was made by this company. They've been making these since at least the early 70s. And a few years back, some fans noticed that one of their leading staff had an official Twitter.

One thing led to another and, uh, the guy found out about the fansubs.

Toei wasn't happy.

And that's the story of why and how a bunch of translated archives were totally wiped off the internet, and totally not archived on a bunch of torrent archives for anyone in the world to totally be able to access if they know where to look.

(whispers) by the way this is sarcasm. They are archived and— uh oh (gets captured by Toei's assassins)

Here's the additional funny thing: the actors don't seem to mind that much? One time, the guy who played Main Card-Themed Protag From Evil Bench Show went to a con in the States, and didn't even think ''hey wait how do english-speakers know about us'' until he was on his flight back home. This other time another toku actor (who wasn't technically in a Toei Toku but still) learned that they stopped releasing DVDs of the toku he starred in, and straight-up endorsed piracy that day. It was wild.

Anywho, to bring this back around, we also have a similar meme for these situations where we're upset at a big company. We call it ''destroying Toei Studios would be even faster! :D'' (insert image of some toku protags cheering in the corner as the Toei building breaks). Ironically that meme is also just a screencap from one of their shows, the words and all.

Beomgyu SHOULD <333

Omg fuck Toei ... like the way they found out they had a bigger audience than they assumed and instead of engaging with y'all they cut u off ... I literally don't understand these companies fr.

Fandom subtitlers and translators are the best people ever and I don't say that lightly like fr they do so much !! They are incredible !!!

I love when actors are chill about that stuff it's so great fjdj they are just happy to have worked on what they did and have fans engage in any way they can. Ugh what a legend promoting piracy we do love<3

The topic of piracy is so interesting because artists are often so split on it. There was a period of time kinda like early 2000s where there was this music sharing site where bascially someone could upload a recording of a tape/cd they had and share the mp3 online to other people who could then download and listen to it for free! So it was pirating music but on a Massive scale because anyone with any computer skills all got their music there. And artists spoke out about it and lots were against it because they don't get paid what they would be due from physical copies bought by all those people. But then some artists who had an anti-capitalist mindset supported it and encouraged it even tho it directly effected their income! It is just really interesting to see

Ahh we love a good burning a company down meme<3 Beomgyu deserves to burn hybe down he rly does

Should We Stop Calling Ourselves Fanfiction Writers?

I imagine many fanfiction writers have had that sense of embarrassment of applying the term to themselves. We tend to keep our writing within a community of other fanfic writers and readers and rarely, if ever, do we share our stories with “outsiders,” or even let them know this part of ourselves. We have a habit of treating our creative outlet as “cringey” to others, so we never let them in.

So I do wonder if we need to stop calling ourselves fanfiction writers. Because there really is nothing different about what we write compared to most other writers out there, and if re-labeling ourselves gets our amazing work in front of more eyes and gives us more confidence in our writing, shouldn’t we do that?

As a community, we segregate our writing too much from other forms of fiction. I’m not entirely sure why we do this, but my guess is we have tied “true writing” too much to “paid writing.” Our fanfiction will never be bought; legally it can’t. And because of this fact, we all seem to devalue it compared to the writing people make a living off of. But how is it actually any different?

At its core, the Cursed Child story is no different than any story posted on AO3. It takes an existing piece of intellectual property and tells a story based on that IP. The only difference is the owners of the IP gave explicit permission to the playwrights to make money off of this story.  That’s really it. Cursed Child is only different from fanfiction because it was allowed to be monetized.  

Now, many might argue that the big difference is that most fanfiction is bad, whereas most professional writing is good.  I really hate this argument.  For one, Cursed Child sort of exists to counter this argument (how many times have we heard the play is “bad fanfiction”?) But also, I hate the overall argument that fanfiction is inherently poor quality. Sure, most is not great. But one can argue that like most creative works, there is the good and the bad and the cream rises to the top. Can anyone read @annerbhp, @jenoramaca, @floreatcastellumposts, @thedistantdusk or @thebiwholived and honestly tell me their writing is inferior to what gets published solely? And if you do think its weaker, can you honestly say you just haven’t been conditioned to think fanfiction writing < professional paid writing?

The truth is all writing or fiction, in general, is fanfiction. Any movie which is a loose adaptation of Shakespeare is fanfiction.  For example, 10 Things I Hate About You, which we all love, is based off of The Taming of the Shrew. Every trope we see in fiction is rooted in stories written years before it. When a tv show is adapted from a comic book, that’s fanfiction. The most recent Star Wars trilogy is fanfiction. Cursed Child is fanfiction.

The only reason we don’t call any of this fanfiction is because a) the writers got paid for these officially-sanctioned stories and b)fanfiction is considered a lesser form of creative fiction and thus they wouldn’t want to “devalue” what they wrote.

But that’s bullshit.  It’s all meant to gatekeep “real writing” so as to keep the profession closed off from the huge number of insanely-talented writers who simply don’t have the resources or connections to monetize their work. Professional writers like feeling special, that achieving the status of “being paid for my creative output” makes them better than you. Forget the fact that their finished product has gone through extensive edits and reworking from an entire industry of other “experts” and some of the best writing in fanfiction has simply had a fellow writer give it a once-over.

We need to stop devaluing our work just because we aren’t getting paid for it or because a really important person hasn’t officially endorsed it. Calling our writing “fanfiction” attaches a stigma to our work that no other writer does, even though we’re producing the exact same thing. Until we either proudly share our writing with non-fandom friends and family or start referring everything as fanfiction, no one will ever take our writing seriously.

League of Extraordinary Geniuses || The Prologue

The Girl with the Purple Hair AKA The Smartest Woman in the World 

Author’s Notes

‘They just GAVE her this honorific! The Smartest Woman in the World? How insulting! I didn’t spend the entirety of my life working beyond my hardware and having to remodel and upgrade frequently for some normal human girl to get a few degrees and just RECEIVE status as my female counterpart!’ 

Chase Davenport was in a very bad mood, and currently stuck in his own head. Davenport Industries was donating a dozen high quality, top grade androids to one of its employees, for an assignment in Dystopia, on which she would be attempting to deconstruct and rebuild the city to make it a Davencity - one of the many cities where basically all of the income and resources fit into an ecosystem created and maintained by the success of a Davenport driven economy. 

Chase felt like it was gentrification and colonization, but as long as Mr. Davenport saw to it that the people in the communities selected were allowed to stay and contribute, then at least, they wouldn’t be completely taking away people’s homes and lives. 

So… more of an occupation of sorts, but… Dystopia was one of those places that was such a mess that ANY change had to be for the better, and it was very close to this lady’s heart, apparently. She’d worked there for many years, traveling back and forth on charity missions between semesters in her academic career, ‘until she ingeniously swindled universities into giving her degrees.’ 

Chase pulled up her information in his bionic system, something he had been doing quite religiously ever since finding out that he was expected to be a part of these shenanigans. Mr. Davenport lauded this woman as “the person most fit for this job,” and as a condition of Chase’s current position in the company, he would have to shake the hand of this person in front of the world and approve of that sentiment, ‘thus endorsing the so-called “SmArtEst WOmAn In thE wOrld”’

Feeling that she “swindled” universities was unfair, but he was still pretty raw about all of these plans and mostly about that ‘COMPLETELY UNFATHOMABLE TITLE.’ Secretly, he admired her audacity and her follow through. He would never be able to admit it, as long as she was considered his intellectual equal and a high priority for Mr. Davenport.

She began a little challenge that she called "The Degree Collection Challenge." She would contact the Deans of Ivy League campuses and basically profess that she would be able to complete certain degrees in (some unprecedented amount of time), with their permission. Initially, they would agree, out of the pride and certainty that she couldn't do this. It became her brand - doing all of the work possible to earn an official degree in what should have been not enough time. Organizations began to try to monitor her endeavors and make sure she wasn't somehow cheating, hacking, doing SOMETHING illegal to yield the results that she was yielding, and eventually androids were utilized. Universities paid Davenport Industries A FORTUNE to basically stalk this woman with the intent to prove that she was unfairly gaining elite degrees from their institutions. 

She kept fairly earning her degrees, racking up work, experience, and notoriety as one of the smartest people in the world and her new title as the Degree Collector, ‘a title she can be worthy of.’

It was on her verified social media, and whenever she went to do interviews and speak at colleges, it would always be on the caption or the headlines. He was fine with that. In fact, after a mention from a fan who said that they would LOVE to see her have a conversation with Chase Davenport, the bionic smartest man alive, she confessed that she was a HUGE follower of his work and would also love a conversation with him. He was flattered. She was famous, in her own right, and smart, as well. Also, she looked pretty in all of the photos and footage he saw of her, so finding out that she was a fan was highly favorable.

Her announcement led to Donald arranging the meeting AND giving her a job in one of his places close to her Alma mater, Harvard. She was already earning him money with the android monitoring systems from several colleges, and he wanted someone that popular and smart under his umbrella. Chase would be her “introduction to Davenport Industries” in her biography, even though he didn’t actually have the opportunity to meet her. In fact, his brother, Leo wound up having to pick her up and getting her settled into her new Davenport provided space, because Chase was out on missions. 

She understood. As a self proclaimed huge follower of his work, she knew he went all over the world to tend to various threats, and after a while, the prospect of having a conversation with him became lost and he forgot all about the girl with the purple hair who Donald used as a publicity stunt a few years ago. ‘UNTIL… She became lauded as “the Smartest Woman Alive.” 

For THAT to be true, she would need bionic access to all of the world’s information, to computer connections, satellites, etc. She would have to be extraordinary. She was just some woman with a bunch of degrees that she did get impressively quickly for a typical woman… but still… She was just a typical woman and he got frustrated every time he thought about the fact that her title pretended to rival his! 

“Mr. Davenport?” He heard from behind him and he cleared off his research and cleared out his eye before turning and seeing a slim, petite, far more beautiful in person than in any of the publicity photos where she was typically working. “Hi!” She said, excited and extended her hand, “Charlotte Page. I know that I’m early, but The Dom said that I could let myself in with my access permissions, and I really wanted to be able to speak with you outside of all of his… panoply.” 

Chase shook her hand. It was soft and her handshake was firm. She had on a cream colored pantsuit that fit her form, but was sleeveless and her arms indicated someone who took great care of her body. In fact, her body indicated someone who took great care of her body. And her face, her hair, and so on. 

She didn’t look distressed, disheveled, with a mound of purple hair tied up in a puffy, messy bun. She wasn’t to her knees in an assignment or charity work, or in protective gear in her lab, and she wasn’t online, in a dimly lit room, speaking tired, because of the lack of rest she had. Her hair wasn’t purple either, or curly or puffy... It was... they call those goddess locs, if he remembered correctly from having seen the hairstyle before, and hers were a mixture of browns, with golden accents and charms in them. 

He saw several superhero emblems - Captain Man, Kid Danger, the Dystopian Defenders, ‘So, she’s a superhero fangirl’ some African symbols and cutesy stuff too, a few lightening rods... She was staring at him and he wondered if he was studying her looks too long.

This was the first time he saw her face to face, and it was an amazing sight. “Well… Nice to meet the…” He paused. He realized at that moment that he had never said it out loud and also that he could not.

“The Degree Collector?” She said, saving him the discomfort of calling her the smartest woman alive. She folded her arms casually and said, “Although, my degrees can’t really be at all impressive to you, with the educational catalog that you’ve got. And for what it's worth, I never actually refer to myself as the other thing, either. When there’s someone like you out there and nobody else comparable, that would seem gauche. Not to mention the fact that my life has been teeming with privilege and opportunities. There’s probably a woman out there right now that might have mollywhopped me in the degree collecting challenge if she had more access and wealth, so… I’m good with being Charlotte Page. Charlotte Page is amazing.”

He relaxed a little and felt secretly justified in his silent protest of her being called that. But, now that it was out of the way, he did have other questions and interests about her that he would have already addressed had he not been simmering in anger. He began with, “What is it about Dystopia that makes you so passionate about it?”

A twinkle sparkled in her brown eyes and she was the prettiest and softest thing he could ever remember, in that moment where she thought about Dystopia. She unfolded her arms and began to move her hands around as she talked, “I think it’s because it was my first chosen home. I decided to go there and try to make a small difference. I brought along the two most important people in the world to me and together, we made it our home, for a little while, but made a big difference in a small span of time. Whenever I had to leave, my heart stayed there. My friends didn’t come with me because there was just so much to do and they felt more needed there than I might have needed them with me.” She called over one of the water boys and grabbed a fresh bottle of water from them. “I was working on a Biological and Biomedical Sciences degree and after only one year of doing that, realized that it would take too long for me to do everything that I wanted to do in Dystopia, or even in this world. SO, I took a note out of my friend’s little sister’s book… She managed to graduate high school early because she had to take so many summer classes. I shot for the same basic principle, but on the college level and once it began to be a thing that I just do… I continued and I use everything that I can to try to make Dystopia better, for my friends and for my fondness of it as the first home that I chose for myself.”

“Wow. I’ve actually never chosen a home, so I don’t know this attachment. Mr. Davenport has orchestrated where I go for all of my life,” he admitted.

“Why?”

“Well… Because, he’s the one in charge,” he said and shrugged his shoulders, slightly embarrassed. She studied him for a while and he felt mildly uncomfortable under her watch, but simultaneously enjoyed the attention.

“At least he’s a genius. The gods know I’ve worked under the control of complete idiots before..” She thought for a little while longer, then added, “But… not genius enough, I would say.” She finally commented and averted her eyes to glance around the room. “He’s definitely probably smarter than me, but nobody’s smarter than you. You’re Smartie GOALS. It doesn’t rationally make sense to me that you’re in a room with someone, but you’re not the one in charge.” She shrugged and called over a recycling collector to pass off her empty bottle. “You know?” She punctuated the thought, hoping she wasn’t completely out of line for speaking it.

He placed his hands in his pockets and said, “I’m always the smartest man in the room… but not necessarily the wisest person, and definitely not always right. There has to be some humility to make our dynamic work, and if there are these gods you speak of somewhere, they know that HE’S not going to have any. I’ve challenged his authority a couple of times, but it never works in my favor. He really has an infrastructure that calls for his leadership.”

“Maybe you need to separate yourself from that infrastructure to reach your fullest potential,” she said. He looked at her, startled and she laughed and shook her hands and head, “Sorry, sorry! I realized after I said it that I totally sound like an up-and-coming supervillain trying to get the smartest man alive in her corner! I’ll shut up immediately about that. It’s just...my parents weren’t really that involved in a lot of my decisions… They did this thing where they raised me from the first moment I seemed cognizant to learn to do for myself. I don’t always understand those of you who have a more codependent situation with your parents. I think that I expected less commitment, since you refer to him as “Mr. Davenport. I don’t even refer to him as Mr. Davenport!”

He just laughed a little. It wasn’t really her business how he was raised in a capsule in a basement, that his biological father was someone else, etc. She was just making conversation, and you don’t spring heavy things on pretty girls in the middle of conversation. That’s how you never get pretty girls. One of the many ways, at least. His list was still growing at this stage in his life.

After a while, Donald Davenport came through with the camera crew and the dozen androids. He and Chase presented Charlotte with the supplies and she gave a thank you speech to him, and to Chase, although with all of the emphasis that she put on Chase in this thank you, she noticed that The Dom took it as a slight against him. 

That was one of the reasons she called Donald Davenport, “The Dom,” instead of Mr. Davenport or even Donald. That man would honestly be completely comfortable with total submission from others and she often wondered and worried about his wife with these habits, though his brother, Douglas, told her that the wife “wore the pants” at home. A likely story!

She liked Douglas. He was usually her means of contact. While she did bond with Leo upon her first meeting over their shared experience of limited bionics (and hers being even LESS accessible than his, at the time), it was Douglas that she could count on for fun experiment approval and such. She wished that he was here today, but he had some things to do in Centium City, so he had to miss it. He did promise to help her get settled with the equipment in her Dystopia office, whenever he  finished.

After the speech, Chase escorted Charlotte to the shuttle, hating the thought that when this conversation ended, he’d never see her again, and resenting himself for not being able to meet her sooner, or at the very least, to appreciate her for who she was and seemed to be. “Well, thank you for indulging me,” she said. “I’ve wanted to meet you for so long, and now that dream has been achieved!” Her smile was bright and her eyes were hopeful. “Should… we exchange info, or would that be weird for you?” 

“NO!” He said, too excitedly, with a chaotic smile, then followed up with, “I mean, no, it wouldn’t be weird! Yes, to we should!” 

She laughed uncomfortably and handed him something, “Here’s my contact info.” He looked at the  chip inside of the palm of his hand. “New tech that your Uncle Donald and my mentor Schwoz have been working on. It’s an information chip. It basically lets you, as a bionic have access to a normal that you would have to the other bionics.”

“Like… I can track your GPS?”

“On my devices. I don’t have a GPS system in me, but, you definitely have all my numbers, email addresses, etc, and contact with my devices. So… If you don’t get in touch with me this time around, I’ll know that you just didn’t want to.”

“What if I were a stalker?” He asked.

“You aren’t. You’re not the only person who can do extensive research, Mr. Davenport.” She winked at him and he practically melted. ‘Charlotte Page IS amazing.’

.

Three Years Ago...

She heard an electronic alert in her inner ear and uncovered her forearm to check the notification. She tapped the side of her face a few times in order to translate the message, then delete it. “The drop off is here,” she told Henry and Jasper, over the comm. 

“What? We can’t go now!” Henry complained and punched one of the henchmen.

“I know. WE can’t. But, I’ll rendezvous with the supplier and we’ll reassemble at the base,” she said. 

“No! That’s too dangerous.”

“Danger is our brand,” she reminded him.

“Defense. Defense is our brand. That’s why we’re called the Dystopian Defende- Cha… Dystress!” He called out loud. But, she was already barreling her way passed the automatic gunfire being aimed at her and dived behind a collapsed statue.

On the comm, she said, “Deflector… Focus on your mission, and I’ll focus on mind. Catch you when we get back.”

“Dystress, you do not have a forcefield and there is gunfire!”

“T-Force is here with the shipment and if they have to leave it at the drop off, you know that everything will be pillaged. The kids need those supplies.” She adjusted her metal glove gauntlet, pressed some codes on her forearm and groaned as she lifted the biggest piece of the statue and flung it at the shooters. Two were crushed and two ran for cover. Henry and Jasper fought with other henchmen as she made a run for it and slid beneath a pulled up piece of gate to get off of the site.

She notified her contact to beg them not to leave, because she was on her way, then proceeded to run for 15 minutes, dodging curious onlookers and maneuvering through sporadic waves of people. Whenever she reached the drop off, her contact was still there. “Max! Thank God you stayed,” she said and rushed to give him a hug. 

He smiled, “For you? Of course.” They slapped hands and he shook his in pain and hissed. She was quickly apologetic. She still had on her metal glove gauntlet AND her strength was still enhanced. “Were you in a fight?” He wondered. They were usually the contact and coyote for the charity that Charlotte worked with to get quality supplies brought in - everything from seeds, food, school resources, and hygiene products. Sometimes, they couldn’t even PAY for them in the city, because their charity put a dent in the business of too many crime lords depending on child trafficking, child soldiers, and other exploitation of the impoverished kids of Dystopia. But, Max always seemed far more concerned about how Charlotte was doing than the kids he was helping. She had a feeling that he might have had a crush on her.

“Yeah. I had to leave Deflector and Dogwalk in battle to come collect. Supply theft is one of the few crimes that has INCREASED since we got here. We’re causing such a dent in the organized crime, some of the well kept criminals are turning to petty crimes, and some of the bosses are trying to hit our shipments personally. We need an entire goddamn redo with this place. I’m supposed to be leaving after a short while... I didn’t even want to leave them today for this. I hate that they’ll be fighting crime here, probably until they die!” she complained, knowing that she was exaggerating, but also that Max would let her complain to him.

He placed his hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes, “Hey. You get this stuff to the kids and don’t worry about your team. Give me their coordinates,” he said. He was already in his super suit and mentally prepared for a fight.

She tapped on the screen on her arm, sent the coordinates, and he opened a portal, “This one will bring you and your supplies to the base,” he said. Then another opened beside it, “I’m gonna go make sure that your dudes don’t die.” She covered her heart with both hands as he stepped into the golden light and it evaporated with him going to Henry and Jasper’s aid. Charlotte collected all of her things and stepped into the light. Workers would meet her on the other end. 

She came through the other end right outside of the camp, tapped her face twice and her outfit morphed back into regular wear. Her purple hair was even tied up. She took the handle of the trolley and moved towards the base. 

And that was exactly what she thought about whenever she walked back onto base with supplies and resources, from Davenport Industries, ready to execute her most ambitious plan ever.

“Is that Charlotte?” Someone asked. She turned to see the director of the charity and was going to go greet her, but “CHAR!!!” from two very eager big boys came roaring towards her as Jasper and Henry ran up to hug her. 

Jasper lifted her into the air and spun her around. Henry yanked her down and bear hugged her painfully. “Ummm… Are you two trying to incapacitate me?” She asked. They put her down and she shook the director’s hand. Everyone was talking to her at once, but whenever several jets landed nearby, she grimaced and promised, “I’m sorry, but I have to touch base with T-Force and with my deconstruction team,” she pointed a thumb at each of the jets. “I’ll definitely regroup and do stuff with you guys later, though.” She turned to go towards the jets, and Henry and Jasper frowned.

Though, Henry squeezed Jasper’s shoulder and said, “You know her work is very important.”

“And we’re not?” Jasper wondered.

“Yeah, but… I’m sure she’s on a tight schedule. And that’s millions of dollars of support that she has to oversee. Come on. Let’s start on dinner!”

Charlotte’s heart rate sped up the closer she got to the T-Force jet. She had gotten word specifically from Max Thunderman, himself that he was going to be heading up this mission (which was basically to guard the Davenport staff as they set up operations for the project, personally vowing to guard Charlotte with his life. She didn’t need it, but the sentiment still made her all giddy inside. He’d never know it, though. 

Whenever he got out of the jet and approached, advanced and new black super suit with an emblem that rotated fire and ice around a lightning bolt; she dipped her head courteously and said in a calm voice, “Nice to see you, Thunderstrike. How’s the suit working out?” He smiled and pulled her into a hug that she returned, but quickly ended, lest she get caught up in her feelings. 

“It’s working out wonderfully. The best fashion designer that I know designed it and the best biological technologist and engineer that I know made it.” 

Her face warmed up and she couldn’t believe how after not even seeing him for years, the thought of being around him already had her semi floating. “So, you ready to help me to create a whole new Dystopia?”

“I’m ready to watch your back while YOU create a whole new Dystopia,” he said, with his hands held out.

“That works!” It was a good day for her. She had been able to see her favorite people in the world, and set out on a journey that would maybe rightfully earn her that title that made Chase Davenport cringe. 

Throughout the deconstruction, The Defenders kept working Dystopia and with T-Force nearby, Charlotte’s work was able to be done without attacks and theft, AND, she set up daily feeding cycles to discourage stealing and establish healthier diets for less privileged Dystopians. One of the first buildings that was worked on was the high tech, maximum security prison. The other one had been overcrowding since she, Jasper and Henry first came to Dystopia, and Henry had told her that a lot of the lower level criminals were simply released because the courts couldn’t ethically put or keep many of them in there under the population conditions. Charlotte named the place for Max. The Thunderman Super Max Penitentiary of Dystopia. He liked having his name on something and all, but he was more concerned about rehabilitation and reformation. So, she got with an architect for designing a rehabilitation center for criminals and villains who could be redeemed. That one, she put his full name on.

She was working on her favorite thesis during that time on the necessity of superhuman and nonsupers relations for the balance of global inequities and her rapport with Max became a better gateway into the supers world than she previously had, while her relationship with Swellview’s finest gave her the down home and small scale hero angle. 

As things became more functional, and more Davencentric, T-Force was reassigned to other missions and the Elite Force would be rushed in for any emergencies in Dystopia. Charlotte was sad to not be able to see Max as much, but it was kind of nice that she got to see Chase sometimes. Unfortunate that it was usually during a crisis, but they actually worked well together in those. The last visit that the Elite Force (his team) came to assist, she was able to show him the Chase Davenport Reference Library of Dystopia. He was honored, though shocked that “Mr. Davenport would approve this.” She laughed about that. She hadn’t gotten approval on anything and as long as the statistics she sent him kept improving, he wasn’t bothering her for it.

In her time there, jobs had been created with the nearly constant building, the pollution problems had been addressed, littering and waste disposal rectified, plant life and trees planted, wastelands beautified, and the corrupt government and laws cleaned up. The head of the charity was now the Mayor and Henry and Jasper inherited the charity and renamed it Budding Flowers. The base was fortified and remodeled, while The Dystopia Defenders’ lair, the Defender Dome, was erected nearby. 

Dystopia became the most flourishing Davencity in the world. The Dom loved being “the most” something “in the world,” so she was pretty much set for life and the Defender Dome was the lair that Henry and Jasper had both always dreamed of. She had revived the ecosystem and the economy - not on her own of course, but as the leader of the project, she would get the credit deserved of her work and announce additional credit while in her spotlight. She loved Dystopia, and now, she could always be proud of it... But... She didn’t necessarily want to just quit while she was ahead and rest of the fruits of this venture. Charlotte Page was amazing. One city was absolutely an accomplishment for her to save. But... how much more of the world could she save if she kept pressing forward?

“Charlotte Page is amazing,” she said, looking out of the Defender Dome at the city below that was unrecognizable from all of the before photos taken via satellite and from the place that she lived a year and visited on “breaks” from school. It was a new place. She was capable of possibly molding an entire new world.

Hey! I had a simple question. I am a recent graduate with bachelor in psychology. I was hoping you could give me advice on how to get jobs to work as a writer. I really don’t care if it is creative or technical. You don’t have to respond to this question. I just would appreciate your advice because I am a fan of your work. Thanks for your time!

Coincidentally, I actually asked a friend (@rachelwritesstories--she’s super knowledgeable!) for advice on this subject just the other day so I could pass it on to another friend, so while I personally don’t have advice about getting jobs to work as a writer (I haven’t done any freelancing myself), my friend had some great advice (which she got from a coworker of her own–this is how word travels in whatever century it is now). The advice I was given amounts to: build a strong online presence and portfolio.

The site that was suggested as first and foremost is LinkedIn, so make sure that you develop a polished LinkedIn profile that showcases your prior work experience and all of your skills. I highly recommend seeking a few endorsements/referrals from people you have worked with in the past that talk specifically about your written communication skills. You may also want to seek out free certifications which can be added to your LinkedIn profile, such as getting yourself certified in things like basic marketing training, Microsoft Office skils, etc. You can also use LinkedIn to make connections via their community and social media offerings–do NOT underestimate the power of networking. My last three publications are all from organizations and groups who heard of me through either social media or work/industry friends and asked me to work with them–those opportunities only came about because of networks of people and an active online presence!)

Second, you need to build an attractive portfolio of work to show others. Especially if you aren’t coming into the field with a degree in writing to back you up, having actual samples and testimonials from people to certify the quality of your work will really, really help you get far. The portfolio management site from my friend’s advice was Contently, although I am not sure if it is free or not. Although there are probably websites out there that will contract you to do work (for probably pennies, unfortunately) without a proven portfolio, if you want to work for a more legitimate source and bring in reasonable income, it seems the way to go is to create a website/portfolio online and build it up.

My thoughts on building a portfolio: two things I think might work here:

1) Volunteer to write for organizations that really need help. You won’t get paid, but if your pieces do go live, such as on non-profit groups’ websites or printed documents, you then have something to advertise as solid work that was accepted and published by real organizations out there. When I was volunteering for a refugee services non-profit, I wrote their press releases on community events they hosted for refugee and immigrant populations in the area. That’s a publication, even if it was done on a volunteer basis, and you can use all that work to lengthen your resume/CV and to fill a portfolio.

The friend of a friend’s advice also noted: “Let her know to ALWAYS ask clients if she can use the work she does for them as a sample AND for a referral after her very first assignment with them.”

2) Start a blog or website (not on tumblr) that provides free content that adds value or meaning to people’s lives. I’ve had several friends who got their starts by building up a blog or podcast presence, typically by reviewing products or books first. One of my friends started a blog reviewing horror movies and horror industry products and is now a veryyyy well off Instagram influencer who constantly makes me feel like I chose the least lucrative career path in life. She started small, reviewing products without any pay, but once her blog’s popularity increased, she started getting requests from companies to do official reviews of their products, which ultimately led to paid writing deals to produce copy for their websites and products. Basically, people will follow your social media/blog if they feel like they get something valuable out of the experience. If you want to increase your social media presence–and therefore the number of people who are likely to see you and your writing as worth investing in–produce content that people feel like they gain from: reviews, useful information, intriguing analyses, etc.

With a solid online presence and portfolio, you should be significantly better equipped to start grabbing up freelance writing opportunities especially those advertised online.

I hope this helps even a little bit!

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Poet Scarlett Sabet talks isolation, inspiration and working with her partner, Jimmy Page

Scarlett Sabet’s spoken word album Catalyst grapples with love, politics and isolation – and features production by Jimmy Page

By Thomas Barrie

19 April 2020

Envy Jimmy Page: one of the most compelling, passionate poems of recent years was written about him. It was penned by his partner, the poet Scarlett Sabet, and it appears on Sabet’s latest spoken-word album Catalyst – which Page produced. Seems like a fair deal.

Sabet, who was born in Surrey but now lives in London, has been working with Page since they first met in 2014. She now has four written collections to her name, alongside the album. Her work is often political and, enhanced by Page’s production on the spoken-word tracks, sensual and otherworldly. Sabet names William S Burroughs and the beat poets as influences, and Jack Kerouac in particular – one track on Catalyst is named “For Jack” – though she is just as likely to write about the immigration crisis or the Bataclan massacre as she is to embrace the fluidity and experiential language of the Beats.

GQ spoke to Sabet, who elaborated on Catalyst, her relationship and collaboration with Page and how she has been working during the coronavirus lockdown.

How are you and Jimmy spending time in the pandemic? What’s it like?

Scarlett Sabet: I think, as a writer, I’ve always been a bit of a lone wolf. Social distancing has come naturally to me. From a very young age I would always read my parents’ books; my mother would have a lot of Margaret Atwood. I would kind of dive into my parents’ bookshelf and obviously that has spilled out into writing.

I think with the virus it's different, because there's this unfolding tragedy every day, so it's nothing to be glib about. I get up in the morning, have a green tea and try to meditate. I try to do yoga in the morning, something physical, and I’ve been watching the five or six o'clock news to check in with it. This is the fine line I think everyone's trying to balance at the moment – wanting to know what's going on, because things change by the hour and it's massively life-changing, but I think you need to balance your intake. So I definitely watch the news and then read and write and experiment.

We were scheduled to do a slot at Hay Festival. Jimmy was asked to talk about Catalyst. And then I'd also been asked by Van Morrison to read some of his lyrics – he's got a book of his lyrics coming out. The first one came out in 2016, so I read “The Way Young Lovers Do” at a festival in Belfast in 2016. He was going to do a similar event here as well, so that would have been nice. But I think it's going to be taken to the internet, as it were. I'm recording a video for Van at some point.

How do you keep writing during isolation? Is it hard to find inspiration?

Scarlett Sabet: Sometimes, with writing, I’ve found that discipline works – doing it every day and treating it like a job. I also have had amazing moments of inspiration. One of the poems on Catalyst was called “Fifth Circle Of Hell”. I wrote that here at home and it was about the refugee crisis. I remember seeing a tent in the rain in Calais and thinking, “Jesus.” I wrote a couple of lines down in my Moleskine notebook. And then I remember thinking like, “OK, I'm going to write more about that tomorrow.” The next day, Jimmy had a meeting in the house. So he was in one room and I just went off into a small room and I couldn't go anywhere else in the house. I had a green tea. I was in front of my computer. I typed that one up. And it just came out – it was like a channelling: these images and just a sense of, “What the hell is going on?”

My father was born in Iran, so I'm half-Persian and that made a big impact. I’m very lucky. My parents sent me to a private school and my father was studying architecture in Italy and then the UK, prior to the Iranian Revolution. But nonetheless, that changed his life, and the whole country. On the other side of my family, my great-grandfather was in the French Resistance and his life definitely would have been different if his country hadn’t been occupied by the Nazis. So this is one of the things I was saying to Jimmy: stuff has been cancelled, but it's bigger than us. It's all in perspective. So I'm definitely trying to be positive, keep a routine and check in with friends and family. It's a good time to be grateful for what you do have.

Your work seems very connected to the outside world, though – is it hard to work when you’re stuck indoors?

Scarlett Sabet: I wrote “Rocking Underground” – the first track on Catalyst – on the Tube. My computer broke and it was a deadend Sunday. I grew up in Dorking in Surrey and I love London, but any big city, whether it's New York or London, the effort it takes, sometimes, just to exist is hard. This particular Sunday, I was on the Tube and my computer broke and I just had this “Urgh” feeling. I had Walt Whitman’s Leaves Of Grass in my bag and I was reading that and I had trouble connecting to his world. I thought “This is beautiful, but this is not my reality today.” And so I put down the book and I got out my Moleskine again, and I wrote “Rocking Underground”. There weren't rewrites of that. That's how it came out the first time I wrote it. It was definitely channelling something coming through me.

How has Jimmy influenced your poetry?

Scarlett Sabet: The first poetry reading I ever did was in 2013, at the World’s End Bookshop in Chelsea. I had an apartment in Knightsbridge and Jimmy lived [near] High Street Kensington, so we bumped into each other. We had a mutual friend; we both went to this bookshop. I waitressed for my whole twenties – I only stopped waitressing last August because I knew Catalyst was coming up and I knew we'd be doing stuff for that. So Jimmy came to the first poetry reading, which I organised, and a friend of mine from waitressing, Alice, designed the poster. I just felt compelled to share my work and I invited other people. That was in November 2013. And Jimmy came along. I think that really resonated with him.

And so, our relationship started at the end of August 2014. I self-published my first book in November 2014. I was so young and I was flattered that [a publisher] wanted to publish me – I took that as a good endorsement, but I wasn't quite sure. And I mentioned to Jimmy and said, “What do you think? Do you think I should do it with them?” And he said he thought they were kind of playing me around and he said, “Are you ready to publish?” I said yes. And he said, “Well, then you should self-publish.” And I was like, “Oh, OK.” I didn't really think of that. The parallel he used was that he had been in The Yardbirds. He’d been a session musician and when The Yardbirds ended, he went back to being a session musician. He knew he wanted to create a band, but seeing how the record label’s demand for producing hit single, hit single, hit single had broken The Yardbirds, he thought “I'm not going to do that.” Instead of going to a record company and saying, “I would like to write some songs in the studio, please can I have some money?” he produced and paid for Led Zeppelin’s first album – and then went to them and said, “This is what we’ve got and this is what we’re going to do.” So in the spirit of that, I self-published. Waitressing paid for that.

Around the time my first book came out – and this was before people found out Jimmy and I were together – that was when Jimmy first brought up the idea that we might do something together. He said, “We should do that at some point.” Part of Jimmy’s genius is timing. We felt it would be best to announce [our relationship] and release [our collaboration] on the same day. And Jimmy said, “Look, some people are going to love it. Some people are not. But at least that way it could speak for itself.” Instead of there being chatter about it, people could just listen to it, make up their own minds. So we did it that way. And it was really very magical working with Jimmy. He’s really believed in me before anyone else and at times more then I believe in myself.

Tell me about “Possession”, which you’ve read for us from home.

Scarlett Sabet: It seems very sensual and it's about being in love. And it's about the divinity of our passion together and my desire for him. I know, to a lot of people, our relationship looks a certain way on paper, but to me I just can't believe it – it's like we were pulled together and it's been this amazing love and [he’s] this amazing person who's been my mentor as well. “Possession” was written trying to understand what it is that we… As soon as we came together, it was like this collision.

Jimmy didn’t really do anything to it on Catalyst. There are no effects applied to it like there were to “Fifth Circle Of Hell”. It's definitely very intimate. I remember saying I would whisper it to him. There's so much tragedy and death and I just felt like, “You know what? I'm grateful for the love I have.” Let's focus on something loving, as it were, and something a bit more intimate, because the global landscape at the moment is very brutal and sad

Catalyst can be purchased here

Dawn and Twilight’s Social Media Accounts

Kuya

@NevermoreButSnore.

1230 followers.

Yes, I copied Edgar Allan Poe. Yes, I’m not sorry about the rhyme. Or calling him out. 

Not that he really cares.

Insists that he is a headcanon creator on Twitter 

Everyone who follows him knows that he is lying. 

If we really had to classify him as a writer, it would one who posts those way-too-accurate posts about writers complaining about writing. 

Like the notebook hoarding one. Not that anyone here in the fandom is guilty of that, haha... haha... ha.

Ironically is one of the more popular ones out of the whole group. 

His flat responses and laziness are way too prominent to NOT be noticed. 

If you actually tentatively sneak into his DMs though, for writing tips, he will patiently listen and... rather bluntly advise you. 

It’s still advice though and is always the type to check out and reblog any short fanfics.

It just has to be weird, sporadic hours because he is the type to fall asleep with the phone on his face. 

Koga Kitamikado

1230 followers.

@CapitalKayKay

Listen, there is a reason why a lot of successful businesses chose Instagram as their social media so Koga is no exception. 

What makes his account stand out, as you can see from his rather cheeky username, is that he is willing to be an open book. 

So he isn’t constantly shoving down any products he is sponsoring or whatever piece he is endorsing. 

It’s more of genuinely wanting to hang out and explore what the world has to offer. 

Whenever he posts a picture of the gang together, he’s the one tagging all of them, even the ones with hard usernames.

And there’s always a nice comment thanking whoever hosted the fun time or being appreciative of the area and the locals.

It helps that he has a sense of humour so the memes are always just the right amount of teasing but nothing too bad that will deter potential clients.

Because of his down-to-earth nature, he reels everyone in.

Uses the space to invite everyone following him on any celebration/casual outing.

The thing is... he has a lot of followers.

So... good luck.

Aoi

1150 followers.

@DeredArtTooTsun

Look, even he knows he is a Tsundere. It’s a small victory getting him to acknowledge that, let alone use it to brand himself here.

But god, he’s the man I’m most jealous of on Tumblr.

PERFECT BULLET JOURNALS AND SKETCHES.

Got the spreads that literally define ‘aesthetic’, a perfect lineup of art materials even with pencils that have their numbers faded, and somehow, the emotions can pass through the paper and screen.

Even does tutorials on perspectives, positions with cute annotations. Just don’t praise them for being adorable though and focus on improving your skills, dummy.

Ironically though, it’s his mindless vents that get the most number of notes.

It helps that the pics include him, a very cute... I mean... manly boy screaming at very, very hot men.

A bit baffled but whatever it takes to get commissions. 

That’s right, he takes them. At least there is a back-up option should the restaurant ever go out of business. 

Spoiler Alert: Still doesn’t get paid as much. People, have you seen the number of talented artists here? Aoi might be in the rankings but it’s still hard attracting business.

Support your fandom artists, everyone!

Ginnojo

1000 followers. Just nice.

Ginnojoz

Poor grandpa didn’t intend to put that extra ‘z’ letter, it was a typo because scales don’t get along with haptic touch. 

And unfortunately, doesn’t understand how to change it. 

Once, he was huge on Vine before it died. The end of an era that he has to witness again. RIP.

Gin-Gin, it is RIGHT. THERE.

Expect to find his super short self-defence videos and Book Club Readings on YouTube.

Girls actually appreciate his instructions and attempts to provide help even if they are alone. 

He did try to respond to the nice ones and actually succeeds. 

It’s always easier getting to know the language of women when you don’t really see/touch them.

A deep baritone is perfect for some sexy excerpt of a historical novel... 

Until he corrects the setting.

In fact, he sometimes rage-quits and rewrites it. 

Unlike Kuya, him doing those established ideas actually catches on. 

Yura and Gaku

1500 followers.

MelodyandTheBeat. 

... Tik-tokers. Tik-Tok people? 

WTH do you call them?

As you can see, they are the most popular since it’s combined stardom.

Look, their covers and music mixes are beautiful.

They always have their own version that somehow combines traditional Japanese music... with k-pop.

And of course, food porn. 

Just be grateful there isn’t that awful squelching sound you hear when you consume jelly or the breaking of chilli seeds. 

Listen, I usually separate them because it’s never nice to be grouped as having the same activity as your twin. 

But in this case, being both equally beautiful AND talented sells their uploads. 

Even the cringy ones made because Yura is such a Luddite. 

Like just turning his head and being amazed his hair can turn so many colours, being impressed with each tilt until he gets to a black shade. 

Suddenly hurls the phone away. Gee, wonder why? Guess black isn’t the new... black for him?

Gaku sometimes even introduces new filters he created based on Yura’s random requests that strangely get circulated on the site. 

Oji

550 followers all know Oji-Sanz

Unlike Ginnojo, he deliberately adds the ‘z’ letter to sound cool.

You wanna know what’s worse? 

He actually uses Facebook. 

Aoi decides to give up on him. Nobody blames the poor student.

It’s apparently some old form of social media? Never used it, no sirree. 

Always changing his relationship status but at the end of the day, he’s single and ready... 

To post about all the lovely ladies destined to enter his restaurant. 

He thinks it’s great publicity. 

It really isn’t but one good thing about Oji is he includes EVERYONE.

This man respects his customers and always helps advertise their wares, especially if their connections lead to more resources. 

And less grocery shopping on his part.

Does post the recipes he and Aoi created but will never use because the Milk Hall had a certain style to follow.

Officially makes Aoi his son... on Facebook at least. 

Aoi now tolerates the account. 

Barely. 

Toichiro Yuri

WhatheMeSay has 1231 followers! 

In your face @CapitalKayKay and @NevermorebutSnore!!

You know, I’m so glad that there aren’t any users with those names because I’d be so scared of accidentally tagging them.

Also, geddit? Because... What the fox say? 

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding... yeah, I’ll stop.

Pinterest Guy. And actually does spend on his ‘hobby’ to show off to everyone.

It does boost you and your father’s sales so there is nothing to complain about. 

His boards are always alliterated just to sound super catchy and it works so long as he gets the right emoji. 

Kabuki plays better be promoted or else.

Filled with candid pictures of his victims all taken at different angles you didn’t know were possible and in varying degrees of hilariously misunderstood positions.

He even supplies a donation link, heavily leveraged by his followers, since there are incentives tied to it like early access.

A bit suspicious the photos look like cropped out parts from Koga’s posts and some of the text resembles Kuya’s... er... wisdom?

He takes an unholy amount of selfies when he thinks no one is looking and so they are always surprised upon finding them on the Selfie Board. 

There is a locked board that no one can access, even his followers who are his comrades in real life. 

It’s actually just one picture in there. 

It’s you smiling and giggling at a joke of his. Not even you know it’s been taken. Guess he is as soft as his fur, eh? He better come out soon or else.

Kuro

Kuroruohtumbling

Ginnojo is unfortunately just old enough to have grown up with Scooby-Doo to understand the reference.

Snapchat, like a snapping snake! Hiss!

Unironically loves the puppy face.

Ok, but the glimpses of his stunts help show snippets of the circus life. 

He and his whole troupe family will even don costumes best suited for certain filters.

Sometimes ropes in Ginnojo... and by sometimes, I mean enough for everyone to start wondering if the stoic man is part of the act. 

To be fair, he randomly hugs people and ranks them here.

You, of course, were number 1. 

Now, if only he didn’t use the bloody song to announce it but you forgive him.

Maybe even risks revealing his ayakashi form before deleting the message to you.

Loves making international fans and learning various languages through each post, sort of like flashcards but animated and more fun!

And with 1200 followers, he might become a polyglot like Koga.

Shizuki 

Everyone bans him from creating one. 

Because they know the power of his roasts is too great. 

Little do they know he goes undercover. 

Underground.

And under their noses.

That’s right. His rant town on... MySpace. 

Unapologetically uses a good chunk of his salary from serving the House of Yuri just to get nifty themes that help with the whole burning process. 

Look, there’s a reason he and Oji are friends. 

This is why. 

Their taste in women seems fine but we really have got to do something about their affinity towards DEAD PLACES.

To be fair, he made the whole thing drunk but that doesn’t mean he should maintain it SOBER.

He just feels that it is a waste of space if he doesn’t utilize it. 

And it also becomes kind of cathartic. From the intrusive hugs to his master and Sir Gaku irking each other to no end, he needs it. 

Zero followers... but only because it’s super private. 

It becomes 1 the moment you jokingly create an account. 

Glenn Beck is a joke.

Not even three months ago he was ranting and raving at Cpac saying Bernie Sanders and Black Lives Matter were dangerous radicals that were conspiring to carry out genocidal acts on US soil, or something to that very direct effect.

Beck has a repeated history of “changing sides” and swearing that what he said in the past was a mistake, because he has some complex where he always wants to be seen as some sort of underdog, where being on the side that’s presently “in power” isn’t enough for him as he need to be fighting against something to feel valid.

I’m not some random lib who saw a compilation of out of context Glenn Beck footage online long after the fact of his Fox TV show ending, I watched his Fox News show every day since before his program even really took off in popularity.

I started watching because a conservative economist who I actually LIKED and was genuinely interested in, who I’ve purchased books by, who I actually paid to be a member of his now defunct organization, someone who’s probably far more traditionally conservative than Beck himself, and probably more radically anti-socialist than most Republicans today, was scheduled to be on his show, only to be bumped at the last minute, likely for being too opposed to the interest of Fox in general.

So while the guy I actually wanted to see never appeared on Beck’s show, I found Beck himself interesting as well, and early on I found him to be kind of impressive in that some of the points he made or positions he had weren’t typical of Fox News in that he was actually making some objection to Bush era foreign policy that lots of people on Fox wouldn’t dare utter at the time.

So I watched this guy, every day, for a WHILE, and i didn’t agree with all or most of what he said, I genuinely liked him, and it was a very gradual process of me NOT liking him anymore, as I just watched as he honed in on anti-Obama frustration among conservatives and became more and more extreme and unhinged.

Its one thing to fail to use “unifying language” on his Fox News show.

What Beck did on his show went LIGHTYEARS beyond “non-unifying langauge”.

Highlights on material featured on his TV show included:

routinely vilifying black community groups, and actually ACCUSING people he was at odds with of being “community organizers”, using that term alone as an implication of wrongdoing or conspiratorial activity.

accusing black community groups of holding “fake protests” by bussing people to the site of demonstrations, though he later promoted Tea Party demonstrations such as the Tea Party Express bus tour that LITERALLY served to transport almost entirely white groups of conservatives to anti-healthcare reform rallies. 

targeted community groups that were helping black people find housing and register to vote by promoting a fake news story that one of these groups was running a child prostitution ring, leading to that group (ACORN) being defunded by the government and forced to disband, though a number of conservatives still blamed ACORN for “rigging” the 2012 election in favor of Obama in spite of the group having been completely dissolved.

Peddling a conspiracy theory that Obama was going to sell large swaths of US land to China to pay the national debt.

briefly promoting a fake news story that Obama was building concentration camps to put conservatives in, before making a rapid U-turn and debunking the “fema camp photos” as North Korean prison camp photos with a FEMA logo pasted on them to create a hoax.

Saying that Obama is a racist and that he “has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture”, though this wasn’t on his own show, but during an appearance on another Fox show.

Airing footage of children in a black private school saying that Obama inspired them to become doctors and lawyers, and insisting that this footage were proof that Obama was inspiring an anti-American conspiracy

airing edited footage of an black government employee to make them seem like they harbored anti-white racism, leading to them being fired.

showing a historical Nazi Party propaganda poster promoting the state sanctioned murder of disabled people, and pushing the idea that if Obamacare wasn’t destroyed, people like his own special needs daughter would be rounded up and murdered by Obama’s administration.

Playing footage of George Bernard Shaw ranting insanity about doing annual evaluations of every citizen and killing the ones that weren’t productive enough, and insisting that this was Obama/Democratic policy intention. (but at the same time he was complaining that the Democrats give too much assistance and services to poor/jobless people, so....?)

Doing otherwise fairly decent historical coverage of human rights violations which took place in the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin, but tying it in with the idea that Obama was going to repeat these acts in the US and had to be stopped.

A continued fixation on railing against working families who were on unemployment insurance after the financial meltdown.

A weird phase where he began to idealize and romanticize the day after 9-11 as the peak of American community and values.

Doing pretty good coverage of a public school in Queens NY, one from my own home neighborhood, that had deplorable building conditions and non-existent educational capability, but after all this other shit, who would take Beck seriously on ANYTHING he says?

The funny thing is I don’t even like Obama, I mean I like him more than Trump, but that’s like saying I’d rather step in dog poop than get hit by a train, so it’s not like I’m out to defend him as this great leader or anything, I’m just against racism and ignorance that is based on made up bullshit.

Anyway, the more nuts Beck got, the more sponsors he lost, until the commercial breaks during his shows were nothing but promos for other Fox shows, or supplies for doomsday preppers that were sometimes endorsed by Beck himself, the dopiest of all included “food insurance” where a company would send periodic shipments of food to your house in the case of a... I don’t know, a Stalinist famine or a civil war or something? 

So in spite of being the most popular show on Fox at one point, Beck was the only one making money off of it until he got pressured to end it from within Fox itself.

I’ve seen videos on YouTube where some leftie tries to edit footage from Beck’s old Fox show out of context and present him as a nutcase, its lazy and dishonest, as someone who actually watched his show regularly, you didn’t have to edit things or lie to make him look like a nutcase.

He’s given many “apologies” before for what he’s said, then goes back and says the same insane horrible shit all over again, you don’t go around saying Obama is a racist and hates white people and white culture, show footage of black schoolchildren saying they want to be doctors and lawyers as evidence of an anti-American conspiracy, go on saying Black Lives Matter is part of a plot to commit American genocide, and then cry crocodile tears that you “should have used unifying language”, when now, Fox is repeating those same messages that anti-racists are “coming to get you” and “want to attack and dethrone god”, while insisting that they aren’t racist but just trying to “protect America from communism” or whatever, and calling Mitt Romney a traitor for marching with anti-racist protestors.

You helped establish this shit as acceptable discourse Beck, you don’t get to apologize now.

Early on in his show’s run, he actually called out adults in that were turning away trick-or-treating children during Halloween if they suspected their parents were voting for Democratic candidates, he knew it was bullshit and called it out, but when he realized there was no MONEY in promoting POSITIVITY like that on Fox, he appealed to those same biased spiteful families as much as he could.

Beck was never mistaken or confused, he always knew exactly what he was doing and how to monetize people’s fear in an age where for the first time, someone not of their own racial background was “in charge of them”, and mobilized them to elect a racist gameshow host to “set things right” and make sure the tragedy of blacks being in power without their own personal permission was never made again.

What is a Funnel or Salesfunnel and do I truly need a Funnel for my business

Among the core principles in the digital marketing industry is the sales funnel . While odd sounding in the beginning, this single core principle can take a business from essentially non-existent and unidentified to multi-million-dollar marketing machine with mass saturation, seemingly overnight. In truth, there are proficient professionals who have developed a career around executing this single principle in service. Just imagine a real-world funnel if you're wondering what a sales funnel is. At the top of that funnel, some substance is put in, which filters down towards one limited destination. In sales, something comparable takes place. At the top, lots of visitors arrive who may enter your funnel. However, unlike the real-world funnel, not all who go into the sales funnel will reemerge out from the other end. To better comprehend the idea of a sales funnel and just how you can implement it in your own company, let's look at the following image from Shutterstock. On the left side of the image, you see a magnet. That magnet is drawing in customers, which occurs a variety of methods. From blogging to social networks to paid advertisements and everything in between, how the visitors show up to your site has some impact on the success of your funnel. Stage 1: Awareness When those visitors (we can call them prospects) actually do show up, what's more crucial about the sales funnel is what happens. Through a variety of methods, much of which you've already seen, such as email newsletter signups, ebook downloads, online quizzes and more, those prospects participate in your sales funnel through an luring offer. The goal of your entire sale funnel and platform is to resolve your customer's problem. When you understand the problem, and you develop material to draw them in, then use them a service or product to solve their problem, that's when the genuine magic takes place. Getting to that phase takes work and you have to amass their awareness. As soon as the possibility remains in the proverbial funnel, you  have actually peaked their awareness. That's the first phase of the funnel. However, getting a prospect mindful of you is no easy task. Relying on how they've shown up to your website ( naturally or through a paid ad), those customers may view your funnel differently and your opt-in rates will vary significantly. For instance, when a client finds you naturally through a Google search for example, that implies you have some element of authority. When you have authority, prospects are most likely to get in into your funnel due to the fact that they know that if they discovered you relevantly, that whatever it is that you're offering should be of a terrific value. That's simply the nature of SEO and organic search. Naturally, despite how they participate in your funnel, your goal as a marketer is to move them through the numerous phases that will take them from possibility to purchaser. And as soon as they  know you, you need to build their interest. To do this, you need to develop a relationship with the consumer. You might have enticed them with a terrific deal (lead magnet) to get their email address, but in fact moving them through the funnel is a far greater challenge. The truth? People are wise. They're not just going to purchase anything from anybody unless they feel there's an enormous amount of value to be had there. Thus, your funnel needs to constructed that worth and bake it in through a variety of ways. But most importantly, you need to develop a strong bond with your prospect, which happens by being relatable, truthful and transparent in your e-mail warming series. Stage 2: Interest You acquire the prospects interest through an email series. You begin to relate stories to them that tie into who you are and how you've shown up to this point in your life. Brunson, in his book, Professional Secrets, calls this the Attractive Character. Are you the unwilling hero whose journey occurred practically by error, but you feel like you owe it to yourself and the world to communicate something of terrific worth? Or, are you a leader, an adventurer or an evangelist ? How you position yourself is totally up to you, but your message needs to be consistent throughout your whole "pitch" and it needs to be steeped in the truth. Your backstory, and just how you communicate that through parables, character flaws and polarity, has much to do with simply how well you can "hook" in your potential customers to create a mass motion. Obviously, implementing this isn't simple. You require to first develop your stories, then choose on how you're going to convey those stories and at what drip-rate. Your first email or two may go out on the day they initially signup, then one e-mail per day might go out afterwards. How much of that will be story-based and just how much will be pitches? In a recent discussion I had with Perry Belcher, co-founder of Native Commerce Media, he informed me that you also need to train your prospects to click links. You could have them click on a link of what interests them or connect them to a blog site post or eventually to a product or service that you're selling, but you need to train them to construct a habit of clicking on those links from the very start. Stage 3: Decision The next stage is the decision. Getting prospects to decide isn't easy. The very best way to get them there? Beyond the art of story informing, copywriting and constructing the habit of link-clicking, you need to have lots and lots of consumer evaluations and testimonials. This is among the most effective manner ins which you can get people to do something about it. Naturally, if you're going the paid advertisement path, you could also use Facebook and Google re-targeting to keep that awareness and interest level high. For instance, if you've ever discovered after leaving a particular site, that you start to see their advertisement everywhere, there's a particular factor for that. Specifically if they've already entered your sales funnel , this is a extremely effective way to get them to act. You could show them re-targeting advertisements that have video reviews or reviews by other consumers. If you have media publications that have actually blogged about you, you could take that opportunity to highlight those. It's just an added component of exposure when they see this in your sales funnel and you follow them around with re-targeting. But however you get them to choose to act, turning that switch isn't easy. You require to present them with a fantastic opportunity and usage Robert Cialdini's 6 principles, outlined in his 1984 book, Impact, in one way or another to move them through this stage: Principle of reciprocity-- This is attained by providing great deals of worth, either through whatever it is that you supplied them as a complimentary deal (lead magnet) in the very start, or in an continuous exchange through your emails. Principle of commitment & consistency-- When individuals commit to something, they're much more likely to buy from you. That's why getting them to agree to something like a complimentary + shipping offer or by concurring with something you've stated in some method. This is a powerful principle in sales and if you pay attention to a few of the very best online marketers worldwide, you'll notice that they work fervently to get your dedication to something, even if it's really small in the start. When people like you (i.e. they relate to your stories) they are more likely to acquire something from you, concept of taste--. How well you craft your story and convey that to your potential customers is going to play a huge role in whether they choose to act or not. Principle of authority-- How much authority do your items or services have? Are their respected people in your community that have endorsed it? Scientific studies that are backing it? Are you yourself an authority? All these aspects enter into play in this procedure. Principle of social proof-- Do you have social evidence? Are individuals on social media raving or talking about how fantastic your product and services are? Do you have some other type of social evidence? Best-selling books? Something else? It's importnat that you provide this to potential customers if you do have them. Concept of shortage-- Just how much shortage have you baked into your e-mail series? Again, individuals are wise, but when you apply the principle of scarcity, as in there are only a restricted amount of some deal or time left prior to a discount ends or slots offered for an online class, it entices people to take action. Phase 4: Action The last of the sales funnel is the action that you're intending them to carry out. For the most part this is the purchase. Once again, how well you move them through the different stages is going to set you up with a specific conversion for this action. If 100 people click on your deal and 10 people enter your sales funnel however just purchase people purchase, then you have a 2 percent conversion. Nevertheless, the very best part about this, and the most powerful route that entrepreneurs take to scale their companies, is that if you know that sending out 100 individuals to your site costs you $200, for instance, but you get two individuals to transform at $300 each, then you have a $600 return on $200 invested (300 percent). That's when the entire video game modifications and you can definitely scale your deals when you know that. This how the world's smartest online marketers scale out their organisations. They know the conversion value and they  have actually fine-tuned and improved their sales funnels, so they go after this with a vengeance by just scaling out their offers. If you know that, by investing $1 you're going to get $3 back, you will infinitely invest $1 consistently. Get the point? Nevertheless, getting to this stage is no easy feat. It takes an massive amount of work and effort plus tracking. By implementing sales funnel software, such as the platform developed by Brunson, you can certainly cut down the headache, however there's still lots of work to be done. Copy needs to be composed, tracking pixels need to be set up and e-mail series require to be produced. That's what it takes to prosper. Believe about that the next time you're constructing out a sales funnel. This complex and complex concept in business can literally take you from a complete unidentified to a worldwide powerhouse quickly through the art of scaling out a highly-converting deal. Do not try to take faster ways or carry out hacks, and put in the time if you're aiming to eventually enjoy the advantages and results . What Is BossFunnels All About? Bossfunnels is a wise drag and drop funnel home builder with all the features that clickfunnels, leadpages ETC have! However there's a lot more ... Bossfunnels produces VIRAL funnels, so your customers can construct massive lists and get extreme quantities of traffic. Promoting this exceptionally high quality product you can give your clients something that they will utilize and enjoy for years to come. Here's Are Some Secret Benefits You Might Be Interested In Getting: Done-For-You Funnels In 1-Click. Free Viral Traffic In Seconds Built-In ... No Hosting, Coding Or Design ... 3-Figure A Day Tutorials Included. 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Yes, I know it's been two years, I suck.

If anyone still remembers this fic, here's an update.  I've written beyond this chapter, so I'm hoping it won't take too long to finish.  Last time, Belle and Gold parted so she could go off to college and he could continue selling his body.  We fast forward two years (I'd like to say that's the reason for the two year hiatus but that would be a lie.  The truth is writer's block is a bitch and I'm easily distracted).  Cover art by @evilsnowswan

[AO3 link]

Lying on her front on top of her bed, feet kicked up behind her, Belle turned the page of her book.  She had been trying to lose herself in its words for the past hour, without much success: guilt gnawing at her over reading something frivolous that wasn’t on her list for class.  It was early May, and finals were due to start the following week. She wasn’t too worried about them; she had put the study in, but she was tired after another semester of hard study and grabbing hours as a waitress whenever she could.  She had managed to find a couple of part-time jobs in local diners, and had worked more hours than she had bargained for when she first arrived in Boston. College life had many wonderful positives, but the reality of her mounting student debt left her with an ever-present anxiety that was hard to shake.  Hence the waitressing.

The sound of the apartment door opening made her look up, and she smiled as Ruby put her head around the bedroom door, dark ponytail swinging.

“Pizza tonight?” she asked, and Belle wrinkled her nose.

“Do you mind?” she asked.  “I know we said we’d start eating more healthy stuff, but I’m exhausted.”

“Cheese, bread and prosciutto have to be three of the food groups,” said Ruby.  “We can add in wine. That was fruit once, right?”

Belle giggled.

“Okay, I’m convinced.  Call it in whenever you like.”

“I’ll do it now.  Want to watch a movie later?”

“As long as it’s not something terrible, sure.”

“Come on, the terrible ones are fun!”

Ruby disappeared, and after a moment Belle heard her speaking on the phone, ordering the pizza.  She soon returned, minus her jacket, hair free of its ponytail.

“So.”  Ruby flopped onto the bed beside her and winked.  “Tomorrow you’re officially in your twenties. Does Will have anything special planned?”

“I doubt it,” said Belle, turning the page of her book.  “We broke up.”

Ruby blinked.

“What?  Since when?”

“Since I decided to stop kidding myself.  Namely last night.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

Belle closed the book, tossing it aside and rolling onto her back.

“I don’t know,” she sighed.  “He’s a nice guy, and I know you like him.”

“Screw that,” said Ruby fiercely.  “You’re my best friend! Of course I’ll support you over him!  What did he do?”

“Nothing,” said Belle wearily.  “It’s not him, it’s me.”

“Is that what you told him?” Ruby winced.  “Ouch.”

“I know, I know…”  Belle ran her hands over her face.  “It’s a terrible cliché, but it was never gonna work out, I was kidding myself.  To be honest, he hasn’t gotten over his ex. I told him to follow her to Europe. I think he might.”

“Wow.”  Ruby shook her head.  “So why did you say it was you, not him?”

“Because…”  Belle screwed up her nose.  “I never really tried, you know?”

“Not much point if he’s still pining after Anastasia.”

“Yeah,” said Belle gloomily.  “Still, I think maybe we made each other feel better for awhile.  He made me laugh, at least.”

“Well, that’s important,” said Ruby sagely.

“And I could talk to him,” added Belle.  “Not about anything that mattered, not like I can with you, but at least he listened.  More than most guys do.”

Ruby sniffed.  “Tell me about it.”

“But,” Belle went on, “I should still never have dated him.  I knew it was hopeless. All we did was go and see stupid movies and talk about crap.  Like that was ever gonna help him get over her!”

“Probably better than my way of dealing with a bad break-up,” offered Ruby, and Belle grinned.

“Come on, drunken one-nighters are a rite of passage for all college students.”

“You must have missed that memo.”

“Yeah.”  Belle pulled a face.  “Not really my scene.”

Ruby sighed, settling back against the blankets and eyeing Belle thoughtfully.

“You’ve never really gotten over that first guy, have you?” she said frankly, and Belle shifted uncomfortably.

“I didn’t say that.”

Ruby threw up a hand in exasperation.

“Belle, you can’t keep thinking about him!” she protested.  “The guy was a prostitute, it’s not like you know him!  However great he was, however attentive he was, you paid him to be that way!  It was all an act! You do know that, right?”

“Of course,” lied Belle.  “I wasn’t even thinking about him, anyway.”

“I’m not stupid, you know.”

“I wasn’t!” she insisted.  “At least - at least not much.”

“Great sex does not make a great relationship,” Ruby reminded her sternly.  “Look at me! A whirlwind romance with what I thought was the person of my dreams, and three months later I’m single and miserable and wondering what the hell I did wrong!”

Belle reached out to grasp her hand and squeeze.

“You’ll meet someone new,” she said.  “We - we both will. Eventually.”

“I know,” sighed Ruby.  “Doesn’t stop it sucking while we wait, huh?”

“Means we concentrate in class more, though.”

“Well, that’s true.  Every cloud, and all that.”

“You ready for finals?”

“As I’ll ever be.”  Ruby pulled a face. “I think it’ll be okay.  I haven’t screwed up in the lab in weeks. I have to ace these finals, there’s no way I want to have to take summer classes.”

“Yeah, I really need to work as much as I can, get some of this debt paid down.”

“Your dad never did come up with a surprise wad of cash, huh?” said Ruby, looking aggrieved on her behalf.

“I never expected him to, not really,” sighed Belle.  “It’s cool. I’ll have paid it off by the time I’m like forty-five or something.”

They shared a grin, and Ruby pushed up on her elbows, fixing Belle with a firm stare.

“Okay,” she said resolutely.  “Since we’re young, free and single, I say we celebrate your birthday together.  That means a prosecco brunch with all the sugar you can eat, followed by mani-pedis and a trip to Wonderland to get the one thing every girl needs.”

“What’s that?” asked Belle suspiciously, and Ruby grinned.

“A decent vibrator.”

x

Gold ran a hand through his newly-cropped hair and rolled his shoulders, the interior of Wonderland a little warm for the three-piece suit he was wearing. He wasn’t sure why he had decided to don the thing for his final visit to Blue Star, but it had seemed appropriate.  He had said his goodbyes to his colleagues, shaken hands and kissed cheeks, all wrapped in the armour of blue silk and fine black wool.  Having agreed to accompany Jefferson to Wonderland for the purchase of some tools of the trade, he was looking forward to leaving the place empty-handed for a change.  Then he could go back to his hotel room, take off the suit for the last time, and turn the final page on that chapter of his life.  He couldn’t say he would be sorry to do it, however reluctant Miss Blue was to lose him as an escort.

“What do you think of these?  Pretty, huh?”

Jefferson handed him a set of butt plugs in iridescent colours, and Gold raised an eyebrow.

“Does it really matter what colour they are, considering where they’re going?”

“Wow,” remarked Jefferson.  “You really are off the clock, huh?  Come on, give me your expert opinion while you can.”

“I’d be worried about the coating coming off,” said Gold.  “Stick with the silicone ones.”

“You’re probably right.”

“What about leather cuffs?” said Gold, pointing.  “You said you needed some new ones.”

“Oh yeah, thanks for the reminder.”

Jefferson went off to browse, and Gold fidgeted, fingertips toying with his hair again.  It was taking a little time to get used to. The short length made the silver in it more visible, and it was strange not to have it hanging around his face, but the haircut felt right, too.  Another break with the past.

“Since you’re staying in Boston, why don’t you come to dinner tonight?” said Jefferson, as he looked through the selection of cuffs and straps.  “Graham’s making tacos. They’re pretty good, if you add extra hot sauce. I can promise some decent tequila, too.”

“Sounds good.”

“Come over at seven, then.  You can meet our new cat, she’s adorable.”

Gold smiled.  He had thought about getting a cat himself, now that he would spending more time in Storybrooke.  It would be nice to have some company in the evenings. Of a different sort than he was used to.

“I’ll be there.”

Jefferson soon found what he was looking for, and paid for his choices, dropping everything into one of the recognisable turquoise bags and winking at Alice, the assistant.

“You sure you don’t want anything?” he asked, as he and Gold headed for the exit.

“Why would I?”

“Well, you never know,” said Jefferson.  “Long winter nights, up in Maine, all by yourself in that big old house...  A guy could get lonely.”

“I’m fine, thank you,” said Gold, and raised an eyebrow.  “What are you expecting me to get, a bloody sex doll?”

Jefferson snickered.

“No!  I just meant you should be prepared, just in case someone special wanders into your life.  You have great skills, or so it’s rumoured. Be a shame to let ‘em go stale.”

“I’ll have more than enough to keep me busy, I assure you.”

“You should start getting out a bit more,” said Jefferson.  “You know what they say, all work and no play—”

“—means I can pay the bills and get to class on time,” finished Gold, and Jefferson rolled his eyes with a dramatic sigh.

“Well, if nothing else, when you eventually decide to let someone in enough to have an actual relationship, the sex will be awesome!”

“Thank you for that ringing endorsement,” said Gold dryly.  “I have a feeling it takes more than a bag of tricks to make a relationship work.  You’re lucky you and Graham know all one another’s secrets.”

“You need someone you can be honest with from the start,” said Jefferson. “Given how we met, that was never an issue.”

“Well, that’s unlikely to happen in my case, hmm?”

He grasped the door handle, pulling it open, and two young women almost fell in from the street in a mass of dark hair and jumbled colours.  He took a step back, opening his mouth to apologise, and whatever he had planned to say died on his lips as the first woman swept back her hair and looked up.

“Belle!” he breathed.

She stared at him, her eyes widening, a blush rising in her cheeks.  Dear God, she was beautiful!  Perfection. Small and slender and clad in a pale blue jacket and what looked like a yellow dress over wedge-heeled sandals, a blue beret pulled down over her chestnut curls.  Her lips were full and red, parted in shock, and he remembered with painful clarity exactly how she tasted. In every way.

“Alistair,” she whispered.

He swallowed hard, taking a step back as he noticed Ruby Lucas behind her.

“I - Miss French!” he managed.  “Miss Lucas. How - how lovely to see you. How are you both?”

“Fine,” said Ruby cheerfully.  “We’re just having a girly shopping day for Belle’s birthday, hence the trip to this place.”

Two years today.  It’s two years today since we—

“Right,” he said.  “Uh - happy birthday, Miss French.”

Belle didn’t answer, and was blushing, teeth worrying her lower lip.  She had dropped her gaze, fingers dancing along the brown leather strap of the purse over her shoulder.  He pulled his eyes away.

“Fancy seeing you here, Mr Gold,” added Ruby.  “With your - friend.”

“Yes, well, we were just - I was just—” he floundered.

“Regular shopping trip,” said Jefferson, holding up the bag.  “We spend a fortune in this place, but it’s worth every cent.”

Ruby smirked, and turned back to Gold, gesturing up and down.

“That’s a new look for you,” she observed.  “Like the suit. Love the hair.”

“Thank you,” said Gold numbly.  

“You girls should check out the White Rabbit range,” said Jefferson helpfully. “Hits the spot others can’t quite reach, if you take my meaning. Alice will steer you right, just tell her I sent you.”

Belle closed her eyes with an expression suggesting she was enduring physical pain, and Gold desperately tried to steer the conversation onto a more appropriate topic.

“I - ah - I had forgotten you were both headed to Boston,” he said.  “Are you enjoying college?”

“I - yes,” said Belle, still blushing.  “Yes, thank you.”

“We have a place together, a couple of blocks away,” put in Ruby.  “Studying hard, you’ll be pleased to know.”

“Good.”  His power of speech appeared to have deserted him.  “That’s - I’m very glad to hear it. Take care, both of you.”

He stepped to the right, and Belle stepped in front of him.  There was an awkward moment that seemed to last an eternity, in which they sidestepped to try to get past one another, murmuring apologies as they each stepped in the same direction.  Eventually he managed to escape with the help of Jefferson’s firm hand steering him by the shoulder. He left the store without seeing anything, and without looking back, dimly aware that Jefferson was following him.  His heart was racing, and he took a couple of deep breaths before he was able to focus on anything. The sun was very bright, and he fumbled for his sunglasses, almost sighing with relief as he slipped them on and cut the glare.

“Friends of yours?” asked Jefferson, and Gold sighed.

“Two ex-students from my high school,” he said tersely.  “I think we could have done without the vibrator recommendations, to be honest.”

“Oops,” said Jefferson, not sounding remotely contrite.

“Indeed.”  Gold ran a hand over his face.  “Of all the places to bump into those two…”

“Don’t worry, they didn’t hear us talking about anything they shouldn’t.”

“Right,” said Gold vaguely.

“You okay?” asked Jefferson.  “Sometimes it’s weird when your two lives collide, you know?”

“Oh, I’m well aware,” said Gold quietly.  “I’m fine, really.”

“Good.”

Jefferson leaned in, kissed his cheek and stepped back, the turquoise bag crackling against his leg.

“I’ll see you tonight,” he announced, waving a finger.  “Seven o’clock! Don’t forget!”

“I’ll be there,” promised Gold, and Jefferson grinned and turned on his toes, sauntering off down the street with the bag swinging from his hand.

Gold watched him go with half an eye, his mind full of Belle.  She lived nearby, with Ruby. How had he not seen her before? Admittedly he wasn’t in Boston much these days, and would be there even less now that he had given up escorting.  He sent up heartfelt thanks that he had never seen her while working his second job. God, she was as beautiful as ever. Beautiful and just as hopelessly out of reach. He blinked hard, shaking his head.

“Penny for ‘em.”

Another familiar voice made him jump, and he turned with a smile.

“Neal,” he said warmly, reaching out to pull his son into a hug.  Neal hugged him back, grinning, a small backpack looped over one shoulder.

“What are you doing here, Dad?” he asked.  “Are you staying in Boston?”

“Only a couple of nights,” said Gold.  “I was doing some shopping and finishing up a few business matters, that’s all.”

“Yeah?  Who was that?”

“What?”  Gold panicked for a moment before realising who Neal meant.  “Oh that - that was Jefferson. He’s - a friend.”

“Oh.  Okay, cool.”  Neal looked him over.  “You look great! What’s with the suit?”

“Oh.”  Gold looked down at himself.  “Yes. Well. I - uh - thought I’d try a different look.  I’m not sure it’s really me.”

“That’s a hell of a different look,” observed Neal.  “And you cut your hair!”

“I - yes.”  Gold ran his fingers through the short strands.  “Don’t you like it?”

“It looks great,” said Neal.  “Although I kinda miss the - floof.”

“Floof?” said Gold flatly.  “Whatever that is, I’m almost certain I never had any.”

“Have it your way,” said Neal, with a grin.  He put a hand on Gold’s shoulder. “You look good, but I gotta say you look tired.  Emma always says you work too hard.”

“Well…”  Gold shrugged awkwardly.  “Not been getting much sleep.”

“Don’t tell me you’re still working yourself into the ground for us,” warned Neal. “You don’t need to, I’m serious! I’m making good money now. No killing yourself with school and tutoring, okay?”

Gold smiled.

“You can tell Emma that I’m no longer working two jobs,” he said.  “Which means I’ll have a little more time on my hands to spend with you.”

“Good.  In that case, why don’t you come over tonight?” he asked.  “Emma was gonna do steak, but I’m sure we could use ‘em to rustle up something for the three of us.”

“Oh, I - I can’t, I already have an appointment,” said Gold hastily.

Neal glanced down the street.

“Okay,” he said lightly.  “Tomorrow, then?”

“Tomorrow would be great,” said Gold, with a smile.  “I’ll bring a bottle of something. What time?”

“Come over whenever you like, Emma’s in all day.  I should get back around six.” Neal glanced at his watch.  “Look, I’d better go, I only came out to grab some lunch. Couldn’t face the cafeteria mac and cheese.  See you tomorrow?”

“See you then.”

Gold hugged him again before Neal hurried off down the street, and he glanced after him with a tiny smile on his face.  It was going to be good to be able to spend more time with his family. It would all have been worth it to give them that good start in life, the start he had never had.  Time to make the most of it, and put the past behind him.

x

As the time approached seven, he knocked firmly on the door of the apartment Jefferson and Graham shared.  They had moved in together six months earlier, and he had been over a few times for dinner when he had been in town, but not since they had adopted a cat.  Jefferson answered the door with his usual enthusiasm, taking the bottle of wine Gold held out and exclaiming over it before ushering him inside. The walls had been painted a warm coffee colour, the couch dark brown leather with a paisley throw and cushions in cream, brown and olive green.  There was a savoury smell of garlic and spices coming from the kitchen, and Gold sniffed appreciatively.

“Graham’s in the kitchen,” said Jefferson.  “He thinks ten minutes until dinner, so what do you say I open the wine?”

“Sounds good.”  Gold looked around.  “The place looks great.”

“Thanks.  We nearly got into a pillow fight over the colour scheme.”

"Spare me the details," said Gold, with a grin.  “So, where’s your cat?”

“Oh!  Let me get her!”

Jefferson put down the bottle and hurried off, returning with a long-haired white cat with black and ginger patches on her head and back.  He held her up high, as though presenting her for inspection by the cat gods.

“I invite you to humbly prostrate yourself at the feet of Her Royal Highness, Princess Petunia Puffball!” he announced.  “Puff for short.”

Puff looked decidedly unimpressed at being picked up, and glowered at Gold as though it was his fault, so he elected not to pet her just yet.  Jefferson kissed her head, which she endured with a look of disdain, and then put her down on the couch. Gold held out a hand, and she sniffed at his fingers cautiously before butting her head against them and beginning to purr.  He scratched her ears, making her fluffy tail rise up and curl over.

“I knew she’d like you!” declared Jefferson, and clapped him on the shoulder. “Come on through to the kitchen. You want some of this wine?”

“Please.”

“Just give me a second.”

Gold gave Puff a final pet, and followed Jefferson through to the kitchen, where Graham was chopping tomatoes with his shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows.  He smiled, setting down his knife to give Gold a quick hug.

“Have a seat,” he said.  “Dinner won’t be long, I’m just making the salad.”

Gold took a chair, glancing around the kitchen.  The walls were painted a warm terracotta colour, turquoise shelves housing recipe books, brightly-coloured pottery and assorted houseplants.

“You’ve redecorated in here too,” he observed.  “It’s nice.”

“We thought we’d try for something warm and cosy,” said Jefferson.  “It’ll be nice when this place is two feet deep in snow.”

“Yes, it reminds me that I really need to repaint the porch at home.”

Jefferson set a glass of wine in front of him, and Gold nodded his thanks, taking a sip.

“So,” said Graham, returning to his chopping.  “No more Blue Star. How does it feel?”

“Not sure it’s sunk in yet,” he admitted.  “I’ll have to find something to keep myself busy with in the evenings.”

“Any thoughts?”

“Nothing specific.”  Gold took another drink.  “The house could use some work; I’ve been neglecting it for the past few years.  So there’s that.”

“Maybe you’ll meet someone,” suggested Graham, and Gold pulled a face.

“Unless Storybrooke has new residents I’m unaware of, doubtful.”

“There’s always online dating.”

“No thanks,” said Gold, pulling a face.  “I imagine that ‘I just stopped working as a prostitute’ is something of a conversation killer with the average woman.”

“How you chose to earn a living is no one’s business,” Jefferson reminded him.

“I know,” sighed Gold.  “But it’s something fairly momentous and I wouldn’t feel right keeping it to myself.”

“No one’s saying you have to give your life story on a first date.”

“I know,” he said again.  “But I could probably do with some time to myself, anyway.”

“Well, you know you’re always welcome here,” said Graham.  “If you ever need to get away from small town life, just call.”

“Thanks,” said Gold.  “But I think I’m actually looking forward to getting back into small town life, if only because the neighbours will stop speculating about where it is I go in the evenings.  Plus it’ll be good to get a full eight hours of sleep every night, for a change.”

“Well, we support you,” announced Jefferson, raising his glass.  “And someday we’ll drive up to that small town of yours and you can take us out and show us the sights!”

“That should take all of ten minutes,” said Gold wryly.  “Nothing ever changes in Storybrooke.”

“To boredom, nosy neighbours and a regular sleep schedule!”

They clinked glasses, Gold grinning as he did it.

x

Belle locked the apartment door, grasping her case in one hand as she shoved the keys into her purse.  Finals were over, and she could feel the stress of late-night studying starting to leave her body, her muscles aching a little, heavy and tired.  She was pleased to be done with study, and to be heading home for the summer, but there was an underlying nervousness there, a low-level twinge in her gut that she was trying to ignore.  It had nothing to do with the stress of exams, of that she was well aware.

She followed Ruby downstairs to where the car was parked in the May sunshine, throwing her case into the trunk and sliding into the passenger seat.  Ruby grinned widely, large sunglasses hiding most of her face.

“Next stop, Storybrooke!” she sang, and pulled away into the steady stream of cars heading north.

They were quiet as they drove out of the city, Ruby concentrating on the road ahead, and singing snatches of a song on the radio.  Before too long, they reached I-95, and Ruby settled back in her seat, fingers tapping on the wheel as she picked up the pace. She glanced across at Belle.

“Want to hit The Rabbit Hole tonight?” she asked.  “Could be fun to see who’s still around.  I bet it’s just as crappy as when we left, but there might be some new blood in there.”

“I should probably spend some time with Dad,” said Belle.  “I’m guessing Granny will be expecting you to spend at least the first couple of nights at home.”

Ruby grumbled, but nodded reluctantly.

“Your dad gonna give you some work?” she asked, and Belle wrinkled her nose.

“What he can,” she said.  “He said the shop wasn’t too busy right now, though.  You think I could get some diner shifts?”

“Already cleared it with Granny,” said Ruby, glancing in her mirror before overtaking the car ahead.  “We probably won’t be working the same shifts, but at least it’s something.”

“Every little helps,” agreed Belle.  “Assuming we didn’t flunk the finals, of course.”

Ruby sputtered in derision.

“Come on girl, we worked our pert little asses off for those exams,” she declared.  “Think positive! No class until September! We have three months to have some fun and earn some cash before we head back there.  And I intend to make the most of it!”

“Okay.”  Belle grinned as she sat back.  “I’m in. Positive outlook, here I come.”

“That’s the spirit.”

x

Storybrooke seemed smaller.

It was the first time that she had really noticed since leaving, and Belle wasn’t sure whether it was a good thing or not.  It showed that she had grown as a person; it would be ludicrous to expect two years of college not to have had some effect on her, after all.  She didn’t want to lose sight of her home, though.  She didn’t want to think she could never come back.

Ruby had dropped her at her dad’s place, along with her bags, and she had spent half an hour or so putting away her things in the battered old wardrobe in her room.  The house was silent; her father would not be home until around six, which was around an hour away. She decided to make a start on dinner, and hunted through the fridge to find something to throw together.  Moe French was never the best at eating vegetables, but she found mushrooms, onions and garlic, and so she decided on pasta.

She was reading a book, leaning against the kitchen counter and keeping one eye on the bubbling sauce, when the sound of the front door made her glance up.  Moe beamed when she saw her through the open kitchen door, and she set down the book and ran to hug him.

“I thought you were coming tomorrow!” he complained, almost squeezing the breath from her.

“I told you it was today,” she chided.  “More than once!”

“My brain’s turned to shit,” he grumbled.  “How’d the exams go?”

“Ruby tells me we smashed it, so I’m following her lead,” said Belle, in a dry tone.  “They were fine, I think. How are you?”

“Oh, okay love, okay.  Shop’s - well, we’re getting by.  The Nolans had another kid, so that meant a lot of orders.  And Ashley Boyd got married, so that was a good week. Getting by, getting by.”

“Doesn’t sound as though you have much need of an extra pair of hands,” she observed, and he shook his head.

“A couple of hours a day, to make deliveries and help out with the flower orders, that’s it,” he said.  “Sorry, love.”

“It’s cool, Granny gave me some hours at the diner.”  Belle turned to the sauce, snatching up a spoon and stirring it.  “You hungry?”

“I could eat a dead bear, I’m bloody starving.”

“Go wash up then, I’ll cook the pasta.”

They ate in comfortable silence, Moe praising the creamy mushroom sauce, and Belle watched in some amusement as he cleared his plate and looked hopefully around for more.

“That’s it,” she said, taking his plate and stacking it atop her own.  “You want anything else?”

“Better not.”  He patted his belly.  “That was great, love.”

“What do you want to do tonight?” she asked, and he looked uneasy.

“Uh - you know I said I wasn’t expecting you until tomorrow?”

“Don’t tell me,” said Belle.  “Poker night.”

“I can cancel,” said Moe hastily, but she shook her head.

“Don’t bother.  You go and have a good time.  I can keep myself amused for one night.”

“You sure?”

Belle smiled.

“Absolutely.”

x

Gold finished cleaning up the kitchen, a glass of wine on the table behind him as he wiped down the counters.  He rinsed the dishcloth, humming along to the music coming from the lounge. A soft, Baroque piece, soothing strings and harpsichord.  Wiping his hands on the dish towel, he turned back for his wine, taking a sip as he wandered through to the lounge. It was strange not to have to plan for two or three nights out, and he was already enjoying the extra sleep.  Though losing the extra money was less welcome. Worth it, he decided. Worth it to start getting your bloody self-respect back.

The first few days back in Storybrooke had left him feeling a little out of sorts, restless and jittery due to the extra time on his hands, pacing the kitchen over and over with a glass of wine in one hand as he tried to burn off excess energy.  After the first weekend where he had felt as though he was going quietly mad, he had embarked on a thorough clean of the house, taking the opportunity to go through old paperwork and burn it, cleaning out the attic, and scrubbing the kitchen until it shone.  He had planned to work on the garden next, although that needed little attention, as Anton came to tend it once a week. Perhaps a couple of days out at the cabin instead, reading and relaxing. At least he still had class to prepare for, so he wasn’t entirely without purpose, but he would need a serious distraction to get through the long summer break.  

A hurried knock at the door made him frown, and for a moment he stood still, eerie fingertips caressing the nape of his neck and sending shivers down his spine.  Goosebumps rippled over his skin, spreading down from his shoulders, and he told himself to get a bloody grip, surprised at his own nervousness. He wasn’t expecting anyone, and he wasn’t sure why an unexpected knock would make him anxious.  Perhaps one of the neighbours needed help with something. Setting down his glass, he went to the door, the vague side outline of a diminutive figure visible through the rippled glass panels. Gold licked his lips, his breath held tight, a ball of iron in his chest.  His heart was thudding, his pulse throbbing in his ears, and he reached out with a shaking hand, skin tingling as his fingers closed around the cool brass handle.

The evening sun was setting, the sky a pale lilac fading into peach tones at the horizon, thin knotted ropes of grey cloud outlined in coral.  Belle stood on his porch, bouncing on her toes, chest heaving a little as though she had been running, dark curls glinting with reddish highlights from the sunset.  Her pale skin was tinged apricot, warm and inviting, and she inhaled sharply, raising her chin.

“Hey,” she said abruptly.

He could feel emotion stir deep within him, a rising tide threatening to engulf him and sweep him away.  Her eyes were shining, fixed on his, soft lips open and moist, and it was as though they had parted only yesterday.  He smiled.

“Hey.”

This is not for you.

First off, do not reblog this. There are only a handful of people whose opinions on this topic I care about, and they are perfectly capable of reaching me through discord should they want to discuss this post. I know saying this is not going to deter anybody who is really determined, but I just want to make very clear what this post is for: this is for me and my friends. This is not me “weighing in on the discourse”, this is not meant to be taken as a point for or against any argument. This is me, talking about how I feel. 

I think I’m done writing for Good Omens. Maybe not forever but certainly for a good long while, at the very least until tumblr’s newest obsession shifts again, preferably until this fandom shrinks back down to something more closely resembling the five people in a dinghy it felt like when I first started writing here a year ago(ish). 

There’s a number of reasons for this but the primary one is: I feel too watched here. I don’t like the number of followers I have, I don’t like the number of strangers I get coming into my inbox or commenting on my posts, and I certainly do not like the atmosphere surrounding Neil Gaiman and Michael Sheen’s involvement and/or observation of this fandom. 

It seems to me that many things Neil Gaiman has been saying, many things people are applauding as evidence of good representation and engagement with his fans, aren’t really his ideas and his work to take credit for. To name just one example, the conversation going on lately about Crowley dressing in women’s clothes during the Mesopotamia scene. A friend of mine made a post about this in April and it just seems to me to be too much coincidence that Neil Gaiman, active tumblr user and frequent trawler of the Good Omens tag himself, didn’t see fit to talk about this himself until people’s discussions of gender and representation started gaining traction. It seems to me that if Neil Gaiman had really intended Crowley to have been dressed in women’s clothes and read as female presenting, he might have said something about that before it became popular. Retroactively deciding something is a way because people like that idea is not the same thing as intentional representation.

And it’s the same for the pair of them being asexual and nonbinary, and the same with him endorsing queer readings just in general. It’s only been after the fandom started saying these things that he’s started saying them, too, after insisting, historically, for thirty years, that Aziraphale and Crowley are not a couple. And please don’t misunderstand me, I don’t want him to say “they’re explicitly gay” or whatever else, I want him to get out. I want Neil Gaiman to subscribe to what he has claimed to support in killing the author, and stop commenting. Stop lurking, stop answering people’s questions, stop treating the community that has sprung up around this book as his. It isn’t. Fandom spaces belong to the fans, not the creators, and headcanons and fanwork belong to the people who make them, the predominantly queer and female people who make them. 

I am done writing for this fandom because I am tired of seeing concepts that originated with me and my friends, for fun, for free, come out of the mouth of a middle-aged cishet white man who is making money off his writing. Do you know when I write? I write in bits and spurts walking home from work, while I’m waiting for the water to boil for pasta, in the half hour break I get at my night job. Do you know what I’m doing when I’m not writing? Desperately and scramblingly trying to take care of myself, to cook and clean and do grocery shopping and laundry and all the while worrying that maybe today is the day I drop something, maybe today is the day I miss a ball in the juggling act of supporting myself and my frankly ridiculous cocktail of mental illnesses and hurt myself or lose my job. Do you know why I write, why I do fandom? So that I have somewhere to let off steam, something safe to think about besides how totally screaming scared I am, all the time. I am 24 years old and I make just enough to survive and not much extra, and I am constantly aware that I need help and can’t afford it, and that I’m just biding my time at my job, trying desperately to hang on long enough that I’ll be eligible for benefits and thus can begin looking for mental and physical health advice. 

And it is just exhausting to me that I can write, pour my heart into something I love and care about and post it online for the benefit of other people who love and care about the same thing, and then have to contemplate the idea that Neil Gaiman or Michael Sheen are seeing my work. That these well-off people, happily settled into life and kids and a career that puts food on their tables and allows them to live without worrying about whether the next time they have a really bad day they’re going to lose everything, can see the things I write, can see the things we all write, fic and meta and headcanons and queer readings going back thirty years, in some cases, and say it was inspirational to the way Aziraphale was portrayed in the show or, even worse, just completely fail to acknowledge that the fandom influenced a changing perception of the material at all. Because Neil Gaiman’s tune about this all has definitely been changing since the show came out. 

I don’t know, I know this isn’t fully rational but Neil Gaiman and Michael Sheen lurking here has made me feel like I’ve put together a portfolio of work, somehow, without intending to or thinking about it, because I don’t think of the writing I do for fandom as serious work. I don’t consider my fandom presence to be a professional pursuit, but just by existing in this space as a professional writer himself, Neil Gaiman makes me feel like I ought to. Like if I say something insightful enough somewhere, sometime, someone will swoop down and tell me they’d like to give me money for it, because I desperately, desperately need money or at least the kind of emotional security having a great deal of money or a steady supply of work I can do without physically and emotionally exhausting myself can bring. I don’t have to have a good customer service presence on here, I don’t have to be friendly and marketable and neurotypical and stable, because this is a hobby and my livelihood doesn’t depend on it, but the vague shadow of the idea that Neil Gaiman or Michael Sheen could see my work and be impressed by it throws that out the window. 

This blog isn’t going anywhere but I am done writing for this fandom, fanfiction and meta and headcanons and all of it, because every time I do some tiny part of me is hopeful that it will lead to financial stability, somehow, and it isn’t going to, and it isn’t healthy. I am going to write some fic for some smaller fandoms for a while, smaller fandoms that my handful of friends are interested in, and I might try to work on some original writing. If part of my angst about this whole mess comes from wanting to get paid for my writing, that would seem a sensible course of action. 

🎩 My Political Philosophy 2019: Oligarchy, Meritocracy, and Matriarchy

This essay is an exploration of my political philosophy or how I think society should run. I have a degree in sociology which only emphasizes the ignorance I have on the subject. As a philosopher, I can only aspire to create the next great political and economic system. My attempt here is to give an outline of what I think humanity should be striving toward while maintaining a fair, prosperous, and efficient future. Much further study is needed.

My approach is both egalitarian and utilitarian meaning equal and the greatest good for the greatest number. First I will talk about how the political system is run now where the corporate rich rule. Then I will talk about where I think the political system should be going, which is into a meritocracy. In the end I talk about how there is patriarchy (where men rule) but a matriarchy (where women rule) is now better for society.

Oligarchy 

I know America is technically a republic but much research has gone into how America functions and it is actually an oligarchy. A small number of corporations make laws and get them passed through politicians they heavily endorse. For an in-depth read William G. Domhoff’s book “Who Rules America?”  If I remember correctly the story goes something like this. The people elect their representatives which are basically picked by those who find funding from corporations, the corporations write the laws, and the corporate representatives pass them. This doesn’t happen all the time but it is more the rule than the exception. The people who are really in control are the CEOs of the companies that make the policy that gets passed as law. 

Now we can argue if corporate rule is bad or not, but that won’t be argued here. If you want to know the negative side, which is basically greed over human wellbeing, read my post “The Result of Corporate Rule in America.” However, here I am more focused on taking the good parts from the current system and putting them to work for my meritocracy. The bad part about corporate rule is that they are narrow in serving their interests, but the good part is the country has a lot of wealth and is run by the most able. 

Meritocracy 

If we are to evolve our political philosophy into a better functioning system for all I suggest we keep capitalism and our republic and update our democracy and economy. Basically, I want to put in a point system for elections and safety nets into the economy. For a true meritocracy to function there has to be an equal playing field for everything. This includes political, educational, and economic opportunities. 

Some things in the country we would need to employ would be a higher national minimum wage that has kept up with GDP and production, free health care, free college all the way till a doctorate, and a national holiday on election day. Each company has to reserve a certain percentage of ownership to its employees. There should be free financial services to the poor like an “advisor-teller” money manager but only designed to help the poor save and produce more capital. 

In a world with as much wealth, efficiency, and technology as we have, not everyone has to work. Whether you want to work, or rather how you want to work should become an option you want to do and are passionate about. In a meritocracy, your job becomes your will and who you are. You are motivated to work because it fulfills you emotionally and spiritually rather than financially; it’s what makes you human. You’re also motivated to achieve to be represented better politically through the electorate point system.

I haven’t hashed out exact numbers but there would be an overall cap on wealth based on a percentage of the lowest producing income level. There would be universal basic income where everyone would receive, for example, $1000 a month, or $12000 a year. The wealthiest person in the country can only have 100 million times the lowest net worth. The richest person in the country can have more money but they would have to raise the minimum. This binds the fate of the richest and the poorest. 

Those were corrections for the economy. To better the political process I suggest we put in a point system for voting. We do that by making your vote worth more if you have achieved a certain status in society. The following are examples. 

You get one point for being alive and an adult. You get .2 points for an associate’s degree, .5 for a bachelors, and 1 if you're a ph.d. If you have a business that has been profitable for 5 years and you paid your taxes, it is worth .2 points. 12 years is worth .5. And that is where business owners are capped. If you can prove consistent monthly income for 7 years you get .2 points. 15 years .5 points. You can get there faster by working the same job for 5 and 12 years respectively. This makes employees and the employer equal. There are special circumstances where you can receive more points. For example, if you receive an olympian metal it’s worth .1 per Bronz, .2 per silver, .3 per gold. If your a tenured teacher is worth .8. You can add points over categories. So if your a successful 12-year business owner, with another successful 5-year business, won 2 gold Olympic medals, and have a Ph.D. you’ll have a total of 3.3 points.  

Some of these are arbitrary numbers and a lot more research would be needed to see what points are appropriate at what stages. It’s not based on the Amount of money you make or have. In fact, the whole point is to give power to those who can perform, not simply those with just money. The merit is not only how much they contribute to society, but their ability to vote correctly for their interests and the interests of the country. We would obviously have to get rid of the electoral college and have a direct democracy. The point system would also prevent a tyranny of the majority. 

The Patriarchy

I am interested in studying how a matriarchal society is different from patriarchy. I am interested in studying the political system of Finland and Iceland. It would be interesting to compare Finland with its new 34-year-old Finnish woman prime minister and the United States. Iceland held a women’s protest in 1975 and now their electorate is almost all women. 

I think the approach of a male WAS an advantage when aggression and military might was needed for conquest and security. But in the age of giant militaries and nuclear weapons, a more amicable approach is needed. The same reason why women have traditionally abstained from the military or become caretakers at home is the same reason why they are superior to lead now that it’s the age of the Anthropocene. 

Barack Obama has the inclination that women are better leaders but he gives no reason why. I think women are more fit for office because their temperament is more appropriate. It makes their approach and goals different. Women are just as smart as men but their thoughts are less testosterone and ego-driven and therefore better. Women are nurturers and naturally release more estrogen rather than testosterone which makes them less aggressive. This is important because thinking clearly, long-term, for the family has been an evolutionary attribute of women. Women are more evolved in dealing with a larger group and protecting not only her interests but the interests of the group.

I think it’s cultural why women don’t rule in America. Women don’t believe a woman is ready to be president. They're still too submissive to men. Native American societies were a matriarchy. I think women already rule, silently over men through interpersonal relationships. 85 percent of purchasing decisions are made in some way by women. I think America will eventually get to the point one day where women take the reigns of power and rule better than men through direct political power as the preferred candidate. 

Reading List: 

Who Rules America by G. William Domhoff

Oligarchy by Jeffry Winters

American Oligarchy by Ron Formisano

Plutocracy in America by Ronald P. Formisano

When Women Ruled The World by Kara Cooney

Societies of Peace: Matriarchies Past, Present, and Future

3 reasons learning screenwriting is helpful for novelists

Hi everyone! This is a topic that is important to me because I went to school for screenwriting and thought for a while that I'd screwed myself in trying to write books, but discovered that I'd actually helped myself a lot. I was struggling with prose writing, but I eventually realized it was hard because I was failing to apply what I'd learned because I thought it wasn't applicable.

It is very applicable!

I did a whole film program, but that isn't necessary at all; if you can afford it, some community colleges will reach screenwriting 101, and the good thing is that beyond 101, it's pretty much all practice. There are also great resources online for screenwriting as well that will you teach you! The only bummer with these is that you don't get workshop feedback on any writing, which is helpful, but again, not necessary to learn the basics.

(I've reblogged other posts about screenwriting resources in the past and haven't used any myself so I can't endorse any personally and won't mention any specific ones here, but I believe I've tagged them all with 'screenwriting' if you want to check.)

So here are the reasons why screenwriting is a good skill for a book writer.

1. It teaches you structure.

Scripts are heavily structures, much more than books. I love working in those frameworks; it's like a puzzle, seeing how your story slots in. Books generally do follow the same general framework! They don't have the same hard rules, but if you struggle with structuring a story, screenwriting will definitely help you clean up your writing.

Not to mention that I find the flow of screenwriting very helpful for pacing and things like fight scenes; because your script has to be concise and clear enough for a director to interpret what they're showing on the screen, it helps you understand what is important to show and what'ss superfluous.

2. It teaches you how to outline.

There's a reason people discussed the differences between George R.R Martin and the GoT screenwriters' writing styles. More novelists tend to be pantsers, because they can. This goes along with structure, but outlines are a crucial part of screenwriting, even for purely business reasons! Often a writer will show an outline before showing a script, so a financier can decide whether they think the writer will be good for a project before the writer invests the time to write the whole thing. Learning to outline efficiently saves screenwriters time and money, because if they aren't expending the time writing every project they're up for, they can write the ones they already have a contract to be paid for.

Likewise, outlining will help you see if a particular story will work in the way you want it to, before you write a hundred thousand words that don't flow right (honestly, I'm still struggling with this in prose)!

3. More writers are involved in the adaptation of their work all the time!

I spoke with executives who had multiple projects where the original writer adapted the scripts, and though they still considered that an outlier, both 'risks' had been massive successes in how the scripts had turned out.

Though the belief is that most writers cannot translate skills across mediums, I don't think that's true at all; I think most writers who've done that in the past don't take the time to learn the format before they try. Screenwriting is actually a very simple medium; it's not hard to learn the technical principles of it, and if you can adapt to the harder structure, you can write it!

Plus, I've heard from both people in publishing and in film/TV development that more and more writers are now selling the film rights before the book is even published, and if you have an outline for a screenplay or pilot, a studio or production company is more likely to work closer with you on that project.

Of course this is a writer stretch goal (this would come after you've got an agent and when you're in talks for a deal), but even writers who plan to self-publish can use this—The Martian was a self-pub that had sold the film rights before the book even launched, and they tied in the marketing of the book with the film. (Pro-tip: movies have MUCH bigger marketing budgets.)

Bonus: It teaches you dialogue!

I don't particularly feel that you need to learn screenwriting to learn how to write good dialogue; I think you just need to start reading you prose out loud when you're editing, because that's how you learn dialogue. If it sounds clunky when you say it, it's probably not going to sound natural on the page, either. But if you're really struggling with dialogue, screenwriting is helpful, because it's the type of medium where you can get other people to read your work aloud, and that's usually easier to analyze and critique than if you're trying to do it all yourself.

The best Guide to Reddit Marketing around 2019

"Yep, i do all my modelling in C4D as I just know the tools so well there. I do minimal retopology in Zbrush on organic shapes but any hard surfaces I make in C4D. I'd recommend the "Introduction to Subdivision modelling in C4D" by Shane Benson on Vimeo (he goes by Sheppard O'Neill on YouTube if you prefer that) and it was his tuts that got me into box and subdiv modelling.

I'm also releasing a modelling workshop in C4D and models from the kitchen scene that these belong to will be in there to learn. Just not these two as they belong to marketing for the workshop. very well "Brand new Reddit account with two extensive comments defending Boa Vista Orchards huh...? We joked earlier about spotting the Boa Vista account in here but it looks like we actually have lol! > I just talked to the dude who does the marketing for Apple Hill and he sent me this So you just randomly talked to the guy and he emailed over his entire statement...? " "I too wonder why they didn’t just create a new line and call it the mach-e instead of mustang, I believe it has something to do with the marketing department since they knew it’ll stir a lot of discussion" "Precedent suggests it depends on the marketing around the product being sold and the implied purpose. " "Wow, ha. The fact that you think that it’s ok for the government to strip away my personal health insurance so that I HAVE to be on the same shitty plan on everybody else is crazy. If healthcare is “free” and universal, the quality of healthcare is bound to decrease. I can choose to pay for whatever the fuck I want and whatever healthcare I want. I give to charity and I have plans on giving a lot more to charity as I get further in my career and start making more money. Believe it or not, you aren’t the only one that cares about people just because you want “free” healthcare for everybody. And there is also no such thing as free healthcare. It has to be paid somehow and middle class taxes will go up no matter how complicated you try to make the source of payment sound. And regarding free college, that will also raise middle class taxes. You keep bringing up this. 02% of financial transactions bullshit as if that’s going to cover all costs. Have you done studies on this yourself? Do you even know that? You act like all these things can be magically paid for without anybody in the middle class being negatively affected. I have a bachelor’s degree and I didn’t feel like college was very challenging. It was more like a series of annoying classes I didn’t need when all of college could have been boiled down into one year of the core classes of my major of marketing. College is a fuckin scam and it’s only truly necessary for a very limited amount of majors. You’re just another minion that kisses the feet of big-government Democrats that try to make us feel like horrible people for not allowing them to sucks insane amounts of money out of the economy and spend it how they would like to. inch "That's including the localization teams for every language though, as well as PR and marketing. >! Some of them might even be legacy accreditation for the Gen 6 models they're *still* using.! < " "Time is a cost and you should track where that cost is going. That said, if you are working on general administrative/nonbillable stuff within your own department, it's pretty easy to have that time automatically go to the right cost bucket, so generic entries for that sort of thing are fine imo. The stuff that really has to be tracked is anything for clients or for departments that are outside your default (e. g. engineer writes a blog post, that's marketing time etc). micron "I believe there are some lessons on Google Academy for Adss (now called Skillshop) but hands-on experience is tricky. Two ways are possible, 1) is for you to have your own website and use Google Ad Sense, but this is more from the advertiser side rather than publisher or technical side 2) ask a digital or marketing agency that is near you if you can shadow/assist/internship/work experience for a week or so. This may be difficult depending on where you live and agency people are always very busy, so if you do ask tell them how you could help THEM not the other way around. To be honest, start with Analytics and Paid Search as they are arguable more accessible and have more out there for you to learn" "We are in the same boat, but different industry. Here's my approach, starting this week: I'm joining business groups that my target clients are a part of, for example, manufacturer groups. Then I'm going to target that organization with our services. I'm then going to offer to speak about the service I offer and how it helps businesses. Not a marketing spiel, an educational talk. Good luck" "One might consider a lawsuit if a car or alcohol company advocated or implied the action of drinking and driving in their marketing" "This post has been removed for breaking Rule 1. No Spammy Titles. Do not mention anything about selling anything in the title. Absolutely ZERO marketing in the title. Do not even ask for people to contact you for more. Be enticing. Post quality pics with quality titles. Read the rules for info on how to market yourself here. If your posts keep getting removed then you will be banned. READ THE RULES! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Remember to[contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/? to=/r/feetpics) if you have any questions or concerns. *" "I came of grew up and came of age in Chicago during Jordan's time with the Bulls and the shortest answer is that it's almost incomparable because the level of fame basketball players before Michael Jordan was laughably lower than now. Even today MJ has a logo that might be more identifiable than the company that created it. I would argue no athlete in any sport has surpassed MJ's level of fame. MJ pioneered so many avenues of endorsements, its like comparing planes in the era of propeller planes with jet planes. Jordan like most greats, stood on the shoulders of giants, specifically Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. Those two spent the better part of the late 70's and early to late 80's dominating the sport of basketball. Also add in Isiah Thomas of the Pistons and arguably "Dr. J" Julius Erving of the 76ers and those four were the superstars of the four teams that won EVERY NBA championship of the decade. Before Michael Jordan won his FIRST NBA Championship in 1991, he was arguably bigger than all of them. Before MJ, being a big name athlete meant getting your name on a breakfast cereal box called Wheaties, and doing the commercial saying the plug line "Gotta eat your Wheaties! " That's not a joke. Check 'em out on youtube, they're cringe worthy. MJ's meteoric rise in my opinion was helped by a few special advertising campaigns. I think first would have been his Nike commercials with Spike Lee, another pioneer. He just made "Do the right thing" at a time when black people making movies with black people in the movies wasn't really a thing. Spike Lee also happens to like playing characters in his own movies and Mars Blackmon was a character in that movie that Spike Lee chose to portray in a series of commericals with Michael Jordan. Again, pardon me for repeating, but I have to say it again for context. You have a supremely talented and charismatic young athlete being marketed by a young shoe company (Converse Chuck Taylors were still THE basketball shoe) hiring a visionary and ground breaking director to do something that had not been done before. And they crushed it. Again, at this time Michael Jordan wasn't winning NBA championships. He was having savant level performances, but get bounced out of the first round by the Celtics, or getting manhandled in the playoffs by the Pistons. By the time he did win it all in 91, MJ was doing things that no one had done in fields well outside basketball. Michael Jordan in Flight is one of the first videogames to have 3D. He had already supplanted Dr J in the one on one basketball video game with Larry Bird. Gatorade put out a marketing campaign with the song "Be Like Mike" and that song was the top song for the summer of 92 in Chicago on most radio stations regardless of genre. You're already familiar with Space Jam, but before Space Jam, the Looney Toons were relegated to afternoon after school syndicated (rerun) television stations. Michael Jordan made Bugs Bunny cool again to a whole new generation that knows of them only through MJ. I hope that helps. inches "Yeah I don't want to turn it around and criticize Musk over this or anything, but Tesla is great at PR and marketing while convincing people they don't actually try to be. inches "No, you dont need more parties, you need to ban all parties and establish government funded elections where everyone with a certain amount of support by the people can run using government money and marketing channels. Equal funding, equal marketing, equal candidacy, by the people, for the people. Sounds too good to be true? Well fuck you, because parties are corrupt barbaric cavemen shit. " " Funny Cartoon Images for website content - Family Funny Images and illustrations, Ultimate single panel funny cartoons used for websites, social media and emails https://www.freecartoonsdaily.com https://www.cartoons.cafe   www.cartoons.cafe www.acmeblanks.com sign up now! Funny Cartoons, Funny family cartoon images, Custom Cartoons, Niche Cartoons, Humorous Illustration Services, Business Cartoons, Medical Cartoons, Custom Comic Strips, Book Illustration Services, Political Cartoons, funny hospital cartoons, cartoons for marketing, corporate cartoons, work cartoons, business cartoons, Computer Cartoons, farmer cartoons, farm cartoons, tractor cartoons, Pig cartoons, pig farmer cartoons, cor farmer cartoons, wheat farmer cartoons, soybean farmer cartoons.... inch "That's including people associated with the marketing and promotion of Sword and Shield, which means people at Nintendo and the Pokemon Company rather than actual programmers at Game Freak working on the game itself. The same article you're looking at gives 200 at Game Freak - which is likely wrong since Game Freak had 143 employees, and Game Freak openly stated most were working on Town. You could include the modelers from Creatures Inc, but given that the models are the same as those developed for X and Y by Creatures Inc years ago, they are likely still being credited for "work" on this game that was actually done quite some time ago. " "Imagine what a lucky break JonTron was for FlexSeal. Their products are actually pretty decent, but their marketing was almost typical infomercial stuff that no-one over fifty would've seen. Next, out of nowhere, some YouTuber makes them famous amongst younger customers. People make "that's a lotta damage, " and "I sawed this boat in half, " memes. Everyone knows who they are. Chances are, when you need some stuff like this you'll at the very least know about their existence and you might buy their stuff because at least you know they're legit. Some people will buy it when they need something like that, literally for the meme. All they have to do is keep the ball rolling with tweets like these (because, of course, people actually follow them on Twitter now). " "That's my point. The pub you linked to is disney land. I'm looking for somewhere that recreates the  a more authentic historical experience. I think these places have got their marketing wrong which is why they are closing. They should be trying to recreate an experience closer to that in the Pathe news reel. If you just sold fresh baked bread, potted Hare, a variety of local ales you could heat with a poker while smoking a hilarious pipe you could capture a huge slice of the real ale / hipster / foodie market. " "No game in the genre had been competition for the Diablo franchise since it's inception. D3 no matter how you look at it was a huge commercial success being in the top 10 video games sold of all time at one point. Diablo now has become what WoW was before, tons of games saying they are a WoW killer and none of them doing it. So now we looming at Diablo killers but they all end up falling off somewhere because they don't get the same $$$ support / marketing. inch "8M opening weekend bad = bad marketing. Bad quality movie would be revealed in the multiplier (word of mouth and no rewatches). In this case I don’t think there was anything compelling from the movie they could focus the marketing around which led to the 8M OW. " "I’m in the same boat. I have to get 14 credits by may2020. In the last 2 weeks I did principle of marketing 3 credits score 66 and principal of management 3 credits score 62. This week I’ll take precalculas which is 5 credits and calculus which is 4 credits. I did not pay the $89 for the test because I did modernstates which pays the testing fee. It also reimburses me for the $20 testing fee" "Marketing. McAf€€ gets money from users, Micro$oft gets money from McAfee. They beget the green, motherfuckers that they are. Sometimes  http://tipofmytongue.topreddit.info  who install 3^^rd party stuff tho, it's not only Microsoft. Anyway, it's a motherfuckery of bloatware if not malware. "McAfee antivirus is one of the worst products on the planet" -John McAfee" "You're arguing entirely from marketing hype instead of actual quality, which is entirely stupid and comes down entirely to Sont having far greater of a userbase and them having less games to pump more money behind. Besides, let's not pretend Sony has an actual library of games here. Both Xbox and Sony have completely shit the bed this console generation in terms of exclusive libraries. Sony has had like, 8 good games this entire generation as exclusives. You have Death Stranding, Uncharted 4, Horizon, Until Dawn, Bloodborne, God of War, MLB The Show... That's about it? I guess you also have Detroit and Last Guardian depending on who you ask, but I defo don't wanna throw Days Gone on that list. But in any case, you could lump all of those games into loke 3-4 genres. Am I missing anything? But yeah, stop saying dumb shit like "Well its not a household name so its irrelevant" because you're entirely missing the point and reducing the entire industry to what can or can't be marketed. As well, its telling that Sony has stated their goal next-gen is to have less games release but have them be bigger, where Microsoft is going the opposite direction. Keep the the big titles, bur also have a little something for everyone. Diversity is important. Your Battletoads reboot might not sell as well, but its important to folks who like it. Games shouldn't be live or die based on how well they fit in established and marketable trends. Its absurdly reductive" "I actually never had injected one, whats the main difference? And is it really a big improvement or rather a marketing bait" "It’s all part of his NYC persona. Marketing. inches

There’s a bunch of new questions in my inbox that I don’t think I can answer without ranting and being very condescending. Below are some

“Will you buy Jessica's book”

That’s extremely unlikely. First off because I basically only ever read various types of research papers and legal documents. Secondly because I doubt she’s able to understand enough of the bigger picture and has enough self-reflection to write something I’d find meaningful. Maybe she can, but I doubt it.

“Based on those RIAJ reports, will streaming take over Japan like it did with the rest of the world?”

I’d say it already has since long ago, at least among younger people. As I’ve ranted about before, the physical market in Japan is almost 100% about idols making fans buy CDs for other reasons than music. And it’s particularly held up by how idols hold huge amounts of events to which fans get “free tickets” if they buy CDs.

“You said that bgs have better physical sales because of fangirls, then why bigbang is not selling millions like exo and bts?”

Because no matter how stupid they are, most of BIGBANG’s fangirls are at least a lot older than EXO and BTS fangirls and therefor won’t spend their hard earned money on something so ridiculously dumb as buying CDs.

The real question you should ask is: Why are hordes of international girls who don’t speak Korean and who don’t have a CD-player buying millions of CDs from Korea???

And the answer to that is in how the big young international kpop following basically is like some huge retarded online cult that lives detached from reality and doesn’t care about facts, and instead basically just makes up whatever stuff they want to believe in. Obviously record labels are fueling this behavior as they make a ton of money from how fans spend money on dumb things. But it’s really fascinating how it’s largely the fans themselves who have created this absurd behavior.

“How is it possible that a girl group like Blackpink who sold 200k+ copies of their mini album with no fan signs, billions of views on yt, tons of exposure, a successful world tour and 20k attendance at their Seoul concerts can't even sell out their fan meeting?”

Again, you’re asking the wrong question. BLACKPINK is basically just some girls dancing to 5 autotuned Teddy-songs. I understand if lots of people find the songs to be awesome. But it’s 5 songs. And basically anybody could go up on stage and dance to them. So why would anyone pay for tickets to a BLACKPINK performance? The turn-out for their latest Korean concert seems like a fair turn-out reflecting how many people that logically should want to pay to see BLACKPINK (and as mentioned before: much of the audience at their previous Seoul concert had been given free tickets by companies sponsoring the event, and 20k seems exaggerated too for that matter).

So the real question you should ask is: “Why are hordes of international kpop fans paying money to see BLACKPINK dancing to some songs?” And of course the answer is again in how this international kpop following basically is an online cult.

“Do you know the difference between apple music and iTunes and which do I have to look at to know how a group is doing.”

Yes of course. ‘iTunes’ is Apple’s old download service where you purchase downloads. ‘Apple Music’ is Apple’s new streaming service where you pay a monthly subscription and then get to stream whatever music you want to listen to, exactly like Spotify (it just took them 7 years to copy Spotify).

Since no normal human would pay to purchase a download from iTunes, iTunes is completely irrelevant. Spotify and Apple Music are the charts you need to look at if you want to know what music people are listening to.

The only ones who buy downloads on iTunes are idiot fans who for some reason have convinced themselves that they must waste their money to make their faves top iTunes. And frankly, buying downloads from iTunes (or QQ etc) is even way more stupid than buying CDs from Korea. At least fangirls buying CDs could claim that they want the photobooks and cards in the CD package. The idiots that buy downloads from iTunes are just pissing away their money. Don’t even get me started on all the Chinese fans who uses VPNs to make their faves top the US iTunes chart.

“How big are the chances that super m will succeed in u.s.?”

The question is strange. The members already have lots of fans. From the perspective of Capital Records it seems a very simple and low-risk project to make money from their already existing fans buying shit.

And from the perspective of the members it seems like a good opportunity to get great US/worldwide promotions/exposure that will help them make more money from concerts and CF deals now and in the future.

As for if they could become actually mainstream music that people listen to, the answer is of course no.

“Does the labels in the west work the same shaddy and scheme ways as most korean labels/agencies? Is it better to no sign to a label and just stay independent and probably make more money given the bigger and more developed music markets?”

The western companies are of course just as ‘shady’ in many aspects, but your question is strange. Record labels, songwriters and performing artists all live in symbiosis.

Record labels make money by marketing and selling music.

Songwriters make money not only by royalties on music sales through record labels, but also from how much their songs are played in concerts, on TV, on radio, in clubs, at sport events, in karaoke bars, etc etc.

Performing artists mostly make money not from royalties on music sales, but by being paid to perform live at concerts and other events and by being paid for various types of CF/endorsement deals.

They all need each other. And if you’re a performing artists with ambitions to make it really big and get paid lots, it makes no sense to decline all the promotion/marketing you’d get by signing with a big record label early in your career. And particularly if you’re not also an awesome songwriter, because then you’ll need the help of some good A&R people to get you suitable songs.

The ‘problems’ of the idol industry (and this of course doesn’t just go for Korea, but even more so for Japan and China, and also applies to many of the big US/UK boygroups decades ago) is especially manifested in how idols are made to do endless promotions and free events to drive music sales (which the record labels make huge money from) instead of doing paid events (which the performing artists would make huge money from).

“It's teddy the richest producer in kpop? Because I always though he probably get paid better than most kpop idols.”

Again: the top performing artists make huge money from live performances and commercial deals, much more than anybody makes from songwriting or music sales. But performing artists who don’t make it big enough make absolutely zero money if they can’t get paid more for performances than what they’d have to spend on outfits/makeup/travel/assistants etc.

Teddy is indeed one of the Koreans who make most money from songwriting nowadays. But songwriting is very different to any normal jobs. Your income is passive royalties from how much your songs are used. Some songs continue to be used for a very long time and all over the world. Take for example the songwriting for ABBA. They continue to make lots of money today from 40-50 year old songs because they are still being used lots on radio, in TV, in musicals and with covers in concerts etc. There are obviously a lot of old Korean songwriters who have a huge catalogue of songs they’ve written that continue to make them money every year.

“Will the hallyu ban in China ever be lifted?”

Who knows. China being China. They’re just altogether weird with their one-party-state ruling everything but any horrible individual opportunistic capitalist behavior seems completely OK as long as you support the party-state enough.

“Do bgs members ever stop being fuckboys?”

It would probably be good for you to realize that all men by nature more or less has a biological instinct that says “if there’s a hole, then I should plug it”. Their actions are rather a result of opportunities and consequences. Most male pop-stars and actors have more or less endless opportunities and face no consequences.