i love talking about old hyperfixations,, talking about a series that induced a category 7 autism moment in me basically from ages 13-15 is something so personal,

Wave 2 Frankie Stein Diary

The 15th day of September

Watzit got into big trouble today while I was at school. Somehow, he got into dad’s lab and snuck out with apart from one of dad’s projects. Good thing mom was looking out the window and saw Watzit trying to bury it. Dad was still pretty amped up by the time I got home. “That animal is too smart for its own good – I’ve got a good mind to replace its brain with a sheep’s or one from a soft sciences professor.” I think Watzit just misses me when I’m at school so I’m going to start getting up extra early to take him for a longer walk before I leave. Hopefully that will help – otherwise I’m going to have to kennel him during the day = (.

The 24th day of September

I used to think that being the “new girl” was the hardest thing about going to school but now I’m thinking that being the “not so new girl” is kinda hard too. When I was the new girl and I did something dumb everybody said, “You’re new – don’t be so hard on yourself – you’ll get the hang of it.” My friends have also done a lot of things for me, which is good and bad. Good because it kept me from embarrassing myself, and bad because there are some things I didn’t learn to do on my own and now everybody expects me to know those things and when I mess something up that I should know it’s like really, really embarrassing. Like I never really paid much attention to where my classrooms were when I started at MH – total brain short on my part I know – but it was just easier to follow Draculaura or Clawdeen and because they always insisted on showing me around I didn’t really learn they layout of the school. So yesterday we were on our way to class when I totally got caught up in a zombie flash mob and when I finally got away, I was in a part of the school I didn’t recognize and totally lost. I thought if I peeked into one of the classrooms that maybe a teacher could help me. I saw this big iron door and was about to open it when somebody behind me said, “That wouldn’t be a good idea.” I nearly jumped out of my stitches. It was Spectra Vondergeist. She said, “Oh, it looks like I frightened you… good.” Then she pointed to a sign above the door that read, Basement Levels, “Now unless you have a ball of twine or a Minotaur in your pocket you probably don’t want to go down there – follow me.” I followed her down the hallways listening to her stories about MH. They were all interesting but they kind of all were starring her. She did get me back to class though which was really nice of her. Of course, I was really late, and the teacher wanted to know where I had been – I said I got lost, the whole class laughed, and I got detention because the teacher thought I was giving her attitude. After class Ghoulia showed me how to GPS all my classes with my iCoffin so it wouldn’t happen again – oh well, just another lesson for the “not so new girl anymore.”

The 25th day of September

I went to breakfast with my dad this morning, which was scary fun although I didn’t think it was going to be at first. See, he goes to the same die-ner every Saturday morning and has breakfast with the same group of monsters and mad scientists. Mom said he’s been doing it for years. I asked her if she ever went and she just laughed. “I don’t take your father with me to shop for shoes and he doesn’t take me when he gets together with his friends to solve all of the world’s problems.” “Why not?” I asked. Mom gave me a hug and said, “Because my love, there are times when practical advice can just take all the fun out of life.” Then from behind us I heard dad say, “Unless it comes from your parents and then it is to be heeded at all costs.” Then Dad rushed us out the door because he wanted to make sure we got there before the banana scary pancakes ran out. I said, “I’m not a little girl dad, I can eat grown up food you know.” “Of course, you can my dear, but who said I was thinking about you?” Dad’s friends turned out to be really nice and pretty funny for a bunch of monster geeks especially when they started telling stories about dad ;). I could see that they all really like him though and since my dad has a very self-decapitating sense of humor it made the time totally fun. I don’t think I’d want to get up early every Saturday morning but I’m glad I got to see that my dad can be a regular monster too. Hey, who knew? Oh, and the banana scary pancakes? Definitely worth getting there early for.

The 1st day of October

My stitches are still coming loose at exactly the wrong time. Dad ordered some special monstertanium thread that he said was stronger than dragon’s breath and would totally fix the problem. Yeah – not so much. I was standing on a ladder in the gym helping Draculaura hang up a banner for this week’s pep rally when Clawd and some of the football team walked through wearing their game day jerseys. One of the guys on the team is a gargoyle from Scotland who has the dreamiest accent and the most scary handsome crystal grey eyes. I said hi to everybody by name but when I got to him, I totally blanked. I just stood there absolutely mortalfied and finally called him by her jersey number… “7” … lame I know… but then the rest of the guys started teasing him and I got so anxious that my arm fell and then the rest of me fell too. I don’t know how he did it but somehow “7” caught both my arm and me. All the guys started clapping and Clawd said, “How come you don’t catch like that at practice?” “7” was talking to Clawd but looking at me when he said, “If the passes ye threw were as pretty as this lass, I’d nay drop another.” At least that’s what Draculaura said he said. I don’t remember anything after I feel off the ladder except strong arms and crystal grey eyes.

The 7th day of October

Fear Squad practice was terrible today. Cleo was totally impossible to please, and we started and stopped several times before she finally just cancelled practice altogether. Then at lunch Purrsephone, Meowlody and Toralei were all saying that it was because of the blowup that Clawd had with Spectra and the rumor was that Cleo was going to break up with Deuce, Deuce was going to start dating Operetta and Clawd was definitely back in the picture with Cleo. I was really bummed cause they’re all my friends and I didn’t want to have to take sides. I saw Lagoona later and asked her what she thought about the rumors. She asked me who was spreading them and when I told her she just laughed and said, “Not every seagull that yabbers has found a fish.” Coming from Lagoona that somehow made me feel better, confused but better.

The 12th day of October

Monster Heritage Essay by Frankie Stein

That’s all I’ve written so far but I’m really excited about the assignment cause I’m going to get to learn so much scary cool stuff about my classmates. I thought that for part of my heritage research I would read that book that was written about my parents, but I couldn’t find a copy of it in the house. I asked mom why and she said the author had taken, “certain liberties with the truth” but if I wanted to check out a copy from the library, she would be happy to answer any questions I had. When I asked dad about the book, he used an expression I’d never heard before, but I guess mom had because she made that noise in the back of her throat that means some monster is in trouble. Dad hung his head and looked kind of creepish for a bit until mom stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. I don’t need to read a book to find out about my monster heritage. I get to see it every day – how scary cool is that?

The 16th day of October

I had the strangest dream last night. I dreamed we were planning to have the scary best dance ever until an evil teacher cancelled it and we had to have the dance in a secret location under the school. Everything was going as planned when this strange monster in a shiny suit with lots of hair appeared and started yelling that this was his dream and we were going to start over. I totally jumped into another dream but the only think I remember from that one was the intense feeling of being a stranger. It must have been stressful though cause when I woke up, I was upside down and one of my arms had fallen off. No more ghost chili pizza for me before bed.

The 24th day of October

I met a new ghoul today! At least new to me = ) Her name is Abbey Bominable and I think she’s really sweet even if she does take a bit to warm up to. Anyway we were waiting in line together at the creepateria and she was asking the lunch ladies to explain what was in the food. The line started to back up and some monsters were yelling at her to hurry up. I think she was starting to get frustrated so I told her to go with the screechza since it was pretty easy to recognize most of the stuff they put on it. She gave me a look so serious that I thought I had said something I shouldn’t have but then she smiled and thanked me. We sat together and I learned that she lives in the mountains about the school, loves to snowboard and that her first language is Yetish. She said she could understand what was being said most of the time but that the slang kept tripping her up because it was hard not to take everything literally. I told her that sometimes I still did the same thing. Then I told her that I would help her with her slang if she would teach me how to snowboard. She thought for a moment and then said, “I think that would be the cool that is scary.” Hehe I bet she learns slang faster than I learn to snowboard = ).

okay okay, first off I gotta say that lfy is absolutely legendary, and thank you for creating this wonderful, gay world for our boys for all of us to enjoy. second, in the last week or two I've been thinking about the potential critical acclaim of Derek's book and, like, all the author things he would have to do to promote his new book like signings, interviews, library/bookshop talks, and I was just wondering if you have any thoughts about that? (esp interview questions about his muse ;) )

:’) Thank you so much for your kindness!!🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍 And for this absolutely fantastic ask— let’s dive into it under the cut, because I have much to elaborate on!!

(Ask/send me anything about love finds you Dex in 2021!)

- First of all, love finds you Derek Nurse doing book promo stuff is everything I need in my life, so thank you for that.

- I’m just imagining him doing his first big signing (at some huge Barnes and Noble in New York, no doubt) for the book and Will being there, like a huge soft geek, listening to the author talk portion and being super in love and then watching all these people go and talk to Derek at his signing table.

- He’ll do author panels with fellow writers, and plenty of signings, and various other things. I don’t think he goes on book tour for this particular release, but I don’t think a book tour is completely out of the question in terms of his whole author career. Which begs the question: does Will go with him on book tour? I think maybe he does, because Will doesn’t like to be alone in the apartment for extended periods of time.

- But back to the book from the actual story. Yes. I think it’s met with a lot of critical acclaim, and he maybe becomes a bestseller?

- Will is the proudest partner...... just picture Will reading his actual paper copy of the New York Times (because we’ve discussed that he reads the newspaper, even in 2021) and seeing his own Derek’s name on the NYT Bestseller list.... he cuts it out of the paper and leaves it on Derek’s desk for him to find. Derek gets sheepish and soft. Will insists that they’re never throwing it away.

- I wonder if he maybe also gets featured on some kind of bookish podcast? A guest interview or something of that nature? I wrote here about Will learning about podcasts, and how he kind of sees them as an alternative form of radio, so please imagine Will getting to download the podcast episode with Derek in it once it comes out, and then, very gleefully, declaring, Der! Your voice is on the radio!!!!!!!!

- It makes Derek so soft.

- In terms of interviews, yes, those happen too.

- Regarding if he gets interview questions about his muse, I think this definitely does happen, because when that book he writes in Good Haven gets published, it’s clear that there was a lot of romantic inspiration behind it. It’s enough, I believe, for him to be asked about it— maybe in a roundabout way, like, so, Derek, where do you get your inspiration from? I notice a lot of the content of your new poetry book seems romance-oriented...

- And you, as in Krista who sent this ask, sent me another ask about how Derek ‘handles’ the fact that he’s semi-book-world-famous and balancing that with deciding how much he wants to make his relationship with Will public, so... I think I will hold off on that particular point until I answer that ask. Stay tuned!!

- But with interview content that isn’t being asked about what inspired the romantic elements of the book, I think he gets asked more general author questions like, what inspired you to write this particular collection of poetry? Can you tell us the story of how it came together?

- Derek has this funny, half-truth-filled story about how he accidentally spent a summer in small-town New England. It’s plausible, and it’s mostly only a lie by omission in that he doesn’t mention any of the time travel stuff. For obvious reasons.

- But I just really enjoy the idea of Derek sitting in some random library on a director’s chair next to an excited librarian who loves doing author interviews, and speaking to a little gathering of (majority queer and/or POC) guests who just came because they love his writing.

- I just really love Author Derek Nurse. I have similar headcanons about CCU Nursey AKA regular canon-universe Nursey. But thank you for this question re: the love finds you universe, because it is very soft and I love him.

Stay tuned for part two, where I address your second ask!

12 Free Ways To Earn Money From Internet Without Any Investment

I am sure you know at least one friend or family member or colleague earning handsome money online.  You might have thought, it’s easy peasy money. You can make it too. But either you got trapped in an online scam or failed.

Have you ever wondered why?

It’s because either you didn’t know where to look at and where to start from or you wanted a shortcut to earn tons of money. Let me tell you, there is no shortcut to earn money. You have to work hard.

Let me tell you a story. One of my friends went for a digital festival sometime back. There he saw a guy sitting with a big board saying “Earn money fast: simple and easy form and survey filling job”.

The offer seemed attractive to him. He approached the counter and signed up for the job. The deal was he has to pay an initial amount of $40 to complete the registration. Once that is done, he will receive some survey forms and will get paid for it.

After a few days, he received some more online surveys which he gladly filled and sent. This continued for a month until one day the communication channel (email) was not reachable. All his emails bounced back and the guy who hired my friend was nowhere to be found.

This is just one of the stories that is happening online. There are millions of scams out there.  The reason I am telling you this story is not to scare you, but to show you the reality.

Do a proper verification before signing up for some work.  Check about the brand or the person behind the brand. Otherwise, you might end up working for hours for zero money.

Today, I’m going to share some of the simple and legitimate ways to earn money online that anybody can do. Be it a 40-year-old homemaker, a 15-year-old school kid or a retired person, you can pick your options and start working online.

While you are creating your big money blog, you need to keep earning some money in order to pay your bills and get through the period of struggle.

Therefore, to help you with making money, here are six ways to earn money online without paying for anything besides an internet connection, and well, a computer!

These methods can make you earn a decent income, depending on the amount of time and effort you put in.

Page Contents

·         How To Make Money Online without investment (Sitting at home)

o    1. Sell your skills on Fiverr

o    2. Become a Virtual Assistant:

o    3. Offer Article Writing Service

o    4. Freelancing:

o    5. Start a profitable blog

o    6. Create YouTube Videos or a channel :

o    7. Guest Posting For Your Clients

o    8. Affiliate Marketing

o    9. Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies

o    10. Online Paid Surveys

o    11. Become A Broker For Webmasters And Website Owners

o    12. Become a Transcription freelancer

How To Make Money Online without investment (Sitting at home)

Honestly, there are hundreds of ways. When you look online, you will find legit sources along with and many that are scams. I highly recommend you to stay away from programs that ask you to make the initial investment to start using their money-making formula.

Here, I’m sharing how to earn money online, which is easy to use and legit at the same time. Few of them will require you to have certain skills like good communication, good writing abilities, etc.

Without any delay, let’s get to it:

1. Sell your skills on Fiverr

Fiverr is the best place to make money online for free. This website lets you offer any kind of services that you are good at and earn money from it. Getting started with Fiverr is easy, and it is designed for users like you who are willing to work from home and make money.

There are many success stories on Fiverr, and once you browse their marketplace, you could find a lot of ideas that would help you get started. The best part, this is absolutely free, and one of the killer ways to make money online without any investment.

Join Fiverr for free

2. Become a Virtual Assistant:

This is another best way to earn money by sitting at home. As the number of solopreneurs are increasing, so is the demand for a virtual assistant. A virtual assistant job is just like a personal assistant, but done virtually.

The job could be like:

·         Doing research work

·         Replying to emails

·         Writing content or ad copies

·         Moderating comments

On an average, a virtual assistant job could help you earn anywhere between $2-30 every hour.

For anyone who can’t move out of the house, and needs an earning source sitting at home, becoming a VA is a lucrative option. We have published a few guides earlier on becoming a VA, and you could read more about it by clicking on the links below.

·         How to become a virtual assistant

·         5 Websites To Get Hired For Remote Virtual Assistant Jobs

3. Offer Article Writing Service

·         Sitting at home kind of work: ✅

Bloggers and webmasters are always looking for new and unique content for their blogs and websites. To become an article writer, all you need to good writing skills and you should be able to scout the internet to find the right information.

This is one of the best ways to make money online without paying anything.

Here is the list of websites which pays for writing:

·         Outsourcely

·         Problogger Job-board

·         Freelancer

·         Constant-Content

·         Upwork

·         Craiglists

You will be paid $2-$100 per article depending on the word requirement and quality. You’ll be instructed on the quality of articles, niche, number of words, etc. while making a deal.

Read:

·         8 websites to start your paid writing career

4. Freelancing:

Earn money from home: Yes

Whether you are a graphic designer or a finance manager, a writer or a homemaker, freelancing is for you. You just need to think about what you are good at, and you can make your living.

You can be your boss, can work from anywhere you like, and work according to your time schedule. Simply, Sign Up for freelancing jobs on sites like Guru, UPWork, PeoplePerHour, Fiverr, etc. Apply for a relevant category and that’s it. You are good to go.

Of course, different sites have different payment schedules and terms of conditions; you just need to pick the site according to your needs.

Tip: Make a good profile and mention your strengths and previous work. Ask people to leave a review after work. This will establish you as a reputed freelancer on freelancing sites.

If freelance writing options fit your requirement, you should read: Websites to get freelance writing gigs.

5. Start a profitable blog

If you are passionate about writing and want to share your thoughts, emotions or learnings with people, blogging is a great option for you.

You don’t have to be tech-savvy or a computer geek to start your journey online.

Here is an important story, the founder of this blog “Harsh Agrawal” met with an accident, and he was unable to move out of bed for 6 months.

It is that time, he made blogging his full-time career, and now he is earning more than $40000 every month.

You can read about his journey here, and you would be surprised to learn about the scope of blogging. You can learn a lot about profitable blogging, by reading ShoutMeLoud.

Here are some popular ways to earn money from blogging.

Getting started with blogging is easy, and all you need is a domain and hosting to get started for the self-hosted WordPress.  

You can start earning within 2-3 months. It all depends on how much time, hard work and dedication are you willing to give.

Read the below guides on blogging

·         How to Start a Blog

6. Create YouTube Videos or a channel :

·         You can work from home.

·         Investment required: Minimal

How many times have you spotted advertisements on YouTube videos? Until I got to know about money-making opportunities via YouTube, I never knew a normal user like you and I can earn income by uploading videos on YouTube.

It doesn’t have to be a technical video; it could be anything from funny to a serious one.

However, the video needs to be original. You can simply upload videos on YouTube and monetize it using Adsense.

Here are some articles which will help you to get started.

·         How To Make Money on YouTube (With or Without Huge Subscriber Base)

You need not need to spend a lot or buy a professional camera or any such gadgets. A good smartphone video recorder can do magic. Just be ready to capture some crazy moments.

Homemakers can consider starting a cookery show or similar stuff. If you are good with yoga, pilates or any other form of exercise you can create your DIY videos and upload it on YouTube and enable ads on them.

7. Guest Posting For Your Clients

·         Skills required: Writing & Client interaction

·         Can be done from home: ✅

It can help you make a lot of money. Guest posting has great benefits regarding traffic, exposure, credibility, and recognition from search engines. Just imagine the amount you can charge if you have the caliber to get a guest post approved on ShoutMeLoud!

Your clients will pay you thousands of dollars.

For this, you need to have writing skills and you can find a list of high authority blogs that allow guest posting here.

8. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is the best way for anyone to start earning money online. This requires zero investment & you can use your blog or even your social media platform like Twitter, Facebook to promote and earn money.

Learn about Affiliate marketing here.

I know of bloggers earning thousands sitting at home just with affiliate marketing. Here is a post where you can see how much a person like you and me is earning from affiliate marketing.

For further reading:

·         Affiliate marketing eBook for beginners (This is a complete book that you need for affiliate marketing)

·         How to start with affiliate marketing

·         5 Affiliate marketing myths uncovered

·         How to choose affiliate programs for your blog

9. Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies

It’s 2020 and there is no doubt that cryptocurrencies are here to stay.

Just like the dot com boom, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are at a very basic stage but if you spend some time working hard, you will end up earning a lot of money.

The best part is, you can find most of the information online and I recommend you to spend the first few days learning about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as much as you can before you start investing in it. Since the market is new and a lot of people are getting in, you can expect a lot of growth in the coming months or years.

You can browse Harsh’s website CoinSutra to educate yourself in the field of cryptocurrencies.

Here are some of the best tools and resources you need to get started with cryptocurrencies:

·         Coinbase: Get free $10 when you buy/sell Cryptos for $100

·         Binance: An exchange where you can deposit Bitcoin and Ethereum to start buying other low cap and high probability crypto coins.

·         Cex: An international website to buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, and a few other popular Cryptocurrencies using credit/debit cards.

I can’t really explain how you can earn money from cryptocurrencies in a few lines but here are few suggestions:

·         Cryptocurrency investment (buying good coins)

·         Cryptocurrency trading

Like I stated above, read Harsh’s CoinSutra.com to learn everything you need to know about cryptocurrencies.

10. Online Paid Surveys

This is the most common method for earning quick bucks. Now let me explain, how these online surveys work.

There are many survey companies that usually pay internet users for their opinion or views on their popular products and services. They send out free products or services to contestants for trying their products.

If you are searching for an entertaining method to make money online, think about registering with a trustworthy survey company and go ahead.

Here are a few working websites for getting paid surveys:

1.    Swagbucks

2.    Prizerebel

However, before you register for any online survey program, make sure you read their TOS as many programs accept participants from specific countries like U.S or Canada and thus on.

Personally, I highly recommend it to be the last way to earn money, as finding a good site which pays for surveys is tough, and there are many scams involved with paid surveys.

11. Become A Broker For Webmasters And Website Owners

Earn commission by getting them clients who pay for advertisement. Join webmasters forums and contact itraders to get this kind of work. These are all free ways to make money online and survive while you work on taking your blog to greater heights. Personally, I won’t recommend anything other than points 1, 2 and 4.

Another popular way to earn money is by helping someone sell their website or domain. This is a big business and with every successful sale, you can earn anywhere from $20-$20,000.

·         Join Flippa for free

The commission is usually 10% of the selling price of website or domain.

For further reading:

·         5 Websites to Buy Or Sell Websites & Domains

·         How To Start Selling Website on Flippa: A Beginner’s Guide To Success

Also, remember to strike a balance between time spent on your main money blog and doing odd jobs online. Odd jobs must not divide your attention and cut-in the time needed to work on your main blog.

12. Become a Transcription freelancer

As the number of podcasts and video content is increasing, so is the demand of workforce for transcribing the audio into text format. There are services like Rev, that let you work from home, and make money with Transcription freelancing gigs.

Benefit of this work from home gig:

1.    Rev freelancing jobs allow you to work as much or as little as you want, whenever you want.

2.    Enjoy selecting from a variety of projects that actually interest you. Our vast network of customers means a steady stream of freelancing jobs to choose from.

3.    Receive weekly payouts via PayPal for all work completed. Rev is on-time and dependable.

This is another do at your own pace kind of work, and easily doable by anyone who understands, and can write in English.

Join Rev affiliate

There are endless opportunities and options which you can select and make easy money online. Try to stick to one for some time and see which work and which doesn’t work for you. One of the most common mistakes which people do is, try multiple options at one go, and in this process, they never explore the power of one.

Jensen McRae | The Road to Nerdfighteria

DFTBA. If you are not subscribed to the vlogbrothers YouTube channel, and if you never have been, you might not know what that stands for. It’s an initialism (because acronyms are pronounceable, fact c/o of a vlogbrothers video) that stands for Don’t Forget To Be Awesome. It is the official (or perhaps unofficial) motto of the nerdfighter community. (Nerdfighters are people who are fans of vlogbrothers, the content creators therein, or the community therein. I think that’s enough definitions for now). When I was 14 years old, this book called The Fault in Our Stars came out. A good friend of mine was kind of obsessed with the author, this slightly sub-middle-aged white guy named John Green, and she insisted that I read both The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska, this John Green guy’s first book. I was a reader in childhood, having developed nearsightedness due to my predilection for reading in the dark after my bedtime by flashlight (at least that’s the explanation my mother gave me). However, recently I’d found myself frustrated by books. I would tear through middle-grade chick lit (that’s the best way I can describe these terribly formulaic books with dull characters and contrived plots that always involved two straight/white/able-bodied/middle-class best friends falling in love) when I found it, but other than that, I wasn’t reading as much as I used to. I can’t really remember what I did with my free time. I guess I was writing songs? I think I was mostly playing The Sims 3. I digress. In any case, I was in ninth grade and on the precipice of Maybe Being Cool, and this friend was one of the cooler girls in class, so I bought TFiOS (hip shorthand) about two months after its publication and read it over spring break in ninth grade. I read it in one three or four hour sitting, and I cried. Like a lot. It was the first time since early childhood that I could remember a book moving me in such a poignant way. I was attached to the characters, I was absorbed by the plot, and the language! The LANGUAGE in that story was so compelling. I was picking up on subtext and metaphors in a way that I’d only ever done when I was forced to in English class. The book had reinvigorated my love for words in stories that no other book could have. Then I took a brief reading hiatus. The second half of my ninth grade year was me continuing to ascend the social ladder, however slowly. I still joked that I was a dork, but the truth of the matter was, I had friends from every rung. I was sociable with tech geeks, theater nerds, football players, and cheerleaders alike. I felt like people had stopped looking through me like I was invisible. It was largely due to my presence on the school newspaper, which drew both the ambitious popular kids and the ambitious nerdy kids to its ranks. Also, I had a boyfriend. We never kissed or held hands or even went on dates, but we hung out every day at school and told people we were dating. This was enough to get me at least a bit of social buying power. (I promise this is all relevant to the story). Then, at the end of freshman year, I realized that I was sick of having a boyfriend who did not kiss me or hold my hand or go on dates with me, and also didn’t answer my texts or calls once school let out. So I called his house and dumped him over the phone. I spent the summer feeling sorry for myself, turning to the Internet and its thriving subculture of fame and infamy. Whenever I get heartbroken in real life, I fall deeply and inconsolably in love with fictional characters and/or celebrities who are too old for me. That summer, it was Jack and Finn Harries, Dan Howell, and any other British 20-year-old who made funny sketches and made me feel like I was loved, even though they were thousands of miles away, several years older, and had no idea who I was. It was during this summer that I discovered a channel featuring two much older men named Hank Green and John Green (yes relation, they’re brothers). Their videos were all at least somewhat informational, whether they be about politics, science, literature, or just about the personal lives of the men who made the videos. About five videos in, I realized that John Green of the vlogbrothers was John Green of TFiOS fame. I was elated! There were hundreds of videos on the channel going back to 2007. In between reading self-insert fanfic about the Harries twins, I would watch vlogbrothers videos, reminding myself to read John’s other books when I got the chance. When I returned to school, all the work that I’d done to become popular seemed to dissolve before my very eyes. Sophomore year was when we switched campuses, to the Upper School, and all the actual popular kids were going to parties with upperclassmen and trying alcohol and getting into real relationships. I was stuck in the past, pining over boys who only hung out with me so I would help them write their essays and obsessing over Tumblr and YouTube. I was also experiencing turbulence in my personal life unlike any I’d ever had before. It’s so clear to me now that I was afraid of the social rejection and emotional darkness in the real world, so I holed myself up online, laughing while handsome young Brits wore wigs on camera and rewatching John Green speed-talk his way through a fake television show he titled “Hitler and Sex.” In the midst of this Internet-ing, I read that other John Green book my old friend had mentioned, even though she’d already begun the slow and painful process of outgrowing me (the death knell of our friendship was when she told me about having sex with her boyfriend in her car and my response was some combination of a prudish, judgmental face and an exclamation of “Ew!”). Looking for Alaska leveled me just as profoundly as TFiOS had, and with no social life to worry about, I was hungry for more. I read the other books that John Green had talked about on his channel–Fahrenheit 451 and The Great Gatsby, plus other works that his recommendations had led me to, like Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Taming of the Shrew, and one of my all-time favorites to this day, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. I was reading a book almost every week, downloading them to my iPad and going back to my old habits, reading by dim light long after I should have already gone to sleep. My schoolwork wasn’t where it needed to be, but I was thriving. Awakened, even. Though my junior year marked another ascent into minor popularity, I crash-landed my senior year, coming off a painful rejection from a summer romance and a position in student government that should have won me acceptance but largely isolated me from everyone but my fellow council mates and steady friends. College applications were stressing me out, I felt alienated from even my immediate circle, and I was worried about my social future. Though I was accepted to the only two universities I applied to, I felt inert and emotionally itchy. I descended back into what I knew best: books. I read more Vonnegut, bizarre stories by delightful authors like Graeme Cameron and Douglas Coupland, and of course, my current #1 all-time, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz. After my brain literally exploded from reading Oscar Wao in all its sprawling, multilingual, multigenerational, magical realistic/science fictional glory, I devoured Díaz’s two books of short stories, Drown and This Is How You Lose Her. I vividly remember those days in the spring of 2015, using my seemingly endless multitude of free periods to sit in the sweaty, iron-hot bleachers, nose burrowed in a book, ignoring the festivities of senior year around me. I was happier alone, laughing at Kurt’s crude drawings and Díaz’s matter-of-factness about love and sex, experiences I’d still yet to have at 17. I graduated, and I went to USC, where within a month of starting school I met Junot Díaz and got him to sign my copy of Oscar Wao. I dealt with the Usual College Stuff, like homesickness (from half an hour away…I’m weak) and social anxiety and academic adjustments and figuring out what the hell it actually means to major in popular music. I stopped judging people for drinking alcohol and having sex, I stopped being afraid of parties (though I’m still terrified of boys…and rightly so), I stopped being disappointed in my real life because it doesn’t follow a neat narrative (or at least I do it less now). However, I never stopped reading, and I never stopped watching vlogbrothers videos. I am a faithful nerdfighter, because that online community and John’s books have seen me through some dark times. Somewhere in the last five years, I read An Abundance of Katherines (not my favorite), Paper Towns (used to be my favorite but TFiOS ranks supreme at the moment), and Will Grayson Will Grayson (absolutely ACES but technically cowritten with David Levithan so to me it is in a separate category). I’ve watched thousands of videos from vlogbrothers and Crash Course. I went to Vidcon in 2014 and met John in person for about five seconds, handing him my business card and a #JustinCarrWantsWorldPeace luggage tag before he was escorted to his next event by security. My love of language has blossomed into three young adult manuscripts, two feature films, a handful of short films, and hundreds of poems, songs, and essays. Though my inner and outer lives have changed substantially since I first wept onto the pages of TFiOS, I��m still anxious, and often. I’m still terrified of romantic rejection and I still put myself out there frequently and embarrassingly. I’m still a bookworm and I’m still a writer and I’m still a nerdfighter. And I think I always will be. John Green and his books have a special place in my heart. So when he announced that his first new book in almost six years is coming out this fall, I was overcome with emotion. Turtles All The Way Down isn’t just a book. It’s a historical artifact from the future, a piece of my past hurtling towards me from the opposite direction. When I think of John Green’s work, I think of my cringey adolescence, my weirdly small glasses and then my weirdly big glasses, my difficulty with my weight and my stunted social development. I think of the hours I spent reblogging fan art and GIF sets of real people that I’d mythologized into characters by watching their YouTube videos for so long. I think of my transition from Cute Little Girl to Awkward Bookish Teen to Real Human Woman. I was 14 when I read my first John Green book. I will be 20 when I read Turtles All The Way Down. The chasm between who I was and who I will be then is huge. Un-crossable by anyone but me. Right now, we’re a little less than four months out from the release of Turtles All The Way Down. Not much is known about the book, and I’d like to keep it that way. I’m feeling those tingly “no spoilers!” feelings I felt when I was in high school and enamored with the purity of an untouched literary experience. But as much as this book’s impending release is inspiring a unique kind of nostalgia in me, it’s also reminding me that I cannot go back. I cannot return to the innocent girl of 14 I was when I first heard John Green’s name, and I can’t get back the years I spent/lost/lived in between then and now. I can only move forward. I can only grow up. This book, in all likelihood, will not live up to my expectations. It will not change my life. It can’t, because though it will be my first time reading this particular book, it won’t be my first time becoming infatuated with literature. I’ve done that already. I may love this book, but there is a difference between falling in love with someone new and falling in love for the very first time. Before I met books with sweaty palms, dress askew, tongue heavy in my mouth. So…come here often? Now, each story is met with a knowing smile, legs crossed at the ankles like they’re supposed to be, no lipstick on the wine glass. Your place or mine? Before this book comes out, and I form any opinions about the content or the style, I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to John Green. If not for his careful handiwork, if not for the immense trust that he puts in his young readers, if not for his heart-wrenching stories, I might never have been drawn to great books the way I am now. Thank you for caring. Thank you for writing even when your illness handcuffed you, tried to make you stop. Thank you for making videos about hard topics and silly ones. I may grow up, but I will never outgrow you and your words, John. Keep publishing books, and I’ll keep reading them, no matter how old we both get.

via @withfeelingoncemore

Diary of Frankie Stein

I still get a charge out of documenting my life!

The 15th day of September

Watzit got into big trouble today while I was at school. Somehow, he got into dad’s lab and snuck out with apart from one of dad’s projects. Good thing mom was looking out the window and saw Watzit trying to bury it. Dad was still pretty amped up by the time I got home. “That animal is too smart for its own good – I’ve got a good mind to replace its brain with a sheep’s or one from a soft sciences professor.” I think Watzit just misses me when I’m at school so I’m going to start getting up extra early to take him for a longer walk before I leave. Hopefully that will help – otherwise I’m going to have to kennel him during the day = (.

The 24th day of September

I used to think that being the “new girl” was the hardest thing about going to school but now I’m thinking that being the “not so new girl” is kinda hard too. When I was the new girl and I did something dumb everybody said, “You’re new – don’t be so hard on yourself – you’ll get the hang of it.” My friends have also done a lot of things for me, which is good and bad. Good because it kept me from embarrassing myself, and bad because there are some things I didn’t learn to do on my own and now everybody expects me to know those things and when I mess something up that I should know it’s like really, really embarrassing. Like I never really paid much attention to where my classrooms were when I started at MH – total brain short on my part I know – but it was just easier to follow Draculaura or Clawdeen and because they always insisted on showing me around I didn’t really learn they layout of the school. So yesterday we were on our way to class when I totally got caught up in a zombie flash mob and when I finally got away, I was in a part of the school I didn’t recognize and totally lost. I thought if I peeked into one of the classrooms that maybe a teacher could help me. I saw this big iron door and was about to open it when somebody behind me said, “That wouldn’t be a good idea.” I nearly jumped out of my stitches. It was Spectra Vondergeist. She said, “Oh, it looks like I frightened you… good.” Then she pointed to a sign above the door that read, Basement Levels, “Now unless you have a ball of twine or a Minotaur in your pocket you probably don’t want to go down there – follow me.” I followed her down the hallways listening to her stories about MH. They were all interesting but they kind of all were starring her. She did get me back to class though which was really nice of her. Of course, I was really late, and the teacher wanted to know where I had been – I said I got lost, the whole class laughed, and I got detention because the teacher thought I was giving her attitude. After class Ghoulia showed me how to GPS all my classes with my iCoffin so it wouldn’t happen again – oh well, just another lesson for the “not so new girl anymore.”

The 25th day of September

I went to breakfast with my dad this morning, which was scary fun although I didn’t think it was going to be at first. See, he goes to the same die-ner every Saturday morning and has breakfast with the same group of monsters and mad scientists. Mom said he’s been doing it for years. I asked her if she ever went and she just laughed. “I don’t take your father with me to shop for shoes and he doesn’t take me when he gets together with his friends to solve all of the world’s problems.” “Why not?” I asked. Mom gave me a hug and said, “Because my love, there are times when practical advice can just take all the fun out of life.” Then from behind us I heard dad say, “Unless it comes from your parents and then it is to be heeded at all costs.” Then Dad rushed us out the door because he wanted to make sure we got there before the banana scary pancakes ran out. I said, “I’m not a little girl dad, I can eat grown up food you know.” “Of course, you can my dear, but who said I was thinking about you?” Dad’s friends turned out to be really nice and pretty funny for a bunch of monster geeks especially when they started telling stories about dad ;). I could see that they all really like him though and since my dad has a very self-decapitating sense of humor it made the time totally fun. I don’t think I’d want to get up early every Saturday morning but I’m glad I got to see that my dad can be a regular monster too. Hey, who knew? Oh, and the banana scary pancakes? Definitely worth getting there early for.

The 1st day of October

My stitches are still coming loose at exactly the wrong time. Dad ordered some special monstertanium thread that he said was stronger than dragon’s breath and would totally fix the problem. Yeah – not so much. I was standing on a ladder in the gym helping Draculaura hang up a banner for this week’s pep rally when Clawd and some of the football team walked through wearing their game day jerseys. One of the guys on the team is a gargoyle from Scotland who has the dreamiest accent and the most scary handsome crystal grey eyes. I said hi to everybody by name but when I got to him, I totally blanked. I just stood there absolutely mortalfied and finally called him by her jersey number… “7” … lame I know… but then the rest of the guys started teasing him and I got so anxious that my arm fell and then the rest of me fell too. I don’t know how he did it but somehow “7” caught both my arm and me. All the guys started clapping and Clawd said, “How come you don’t catch like that at practice?” “7” was talking to Clawd but looking at me when he said, “If the passes ye threw were as pretty as this lass, I’d nay drop another.” At least that’s what Draculaura said he said. I don’t remember anything after I feel off the ladder except strong arms and crystal grey eyes.

The 7th day of October

Fear Squad practice was terrible today. Cleo was totally impossible to please, and we started and stopped several times before she finally just cancelled practice altogether. Then at lunch Purrsephone, Meowlody and Toralei were all saying that it was because of the blowup that Clawd had with Spectra and the rumor was that Cleo was going to break up with Deuce, Deuce was going to start dating Operetta and Clawd was definitely back in the picture with Cleo. I was really bummed cause they’re all my friends and I didn’t want to have to take sides. I saw Lagoona later and asked her what she thought about the rumors. She asked me who was spreading them and when I told her she just laughed and said, “Not every seagull that yabbers has found a fish.” Coming from Lagoona that somehow made me feel better, confused but better.

The 12th day of October

Monster Heritage Essay by Frankie Stein

That’s all I’ve written so far but I’m really excited about the assignment cause I’m going to get to learn so much scary cool stuff about my classmates. I thought that for part of my heritage research I would read that book that was written about my parents, but I couldn’t find a copy of it in the house. I asked mom why and she said the author had taken, “certain liberties with the truth” but if I wanted to check out a copy from the library, she would be happy to answer any questions I had. When I asked dad about the book, he used an expression I’d never heard before, but I guess mom had because she made that noise in the back of her throat that means some monster is in trouble. Dad hung his head and looked kind of creepish for a bit until mom stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. I don’t need to read a book to find out about my monster heritage. I get to see it every day – how scary cool is that?

The 16th day of October

I had the strangest dream last night. I dreamed we were planning to have the scary best dance ever until an evil teacher cancelled it and we had to have the dance in a secret location under the school. Everything was going as planned when this strange monster in a shiny suit with lots of hair appeared and started yelling that this was his dream and we were going to start over. I totally jumped into another dream but the only think I remember from that one was the intense feeling of being a stranger. It must have been stressful though cause when I woke up, I was upside down and one of my arms had fallen off. No more ghost chili pizza for me before bed.

The 24th day of October

I met a new ghoul today! At least new to me = ) Her name is Abbey Bominable and I think she’s really sweet even if she does take a bit to warm up to. Anyway we were waiting in line together at the creepateria and she was asking the lunch ladies to explain what was in the food. The line started to back up and some monsters were yelling at her to hurry up. I think she was starting to get frustrated so I told her to go with the screechza since it was pretty easy to recognize most of the stuff they put on it. She gave me a look so serious that I thought I had said something I shouldn’t have but then she smiled and thanked me. We sat together and I learned that she lives in the mountains about the school, loves to snowboard and that her first language is Yetish. She said she could understand what was being said most of the time but that the slang kept tripping her up because it was hard not to take everything literally. I told her that sometimes I still did the same thing. Then I told her that I would help her with her slang if she would teach me how to snowboard. She thought for a moment and then said, “I think that would be the cool that is scary.” Hehe I bet she learns slang faster than I learn to snowboard = ).