first shipment batch! & more sentimentality
I'm gonna break out of character for a second (for whatever 'character' I've been playing when I'm online, consciously or unconsciously.)
But these are all books. Packaged by one person.
I'm no demonic corporatic entity subsuming everything in sight for the sake of greedy, arbitrary oblivion. I'm just a person, really. I got a day job. I have a lot of insecurities. I have lived things I might not cry about anymore, but I carry like a knife or bullet trapped in an organ.
I write for a lot of reasons now, but when I'm sad, I know I write for me. For the kid I once was and as I grow more older and more bitter, I have to struggle to empathize with because the hurt never stops. And also because the hope does give back. The birds and their songs (really, give your local house finch and/or sparrow a listen) go on without you, not to spite you, but as testament that for all the awful in the world, life is still around for you to make meaning out of. A lot of people make "good" and "beautiful" out of it, including me. Potential like that--and I mean only that, and not the fake, dystopian "potential" sold by the technocrat robber barons of our contemporary times.
I mean, really, think about it. In a time when censorship is trying to once again trying to flood and recolor every corner of history for the oppressors; when trans people are the current scapegoat for everything and anything; when genocide actively perpetuated by the greater part of damn continent I live in and then ignored by the others; when the planet itself seems to moan and twist with heat; and covering all of this in an even more depressing wash, the contemporary snake oil that is AI--here I and many, many, many other small writers WHO DON'T USE AI AND NEVER WILL, have managed to put our books to you.
Like, I tabled at Manga Ichiba not too long ago and managed to get a lot of books to people.
In any case, thank you to those who supported my words and art--then and now. For a writer, I should have more words, but I'm opting for my stories you've taken a chance on to tell them for me.
Thank you for making me feel like I'm a real boy.
(And by any chance, you have words for my work--please, please, please feel free to leave comments on their respective digital listings on my Itch.Io's! Faeral Cat Meems here, Fei Diheiyi here. One day, I'll create something that will aggregate reviews outside of platforms but for now... this.)