Honest Nonsense

Call me feathers. Christian. Artist. I'm always honest. Clean blog. 

[fictionadventurer]

Hey do you know any books like the Emma M. Lion series, or just books that combine emotional intelligence with humor, low stakes, and general charm/whimsy? Thanks in advance <3 (but no pressure to answer)

There are a few ways to answer that question.

You can read Beth Brower's other books. The Q is technically set in the Emma M. Lion world, and if you haven't read it yet, read it immediately. It maintains that meandering living with the characters day-by-day pace, so it takes a while to really get invested in the story, but if you give it a chance, it's very compelling. I'm obsessed with the romance in this one and it makes me overlook a lot of other flaws. The Books of Imirillia series is also worth a read. Book 1 in particular feels like a high fantasy version of Pierce coming to St. Crispian's, and if you want reassurance that Brower can end a series in an emotionally satisfying way, you can find it here.

You can read the books and authors that she's drawing from--Austen, Alcott, Wodehouse, Wilde, L.M. Montgomery, Jean Webster--all of which have different combinations of whimsy, wit, and charm. In this classics category, I also highly recommend reading Amy Levy. Her books written in the actual 1880s--specifically, The Romance of a Shop--prove that the New Women of the time actually aren't that much different from Emma M. Lion. Levy's got a breezy, readable style with such warmth and wit that she'd be a perfect fit for anyone who likes Emma.

When it comes to more modern books, I've seen a lot of people recommend Christina Baehr's Secrets of Ormdale series as a readalike. I can see why--it involves an intelligent upper-crust late Victorian heroine dealing with a cozy fantasy world--but I've read the first book, and it doesn't fill the same Emma M. Lion niche for me. The books that I tend to slot in the same niche tend to be fairy tale retellings or other underrated indie books, so some options there are:

Entwined by Heather Dixon: Warm sisterly relationships, emotional depth involving grief, Wodehouse type characters and a lot of wit and warmth

The Electrical Menagerie by Mollie E. Reeder: Indie-published fantasy set in a fantastical Edwardian era. Focuses on friendship between two male characters

What Comes of Attending the Commoners Ball and Lady Agatha Speaks Her Mind by Elizabeth Aimee Brown: Very humorous, very cozy indie fairy tale retellings set in Victorian-ish worlds

Kate Stradling's books all have a similar (though more sarcastic) blend of not-too-magical fantasy, humor, and common sense

The Galleries of Stone trilogy by C.J. Milbrandt isn't really a readalike, but it seems just similar enough that I feel like I should mention it. It's a very cozy fantasy series about getting to know a wide cast of likeable characters, and it's an underrated indie series.

The Star That Always Stays by Anna Rose Johnson is more of a "if you like L.M. Montgomery" readalike, but I feel like I should mention it because of the Montgomery influences in Emma M. Lion

Mrs. Miniver by Jan Struther is showing up on my reading list, and it seems like a stretch, but I think it might be a surprising fit. It's a collection of fictionalized accounts written during the very early days of WWII, originally published as newspaper columns, so they have that day-by-day life feel of Emma's journals, and Mrs. Miniver has a certain cozy charm. WWII isn't exactly a cozy time, but this also takes place before the war really kicked off, so it's not super-high stakes.

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. A series of real-life letters between a witty, bookish writer and the staff of an English bookstore she befriends in the years after WWII. Maybe the most Emma M. Lion read? It's about books, friendship, and recovering from a terrible time, it's epistolary, and Hanff has a great voice.

Yours From the Tower by Sally Nichols is an epistolary novel about the friendship between three girls in Edwardian America. I don't remember a ton, but it would fit in that low-stakes Emma-ish niche.

The Shoes books by Noel Streatfeild are children's books, but they fit in that same genre that Brower is drawing from, and always have lots of vivid characters.

The Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace is also for children, and not as humorous, but is very much in that cozy, low-stakes, old-fashioned vibe of Emma.

Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon is an 1860 classic, but I'm mentioning it here because I just started rereading it, and I love it, and I think more people should read it, and I think Emma should read it too because she'd love it.

[clawedandcute]

thank you so much! you're an angel <3 <3

[comikbook]

lets make bad art together

[comikbook]

[comikbook]

i just realized that i forgot to put the word “make” in the image and i think thats fitting lets bad art together

[sisterdragonwithfeathers]

I am getting advertisements for high-tech hybrid digital microscopes on youtube

[spin-the-wheel-polls]

Poof! You’re a mermaid now. Spin to get a type of mermaid! How we feeling about this?

You have been turned into this type of mermaid!!

What do you think?

I love it!!

it's alright

Ew

EW

oh cool I didn't know this type existed!!

Result/other

Remaining time: 2 days 12 hours

(I do not know much about mermaids, forgive me if I made any mistakes. Do not drown me.)

[whyenn-reader]

''what if you regret it'' then you will expirience regret - a normal and unavoidable part of the human expirience.

[whyenn-reader]

the more you twist yourself into a pretzel to avoid regret the harder it will hit when it eventually catches up to you.

[color-palettes]

Imprisoned in a Music Box - Submitted by SeesawSiya

#9855bc #e08ed0 #f9d3d2 #fcaaac #810102 #ffb88e

[sleepnoises]

opinions about drawing you did NOT ask about:

it is good to fill up a page with lots of something. it looks cool even if the drawings are bad

it is good to draw small objects you like

it is good to draw yourself (in a mirror, specifically, although little goofy cartoons? also great) 

no need to erase or scribble over things you mess up - write a little regretful note next to em (if that) and move on. i learned this in 4th grade and believe it vehemently. 

draw in pen. commit. see point 1.

[sisterdragonwithfeathers]

You know, listening to it again, I wonder if that first time Luca said he wanted to bite Viv had anything to do with him wanting to know what color she would bleed.

He had told her just the day before how important it was to know what you were fighting (especially if said thing already had a knife to your throat), and to do it via blood color

(and while a hug in the aftermath of a nightmare isn't exactly a knife to the throat, she had managed to rather quickly reduce him to/find him in an intense state of vulnerability)

And he's just told her how his first kill involved biting something to get free of it trying to strangle him...

[storm-of-feathers]

tumblr is great bc its like a diary where I can take other peoples diary entries and glue them into my own diary

[egglygreg]

Cecilio is Zhahara's 24 year old friend who works at the Candarwa library. He loves books and learning, and has a very wide field of knowledge he uses to help visitors find what they need.

He has a bit of a fanclub made up of young women who haunt the library hoping he'll fall for one of them. He finds them annoying and completely ignores them (unless they're noisy, in which case they promptly get evicted).

Gives off a brooding tall dark and handsome vibe until the moment you ask about one of his favourite subjects, at which point you realise he's a complete fanatical nerdy weirdo. He particularly loves to study the blight infection and the history of the Hero of Strahna, and he'll go off on a tangent about them for hours with an energy that many people find off-putting, but Zhahara can match, which is how they became friends.

He's absolutely fascinated with Ahleri, the new hero, and Bertie, the guardian of the Hero's Bonds, of whom he's read just about everything ever written. His grandfather was the last Hero, Zygos, and he becomes very frustrated with how little Bertie can remember of him and how he died.

Oh and he's a real foody, loves recipes and cooking and good food. His family are essentially the Strahnian equivalent of Aussie wogs, Greek/Italian immigrants to Australia, like my dad's family. The rest of them are very loud and boisterous, while he's generally quiet (unless you get him ranting on a fav topic of course, then the gesturing starts 👐. Or if you commit a food crime, then you'll set him right off 😂).

He and Zhahara eventually become a couple, like 10 years after the story ends. He just does not look at her romantically at all, until one day they're debating something in the library like always and he just looks at her and the love hits him like a freight train. He has NO idea what to do with it. He spends a week just in agony over it.

Zhahara on the other hand had an early crush, brushed it away, then was in denial for the first couple years of friendship, realised how she felt, then buried it because she thought he just didn't feel the same and told herself she just sees him as a friend.

And then a week after he first realises his feelings they're just debating another topic in the library and in the middle of it he blurts out "do you want to get married?" And she goes "...yeah ok."

So romantic 😂

[alagaisia]

Hey. Why isn’t the moon landing a national holiday in the US. Isn’t that fucked up? Does anyone else think that’s absurd?

[alagaisia]

It was a huge milestone of scientific and technological advancement. (Plus, at the time, politically significant). Humanity went to space! We set foot on a celestial body that was not earth for the first time in human history! That’s a big deal! I’ve never thought about it before but now that I have, it’s ridiculous to me that that’s not part of our everyday lives and the public consciousness anymore. Why don’t we have a public holiday and a family barbecue about it. Why have I never seen the original broadcast of the moon landing? It should be all over the news every year!

[alagaisia]

It’s July 20th. That’s the day of the moon landing. Next year is going to be the 54th anniversary. I’m ordering astronaut shaped cookie cutters on Etsy and I’m going to have a goddamn potluck. You’re all invited.

[watermelon-converse]

Hey. Hey. Tumblr. Ides of March ppl. We can do this

[emi--rose]

Hell yeah moon holiday

[hello-delicious-tea]

Ooh coming up we should celebrate

[ariaste]

PITCH: We call it Moon Day, and then every 7 years when it falls on a Monday, that's an even BIGGER deal and we call that Moon Day Monday and go absolutely apeshit about it (the next Moon Day Monday is in 2026 so we have a couple trial runs first)

[sarostheghostcat]

MOON DAY MOON DAY MOON DAY

[wafflebloggies]

moon day is 20th July!!!

[silly-jellyghoty]

Scheduling this a day earlier to remind you all and myself about the Moon Day tomorow!

[sashaforthewin]

Happy moon day to all who celebrate

[kitsuneofthemist]

This is your reminder to prep for Moon Day on July 20th.

[o-lei-o-lai-o-lord]

Look, I get that a lot of people still don’t understand how ChatGPT actually works, they don’t understand the damage that generative AI does or why it’s not a good idea to rely on AI summaries.

But also, when a preacher casually mentions that they asked ChatGPT about something in their sermon, my knee-jerk reaction is to want to leave or at least to stop listening. My brain’s all, “Oh, so you just admitted you didn’t do your own research? So now I’m gonna be left to question whether any of the “historical/cultural context” you’re providing is actually correct, or is a bot spitting out some shady website from a guy convinced that Jesus will reincarnate as a two-headed moose in an Iowan cornfield? So now I’m gonna wonder whether you built this entire sermon on a foundation of sand?”

And like, I suppose that’s good in terms of motivating me to actually research these things myself. But it’s also annoying as all get out.

[sobcat]

[magpie-trove]

The only antidote to fear is responsibility: the refusal to believe that there is nothing we can do, the decision never to take refuge in blaming others, making them the scapegoats for our frustrations and fears. It is easy to complain: to say it is someone else’s fault. Courage is born the moment we decide not to complain but instead to make a personal protest against the evils of the world by doing good, however slight. An ethic of responsibility yields individuals of astonishing resilience – people able to survive any setback and face any future without fear.

—Jonathan Sacks

[artisimpossible]

I genuinely wonder if people realize how many projects get abandoned because the readership "wasn't there", when in reality, the readership just stayed silent. It's a big thing in trad pub that book series get discontinued because readers pirate the books or wait until the series is finished to buy a copy, leading the publisher to think that nobody actually wants the book enough to continue the series, but it happens with indie creators too.

I've discontinued a lot of free, online series because it's not worth putting 3-5 hours a week into posting a project for no readers. Sometimes I finish the series for me but just never post it again, other times I don't finish it at all because it feels more worthwhile to put my time into other things. Sometimes I hear from readers who are sad or upset that I didn't finish something they were liking, but the *reason* it never got finished is because I didn't know anyone liked it. If you like something, tell the creator, tell your friends, make some noise about it. If you would be sad if a story never finished, make that interest known because one of my biggest considerations before discontinuing a series is "will people miss this? Will I be letting people down" and 9/10 times, I come to the conclusion of "no, it doesn't even seem like anyone's reading this" only to learn after I've moved on that apparently someone was.

[healerqueen]

I've said this before in a different way, and this post said it so well. With real examples. If you like something, tell people.

If you want more content from an artist or author, if you like their stuff, tell them. It will give them creative fuel to keep going. And often it gives them other resources as well. Recommend a work to other people. Leave a comment or a review. It doesn't have to be long, just genuine, a sentence or two. Not many people know that a book's success is judged by book reviews as well as sales. Review the book on Amazon or another site to help it pass the metric of success and be recognized by publishers and retailers.

[sisterdragonwithfeathers]

And for the love of heaven, use the like button on all sites which have it for its intended purpose, which is to indicate (mainly to the maker of the thing) that you liked the thing they made

Do Not use the like feature to bookmark things or make lists to look back on. There are other means of doing that. Like things that you like for the love of decency. Give people that little thumbs up. Acknowledge that they filled your time with something worthy.

[cranberry-queen]

Tips from a Beta Reading Writer

This one's for the scenes with multiple characters, and you're not sure how to keep everyone involved.

Writing group scenes is chaos. Someone’s talking, someone’s interrupting, someone’s zoning out thinking about breadsticks. And if you’re not careful, half your cast fades into the background like NPCs in a video game. I used to struggle with this so much—my characters would just exist in the scene without actually affecting it. But here’s what I've learned and have started implementing:

✨ Give everyone a job in the scene ✨

Not their literal job—like, not everyone needs to be solving a crime or casting spells. I mean: Why are they in this moment? What’s their role in the conversation?

My favourite examples are:

The Driver: Moves the convo forward. They have an agenda, they’re pushing the action.

The Instigator: Pokes the bear. Asks the messy questions. Stirring the pot like a chef on a mission.

The Voice of Reason: "Guys, maybe we don’t commit arson today?"

The Distracted One: Completely in their own world. Tuning out, doodling on a napkin, thinking about their ex.

The Observer: Not saying much, but noticing everything. (Quiet characters still have presence!)

The Wild Card: Who knows what they’ll do? Certainly not them. Probably about to make things worse.

If a character has no function, they’ll disappear. Give them something—even if it’s just a side comment, a reaction, or stealing fries off someone’s plate. Keep them interesting, and your readers will stay interested too.

[desingyouruniverse]