Dancing through life with grace

Some wonderful words to live by: "Live your life in such a way that when your feet hit the floor in the morning, Satan shudders and says, ‘Oh shit, she's awake!" -- Nancy Naigle

[juleskelleybooks]

If you want books to exist, stop pirating them.

This sounds like drama, but it's not.

Not only is it well documented that pirating contributes to publishers not buying more manuscripts from an author (Maggie Stiefvater's experiment being the most famous), now we have evidence that Amazon's Kindle Unlimited algorithm is registering pirated copies of books online as the book being "offered" somewhere else, and punishing the authors for it.

And I don't know how much you know about Kindle Unlimited, but the thing is, if your book is in KU, you have to check a little box that says you're not offering the book anywhere else for sale. At all. So when the algorithm is finding the pirated copies, it's pinging it as, Oh! The author lied! The author misrepresented their sales strategy! ACCOUNT DELETION FOR AUTHOR. NO ROYALTIES FOR ONE THOUSAND YEARS.

Miette jokes aside, that's actually what's happening to very popular self-pub authors. Ruby Dixon just had her account deleted, her 15+ volume popular KU series taken down, and Amazon fighting her over the KU Pages royalties she'd already earned on those books. Now, Ruby's got her account back because she's popular enough that people shouted at Kindle executives very, very loudly, but what about other authors? This could ruin someone's career.

Well, why not publish wide, I hear you saying. Why stick to Kindle Unlimited? After all, Amazon sucks.

Here's the thing. Whether we like it or not, Amazon has a massive corner market on books, and for authors who are self-publishing, it is by far the most accessible and cost-effective method, PLUS, it's a great way to be discovered by new readers.

Because readers don't have to pay for individual titles under KU (they pay for a subscription, and then Amazon pays out authors based on how many pages of the book someone read), they can give new authors a try. They can take a chance on a book they're not sure they'll like. And Amazon tends to promote KU titles more aggressively because it's good for their business.

My little $0.99 short story, Swelter, is on Kindle Unlimited, and I can tell you that a good 85% of my royalties from it come from KU pages, not from people buying it. And that's for a story that costs less than a dollar and is not a big investment and has pretty good word-of-mouth in the f/f reading community.

Self-publishing is expensive, and time consuming. I'm getting away with it pretty cheaply right now because I am also a professional editor, and I have friends in the business who are willing to trade in kind rather than be paid. I have a really wonderful friend who is doing my ebook formatting for free because I beta read and do proofing for her. But if I were paying for all the services that I'm trading for, as most authors have to do? I'd be well over $1500 sunk into this little ebook coming out in a week that is going to cost $3.99 and be free to read on Kindle Unlimited. And that's not counting marketing. Because yeah, you have to pay for marketing. Hell, I had to pay $35 upfront to a popular site to be considered for their marketing campaign, and would've paid another $65 if they'd accepted me. (They did not, so I'm out that $35 without even a marketing campaign to show for it.)

And the thing is, I'm currently gainfully employed. I'm salaried. My spouse is also salaried, so I have enough disposable income to spend what I've spent on this ebook (which is still about $600, even with all the things I'm trading for). Most authors? Especially most self-publishing authors? Don't have that.

So Kindle Unlimited, for all its flaws, is a way to get more diverse voices in the business because you don't even have to buy an ISBN. Amazon assigns you an Amazon Sales Index Number (ASIN) and you're good to go, as long as you're not listing it on any other sites. Hell, they even have tools for you to make your own cover art if you don't want to pay someone to make it for you. They do a lot of their own internal promotion on Kindle. Readers can try you out for little-to-no personal investment on their part and maybe discover that they love your writing, and you've gained a whole audience. It's a great return-on-investment for self-published authors.

So that's why a lot of self-pub authors choose Kindle Unlimited. And a lot of authors will do a limited run on KU in order to get some early word-of-mouth and discovery readers, and then publish wide later. (That's my current strategy with Welcome to the Show, if it does well. If it's not doing well, I probably won't sink the money and time into expanding its availability.) But if this happens, if Amazon shuts down their account over "KU membership misrepresentation," then even if the book has been published wide and is available on other platforms by then, Amazon is going to dispute their KU Pages royalties and try to take them back.

So by pirating books, not only are authors losing "potential" sales (I know, there's a whole argument there), they could be losing real, actual sales that they've already sold.

In conclusion:

1. Don't pirate books.

2. If you see someone requesting where they can read a book "for free", speak up.

3. If you see someone providing links where people can read a book "for free" (if it is not provided by the author for free), speak up.

Thanks, and have a good day.

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

The Adventures of Big Dog the Clown! Vol 5/7/22: Big Dog’s Surprising Day

Well well well, look whose prediction about heavily politicised sex scandals came true THAT’S RIGHT it’s mine, because I stand before you as Cassandra, except more people believe me. What a terrible shame for Big Dog that he did not read the blog of me, a random Welsh person of no note, so that he may have learned something lmao he learns nothing ever that’s the joke

Now, today I woke at 6am to go to work and discovered that my distinctly nocturnal husband was awake and silently pacing holes in the living room carpet waiting for me to get up, because he was excited about the politics again. Why was he doing this? Because he’s a dweeb with a hyperfixation and Actual Journalist Friends, that’s why. So, you all get another update from me, a reporter of enormous integrity and calibre, obviously. As ever while the information is sourced from newspapers or Twitter or some shit, the times are only roughly right because I don’t give a shit about details when DRAMA can be gleaned. So you’re getting this in the order Steff found out about it. You’re welcome. Please remember I am not a source.

Anyway I normally do this, you know, day by day, but Christ on wheels, yesterday moved fast, so instead we are going by TIMESTAMP

(Are you behind on the Adventures of Big Dog the Clown? If so, feel free to brush up by revisiting these previous volumes; but the important storylines for today are Partygate and the Scandal of Chris Pincher the Grubby Sex Pest.)

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.

7.30am

It’s an early start for early birds, and Simon McDonald MP – a ‘crossbencher’, meaning an MP not aligned to any political party – today wakes and chooses violence. He writes a letter to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, which, as ‘meaningless roles with low job satisfaction’ go, must be up there with being the person who puts indicator lights on BMWs. Simultaneously, our Simon decides, in a rare break with tradition, to publicly post the letter at the same time.

And it’s a BANGER, Tumblrs, let’s take a look:

TL;DR: Simon McDonald MP is SEETHING WITH HATRED AND BILE over Downing Street straight up lying about Chris Pincher. First they said no official complaints had ever been made against him before he became, lest we all forget, Deputy Chief Whip – not so, says Simon, because Si personally was involved in the official investigation into Pincher for the same crime in 2019, and the complaint was upheld, and Chris Pincher had to apologise and say he was very sorry and promise not to do it again. Then they said BJ wasn’t aware of any specific allegations when he appointed Pincher to the whip, which they then changed to ‘the allegations were either resolved or weren’t a formal complaint and they didn’t want to stop the appointment because of “unsubstantiated allegations”,’ and NOT SO says Simon, because there WAS a formal complaint, it was only ‘resolved’ because it was upheld, and Big Dog was briefed on it personally. In conclusion, Simon Says Fuck Off.

Beautiful. Exquisite. What a start to the day.

And what an incontrovertible turn of events! I wonder how the Tories will handle this?

Keep reading

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

The Adventures of Big Dog, Vol 187: Where Are Your Friends, Big Dog?

Well, this all got… uh. Intense.

OKAY so ten resignations at end of play on Tuesday. Let’s see what happened next! Maybe you’d like to count along with us, children?

Wednesday

8.22am

Private Parliamentary Secretary Laura Trott resigns. A disaster for the paperwork! Who is left to staple things? Nobody knows. Well; I jest, of course. There are 23 PPS’s in all, and that’s just five of them gone; perhaps the others can double up on the filing for a bit.

(Eleven.)

8.25am

Children and Families Minister Will Quince, the man who believed Big Dog when he said he knew nothing of Chris Pincher’s prior attempts at the coveted title of Tory Creep of the Year and went on national TV to say as such and now looks like a dickhead, resigns

No let’s pause to savour this

In a palpable cloud of furious offence and wounded snivelling pride, A FOURTH CABINET MINISTER HAS RESIGNED!!! Don’t get too used to it, this is very dramatic but, let’s be fair, the record for Most Ministerial Resignations In A 24 Hour Period was set in the 1930s (11 Ministers) and we’re probably not beating it. But still! Let’s enjoy the ride! Bye Will! Still think you’re a dickhead!

(Twelve.)

8.51am

Alistair Campbell is having an absolute blast. Look at him, scampering about in delight, scooping up handfuls of shade and shit to throw at Tory front doors before ringing the doorbell and running away. This is exactly the right enrichment for former Labour spin doctors. Today he gleefully skips his way into the Sky News studio – let’s take a look at what he said, the scamp.

“Boris Johnson has deliberately surrounded himself with third-rate and fourth-rate people, who frankly would not have got a job in the Cabinet of any other Prime Minister in history. Nadine Dorries, Dominic Raab, Priti Patel. They wouldn’t have got a job carrying Margaret Thatcher’s handbag. They wouldn’t have got a job polishing John Major’s shoes. These are second-rate, third-rate people with a fifth-rate Prime Minister.  And I think the country now knows that.  They are the only people propping him up.  And the sooner they find a spine, or find a soul, or find a bit of moral conscience and get rid of that lying, crooked charlatan, who sits at that Cabinet table and disgraces this country, and disgraces Downing Street, and disgraces every principle that most people in public office aspire to, then the better this country will be.”

Oh, Alistair, you rascal. Have a poptart.

Keep reading

[newhologram]

Look folks. The 80-year-old leather daddies that you see marching in our Pride parade in MPLS with a huge Leather Pride flag watched a ton of their friends die while our government and our society laughed at them. Their Leather families were sometimes their only families. 1/ People who are too young to remember AIDS need to take several steps back and learn some queer history. Those folks deserve our respect, and deserve our collective joy that they can be who they are now, and our collective grief that so many of them are gone.2/ Queers have been indicating to each other through various means since forever that they are queer whether it's where they're wearing their keys, or what color their bandana is, because they were afraid of getting killed by people If they were more overt, and rightfully so. 4/ Pride is the only time where we get to collectively publicly celebrate our queer elders who died so that we could stand here, and take advantage of the full freedom they fought for, such as it is. Erasing kink and especially Leather from Pride erases parts of our history. 5/ If you don't like it, don't go. If you don't want to have conversations with your kids about our dead elders and why those leather daddies are dressed like that, don't go. There are kid-friendly events all over the place. But corporate Pride is not our history. 6/ A lot of people want to enjoy the benefits that our elders fought and died for, without honoring the history, and frankly it's fucking gross. And it's gross that so many people are so loudly proclaiming their ignorance, and their lack of love for our elders. 7/ If you think Leather and kink don't have a place at Pride, you are not my ally. Just say you want to have a big party with all of the free stuff, and a giant parade, without having to learn anything about our history, and leave.

[jaimistoryteller]

Help Please!

Hi All The past month has not been easy. Dad has been in and out of the hospital due breathing problems and chest pains (we are still hoping to get to the bottom of that). Between the weather, household chores, and driving him back and forth, my pain levels have been through the roof- the joys of living with chronic pain. To top it off, five bills processed at the same time and I am now at -$683 for my checking account plus getting hit with over draft bills as well.

Without getting too much into it, it’s been a difficult time physically, mentally and emotionally. Any and all help in the form of reblogs, donations, buying copies of my book, or commissions would be very much appreciated. Jaimi

Share this post; my venmo, paypal, or cash app with a note about how it can help.

Paypal: cosmosbusinessventures@gmail .com or Paypal Me

Ko-Fi

venmo @JaimiST

Cash app $jaimist

GoFundMe: Help Jaimi Catch Up the Bills & Fix the Roof

Keep reading

[jaimistoryteller]

5/9/2022 1 pm EST

Hello All

Dad’s still in the hospital, going back up to visit shortly.

I spent a lot of yesterday either sleeping or cleaning, cause anxiety and inability to sit still at times.

I did manage to answer the Anon Ask about my amazon list, then update the list since it had been a while, and it seemed like a good idea.

Currently at:

$50/683

Thank you greatly to all the peeps that have or will help in some way!

Jaimi

[jaimistoryteller]

5/9/2022 11:30 pm EST

Hi Folks So, an update since Sunday, saw dad, came home, slept a lot that night and most of Monday.

Today I went to see dad, avoided a lady who wasn’t paying attention and nearly hit my car as she pulled out of a driveway by hitting my breaks. They blew. Now I got none. Not exactly helpful.

Please, please, please help me get outta the negative. My breaks went out and I need to get them fixed. I can’t until no longer in the negative.

At $0/633

Any and all help is appreciated. Thank you all for taking the time to read this, any sharing or donations. Jaimi

[jaimistoryteller]

5/12/2022 1 pm EST

Hi All

I ended up not sleeping, but not awake really, through all of yesterday due to pain and stress. There has been no change on my checking account, and my paypal is now in the negative as the cat food processed. So I need $29 for that.

Still need to get my breaks fixed, as I cannot go see or pick dad up without a car. He’s still in the hospital as of now, but he’s worrying about how he will get home.

Any and all help is appreciated! I thank each of you that has shared this in some form.

Jaimi

$0/661

[jaimistoryteller]

8 pm EST 5/12/20222 No change as of this moment. Please, please consider a cup of coco [ko-fi]. Those $3 add up!

[jaimistoryteller]

5/13/2022 3 pm EST Hiya All I hope you are well.

Good news first: Dad got his heart stint, it went good. I got a small loan to get my breaks done, so the car stops again.

Bad news: cat food finished processing, so my paypal is even further in the negative. I expect any day now for the bank to call and tell me my account is going to be closed if I don’t get it out of the negative. Plus there is a new loan to cover.

That is all before I have to come up with the money to pick Taz up from the crematorium, as he passed away last week suddenly.

So as of this moment I am at -$698. That is -$612 for my checking and -$86 for paypal. Any and all help is wonderful, that includes sharing, buying a copy of my book, donating, or commissions. Thank you all for your time. Jaimi Ps. under the original Read more are screen shots of my checking and paypal as of today.

$0/86

$0/612

[gaysquaredwrites]

the idea that suffering (usually in silence) is a virtue has wreaked havoc on our culture, and capitalism has been all too happy to co-opt it. fuck the protestant work ethic, being in pain does not make me a better person, fuck you

[doberbutts]

Mostly I'm watching black people I know express distaste with non-black people ignoring the context of what happened, thankfully no one I follow is clowning where I can see it.

But I'm watching arguments about 'toxic masculinity' (can you call defending your wife from someone being a dick to her 'toxic masculinity'???) and 'male violence' (I know PLENTY of black women who would backhand someone talking about them like that) and 'abusive' (fellas is it abuse to defend your wife's honor in a way you likely were taught yourself?) etc etc and they're all ignoring the actual context of what happened.

A black man who knew better made an offensive and ableist joke about a black woman's medical condition that drastically changed her appearance and caused her to sacrifice something culturally important to her, on live TV in front of an audience, and her black husband got on stage and confronted the problem the same way it would have played out if this was not a televised event.

It's wild to me that people aren't connecting the dots. "He shouldn't have used violence" sure and Chris Rock shouldn't have made the joke but he did and he got what he knew he would have gotten if he'd said it anywhere else. He was part of that hair documentary. He KNOWS BETTER. I got popped just like that for a comment about a black woman's hair when I was 8. There are lines and he crossed them. And unlike my 8yo self, he knew where those lines were when he chose to open his mouth.

She was in the audience. She was sitting by Will. Chris looked directly at her and pointed at her before making the joke. He knew what he was doing. He watched Will come up to him agitated. And he didn't press charges even though police encouraged him to do so. He knew exactly what he would have gotten for that in any other place.

[grison-in-space]

I mean, he also knows how much he'd come off as a whiny crybaby who dished out but couldn't take it if he did press charges. At the level of scrutiny both of these guys are at, everything about how they're handling this conflict has to be calculated in terms of public reaction, which has layers and layers of observation and scrutiny from both people with and without context.

as you absolutely already know, obv. but like. yes. Rock's douchery had layers and he knew exactly what kind of nastiness he was pulling, and he was executing that nastiness in a venue where he must have thought he could force Smith to observe without being able to do anything about it: Smith was up for an Oscar himself, he had to attend, Jaida essentially had to attend, Rock is on stage--what the hell is Will Smith going to do to him if he makes that joke? The more humiliating he can make it, the more powerful he feels, and yeah, you are correct and he knew precisely what kind of target he was aiming at, because the more humiliating and painful the joke he can make without retaliation from Will Smith the more he can get off on how much power and control he can exert. Which, you know, totally consistent with Chris Rock's everything.

It's an interesting incident in terms of just how much social context layers onto it to underscore exactly how much of an offensive, nasty, asshole Chris Rock was being there--again--and also in terms of how much weight and context hangs on everything Will Smith chose to do and why. As You Know Jaz the standards that even wealthy and famous and powerful black men are held to are so different from what wealthy and famous and powerful white men are, and especially given the weird dynamics of being minority people in a majoritarian institution--there's so much pressure there to navigate, the stakes are so high!

like, I guarantee to you that the choice to slap Chris Rock rather than punching him was a thing Will Smith made an active decision about based on calculations about the signal that sent: how much aggression vs control does he calculate that both Rock, a generalized black audience, and a generalized white audience will see? how much context does he need to underscore? you can see Chris Rock trying to weasel out and make Will Smith look unreasonable ("I said G. I. Jane!") and Will Smith is just totally unyielding. He's got to make sure he comes off as both angry and principled and also completely controlled and it's just, it's such a great example of a thwarted power play on this enormous stage.

pretty sure I'm lecturing the prof, here, obviously, but just--aaaaugh the whole interaction sincerely feels like something that should be preserved in a museum display so that the layers of context can be unwrapped and understood to appreciate all the pieces, and white people making stupid fucking takes that ignore all of the very specific African-American experience pieces of it (not the least that hair documentary that Chris fucking Rock produced if I recall right) are. vexing.

[doberbutts]

Good god allllllll of this plus some. Again because like, Chris Rock is known for toeing the line of what he can get away with and so, knowing no one defends disabled people and no one defends black women and certainly no one defends any woman made out to be ugly- because there is an implied message of ugliness there.

The Smiths have had a very public eye on the situation with the cheating and so for Rock to stand on stage and point to her and call her "GI Jane" aka an ugly, mannish, brutish, bald woman knowing that Will is still smarting after the hordes of cuckhold jokes he's been subject to... there's this feeling of 'haha your wife's ugly now, you couldn't keep her when she was pretty do you think she'll stay now that she's ugly, maybe you'll cheat now that she's hideous, lol isn't that so funny' to it knowing their marriage problems are very, very much exposed to the public.

There's also the racial aspect of black women especially with shorter hair being called exactly that: ugly, brutish, mannish for not fitting white femininity. And Rock knows, he fucking KNOWS that, that's a racially charged statement to make and he did it anyway and this is why I'm constantly harping on how black people absolutely can further antiblackness despite being black themselves. Rock was raised by a black woman and he has black women in his life and he KNOWS and he chose to do it anyway because he thought it'd be funny and he'd get away with it because who confronts a comedian on live TV and especially at an awards show?

"he just said GI Jane" "it was just a joke" until you can fully understand the full context of that "joke" you will never understand why a lot of black people who saw that had the reaction of "Smith shouldn't have hit him but Rock was wrong for that one" or "if someone talked about my wife like that they'd get more than a slap".

[grison-in-space]

yeah, I just wandered over to another community of mine and the goddamn pearlclutching over "violence is never the answer" there. (I waded in, because what the fuck, you're the same fucking community that went "YEAH GO THAT DUDE WHO PUNCHED RICHARD SPENCER.") At some point we do have to ask ourselves: what speech can we tolerate without directly responding, and what do you do when the person you are trying to deal with is not operating in good faith.

I am just! How the fuck! people.

there's also the layer in which by pulling that, Smith draws so much more attention to how unacceptable the joke is than he would by simply speaking about it. he is so much more emphatic by saying "not here, not now, not where I see." He gets so many more people talking about what an asshole Chris Rock is being, again, and he can hope that enough people explain the layers to really underscore how much Chris Rock knew what the fuck he was doing to people who aren't members of the African-American community that he and Chris Rock share. Like, how do you respond when someone is deliberately being as vicious as they can to you on a shared wavelength that a bunch of observing people don't have access to?

[canisitsnotlupus]

I think this is super important to remember.

[rubyvroom]

No kill shelters result in animals dumped on the highway and tossed in the river because the rescues wont take them. That’s the part they never tell you.

Meanwhile the spca will take every animal, and if they have to euthanize them at least it will be done kindly and not via neglect or cruelty.

[rubyvroom]

Because people in the notes are not getting this, let me explain:

No-kill shelters TURN AWAY animals. When they’re full - and they often are because most of these no-kill shelters are small - they stop taking them in. While they are “taking their time to find the right homes for every single animal”, many other animals never get in the door. Somehow they don’t count those animals, or track what happens to them. A success for them doesn’t include the ones they turned away. They’re taking their time because they can. 

The No-Kills who brag about 100% adoption rates are the worst, because they tend to reject the most. The animals who will be difficult to adopt out? They just don’t take those. Special needs? Too old? If they’re going to be hard to adopt out, they can claim to be full, even if they’re not. 

They are telling owners they absolutely cannot take their fifteen year old cat because they are full of litters of kittens. Adorable kittens that will turn over quickly, and boost their adoption numbers. So what happens to the fifteen year old cat? After days of being rejected at the shelters they get dumped on the side of the road somewhere, or worse. 

You cannot imagine the VOLUME of animals that a city shelter deals with. The kill shelters are not allowed to turn anyone away. The difficult cases, the special needs, the elderly, the feral. The dog that bites, the cat that pees everywhere. Every animal is going to be taken in and treated with kindness. They are going to be assessed and treated for their fleas and conditions and behavioral problems. They will get their time on the adoption floor. They will get the best chance possible to find a new home. And if it’s not possible, they will be humanely euthanized, and that cage space will go to the next animal who is already waiting for it. It never stops. While you were working on the paperwork to adopt out 1 cat, three people brought in 4 more. It’s a numbers game that you cannot win if you aren’t turning people away.

A lot of times kill shelters get the animals that the no-kill shelters refused to take. Maybe their owners bring them. Or maybe they got literally thrown in the garbage, abandoned, or put in a bag and tossed in the river, when the no-kill shelter said they were full. The police and rescuers will bring these poor injured animals to the city shelter where they will be cared for. The volunteers will spend days and weeks trying to wash the tar out of their fur, or treat their broken bones, or whatever other horrible thing has happened to them. They will feed and house them. They will put most of them in new homes. They will save many many more animals, by orders of magnitude, than a no-kill shelter ever will. A no-kill shelter will brag about dozens or maybe hundreds of  adoptions. Kill shelters are dealing in thousands of successful adoptions, and they still have to euthanize because it just isn’t enough. There are just so many animals to take in.

And then, after all this, the No-Kill Shelters get to claim the moral high ground somehow, and self-righteous types will refuse to adopt from the only shelter that takes absolutely everyone. It’s infuriating. 

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

In ancient Greece there was a hospital that was famous for never losing a single patient. Not a single patient ever died within their walls.

Because they cheated. Anyone dying on arrival was barred entry, anyone who started dying inside was turfed out.

But… they got to truthfully claim that they’d never lost a patient within their walls, and that’s really great advertising.

Same is true of no-kill shelters. They literally just don’t take in the less adoptable animals. It’s all in the marketing.

[best-of-memes]

[wokeleftistmob]

[ID: Text reading “Reblog if your first or last name is always spelled or pronounced wrong” /End ID]

[joannechocolat]

On sensitivity readers, weakness, and staying alive.

The other day I was part of a Twitter conversation begun by a fellow-author on the subject of sensitivity readers, in which he said that no serious author would use sensitivity readers, and spoke of work being “sanitized”. The conversation devolved, as it often does on Twitter, but it got me thinking. It must have got someone else thinking too, because a journalist from the Sunday Times got in touch with me the next day, and asked me to share my ideas on the subject. Because I have no control over how my words are used in the Press, or in what context they might appear, here’s more or less what I told her.

I think a lot of people (some of them authors, most of them not) misunderstand the role of a sensitivity reader. That’s probably mostly because they’ve never used one, and are misled by the word “sensitivity”, which, in a world of toxic masculinity, is often mistaken for weakness. To these people, hiring someone to check one’s work for sensitivity purposes implies a surrendering of control, a shift in the balance of power. 

In some ways, I can empathize. Most authors feel a tremendous sense of attachment to their work. Giving it to someone else for comment is often stressful. And yet we do: we hand over our manuscripts to specialists in grammar, spelling or plot construction. We allow them to comment. We take their advice. We call these people editors and copy-editors, and they are a good and necessary part of the process of being an author. Their job is to make an author’s work as accurate and well-polished as possible.

When writing non-fiction, authors sometimes use fact-checkers at the editorial stage, to make sure that no embarrassing factual mistakes make it into print. This, too, is a normal part of the writing process. We owe it to our readers to be as accurate as possible. No-one wants to look as if they don’t know what they’re talking about.

That’s why now, increasingly, when writing about the lives and experiences of others, we sometimes use readers with different specialities. That’s because, however great our imagination, however well-travelled we may be and however many books we have read, there will always be gaps in our knowledge of the way other people live, or feel, or experience the world. Without the input of those with first-hand knowledge, there’s always a danger we will slip up. That’s why crime writers often consult detectives when researching their detective fiction, or someone writing a hospital drama might find it useful to talk to a surgeon, or a nurse, or to someone with the medical condition they are planning to use in their narrative. That’s why someone writing about divorce, or disability, or being adopted, or being trans, or being homeless, or being a sex worker, or being of a different ethnicity, or of a different culture – might find it useful to take the advice of someone with more experience.

There are a number of ways to do this. One of my favourites is The Human Library, which allows subscribers to talk to all kinds of people and ask them questions about their lives  (https://humanlibrary.org/). The other possibility is to hire a sensitivity reader to go through your manuscript and check it. Both can be a valuable resource, and I doubt many authors would believe that their writing is sanitized, or diluted, or diminished by using these resources.

And yet, the concept of the sensitivity readers – which is basically another version of the specialist editor and fact-checker – continues to cause outrage and panic among those who see their use as political correctness gone mad, or unacceptable wokery, or bowdlerization, or censorship. The Press hasn’t helped. Outrage sells copies, and therefore it isn’t in the interest of the national media to point out the truth behind the ire.

Let’s look at the facts.

First, it isn’t obligatory to use a sensitivity reader. It’s a choice. I’ve used several, for many different reasons, just as I’ve always tried to speak to people with experience when writing characters with disabilities, or from different cultures or ethnic groups. I know that my publisher already sends my work to readers of different ages and from different backgrounds, and I always run my writing past my daughter, who often has insights I lack.  

Sensitivity reading is a specialist editorial service. It isn’t a political group, or the woke brigade, or an attempt to overthrow the status quo. It’s simply a writing resource; a means of reaching the widest possible audience by avoiding inaccuracy, clumsiness, or the kind of stereotyping that can alienate or pull the reader out of the story.

Sensitivity readers don’t go around crossing out sections of an author’s work and writing RACIST!!! in the margin. Usually, it’s more on the lines of pointing out details the author might have missed, or failed to consider: avoiding misinformation; adding authentic details that only a representative of a particular group would know.

Authors can always refuse advice. That’s their prerogative. If they do, however, and once their book is published, they receive criticism or ridicule because their book was insufficiently researched, or inauthentic, or was perceived as perpetuating harmful or outdated stereotypes, then they need to face and deal with the consequences. With power comes responsibility. We can’t assume one, and ignore the other,

Being more aware of the experiences of others doesn’t mean we have to stop writing problematic characters. Sensitivity reading isn’t about policing bad behaviour in books. It’s perfectly possible to write a thoroughly unpleasant character without suggesting that you’re condoning their behaviour. Sensitivity is about being more authentic, not less.

People noticed bigotry and racism in the past, too. Some people feel that books published a hundred years ago are somehow more pure, or more free, or more representative of the author’s vision than books published now. You often hear people say things like: “If Dickens were around today, he wouldn’t get published.”

But Dickens is still published. We still get to read Oliver Twist, in spite of its anti-Semitism. And those who believe that Dickens’ anti-Semitism was accepted as normal by his contemporaries probably don’t know that not only was he criticized by his peers for his depiction of Fagin, he actually went back and changed the text, removing over 200 references, after receiving criticism by a Jewish reader. And no, it wasn’t “normal” to be anti-Semitic in those days: Wilkie Collins, whose work was as popular as Dickens’ own, managed to write a range of Jewish characters without relying on harmful and inaccurate stereotypes. 

But it isn’t automatic that a book will survive its author. Books all have shelf lives, just as we do, and Dickens’ work has survived in spite of his anti-Semitism, not because of it. The work of many others has not. Books are for readers, and if an author loses touch with their readers - either by clinging to outdated tropes, or using outdated vocabulary, or having an outdated style – then their books will cease to be published, and they will be forgotten. It happens all the time. What one generation loves and admires may be rejected by the next. And the language is always changing. Nowadays, it’s hard to read some books that were popular 100 years ago. Styles have changed, sometimes too much for the reader to tolerate.

Recently, someone on tumblr asked about my use of the word “gypsy” in Chocolat, and whether I meant to have it changed in later editions. (River-gypsies is the term I use in connection with Roux and the river people, who are portrayed in a positive light, although they are often victims of prejudice.) It was an interesting question, and I gave it a lot of thought. When I wrote the book 24 years ago, the word “gypsy” was widely used by the travelling community, and as far as I knew, wasn’t considered offensive. Nowadays, there’s a tendency to regard it as a slur. That’s why I stopped using it in my later Chocolat books. No-one told me to. It was my choice. I don’t feel as if I’ve lost any of my artistic integrity by taking into account the fact that a word has a different resonance now. On the other hand, I don’t feel that at this stage I need to go back and edit the book I wrote. That’s because Chocolat is a moment in time. It uses the language of the moment. Let it stand for as long as it can. 

But I don’t have to stay in one place. I can move on. I can change. Change is how we show the world that we are still alive. That we are still able to feel, and to  learn, and to be aware of others. That’s what “sensitive” means, after all. And it is nothing like weakness. Living, changing, learning – that’s hard. Playing dead is easy.

[elodieunderglass]

Also, given that fiction writers generally feel that the slightest criticism will wound them and that someone saying “I don’t like this” is an act of highly personal violence (all understandable! All rather natural!) then a sensitivity reader would seem to be a highly rational act to save your life and sanity.

If “wow I could tell a LOT about the author’s politics from this, and I hate them!” Would deeply hurt someone to the point of needing to write 16 think pieces, a twitter discourse, the ministrations of a spouse and sixteen sessions of therapy to get over it (honestly that’s fair!!) then they owe it to themselves to get ahead of that, and work on it in advance, because that’s a lousy use of everyone’s energy. If it’s part of the job one is paid for, then one should be prepared to do the groundwork of filling the post. It becomes selfish not to do it, if one is going to need so much effort and labor to overcome the consequences.

If someone’s breadwinning and soul-sustaining activities are the same work, and that work cuts close to the bone, then surely it should be made as ageless and defensible as possible. Surely one’s whole identity would crave to see the job done properly, to stand up on its own merits for as long as possible, to be a work of enduring pride with the potential to outlast one’s own life.

And - it isn’t fair but it’s true - single individual writers are held to the standards of corporate media creations. Corporate media creations do an intense amount of market research and have hundreds of advice streams and feedback points. So since one will get all of the blame and none of the defense, one should surely endeavour to have something similar, because the same reasoning will apply.

(It’s one reason why I don’t pursue original fiction; while I can tell a story, the job of “being a writer” requires completely different skills than that, and all kinds of strength and humility that I’m not particularly good at. I might be better later, when my character is matured, but I know I’m not now.)

[taichi-kungfu-online]

Workout For Daily Life

[chitarra10]

Reblogging for the neck pain ones… whoa Nelly, do I ever get the most killer neck pains.

[800-dick-pics]

if youre hypermobile or have eds be careful with some of these

[lindstromm]

Okay, USA followers, you know how we all hate bank fees? I mean, you overdraw your account by $1.23 and you get charged $25.00? That's evil.

As of Jan 26, 2022, the Biden Administration CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) is bringing the hammer down on junk fees. This is more than just bank fees - this is going after the junk fees on things like prepaid cards, loans, bank transfers, credit card late fees, even closing costs on a mortgage.

The CFPB needs public comments, like the opinions of real people who are affected by these fees, to build a case about telling financial organizations that THEY CAN'T CHARGE THEM ANYMORE.

The CFPB says it’s particularly interested in hearing from older and lower-income consumers, students, service members and people of color.

There's some good detail about the comments in this investopedia article. The easiest way to comment is to send an email to [email protected]. Include Docket No. CFPB-2022-0003 in the subject line of the message.

Note that these are public comments. They will be published online through the CFPB website. Don't include account numbers, social security numbers, or full names. Tell a story - tell about the time you overdrew your account by $1.23 and the bank took $35. Tell about how you signed up for a credit card and the company charged you a bunch of fees you didn't even know about. Tell about how you transferred money from your savings account to a checking account and the bank charged you $2.50.

These junk fees are a slap in the face of ordinary people who can't refuse to pay, and the CFBP is taking aim at the banks that charge them. To read what CFPB director Rohit Chopra had to say about this call to action, click here.

You have until March 31, 2022 to submit comments.

[prismatic-bell]

YES!!!!

FUCKING YES!!!!!!

Y'all know the hole I just asked your help digging me out of like, literally last week?

THAT HOLE WOULD NOT HAVE EXISTED WITHOUT PREDATORY FEES LIKE THIS

THIS WOULD BE SO GOOD FOR SO MANY PEOPLE

[baasthasthezoomies]

DATES: Comments must be received on or before March 31, 2022.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. CFPB-2022-0003, by any of the following methods:

• Electronic: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments.

• Email: [email protected]. Include Docket No. CFPB-2022-0003 in the subject line of the message.

• Mail/Hand Delivery/Courier: Comment Intake —Fee Assessment, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 1700 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20552. Please note that due to circumstances associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the CFPB discourages the submission of comments by hand delivery, mail, or courier.

Instructions: The CFPB encourages the early submission of comments. All submissions should include document title and docket number. Because paper mail in the Washington, DC area and at the CFPB is subject to delay, commenters are encouraged to submit comments electronically. In general, all comments received will be posted without change to https://www.regulations.gov.

[biglawbear]

Hey guys. I'm a federal employee. I write regulations. I personally go through every single one of thousands of comments.

Unlike Congress, where sometimes your call or email about a policy goes into the void, every single comment about a regulation is individually read and tallied.

When a regulation is written it will say something like "The CFPB adopted X because it received 5,284 comments telling us to do that."

Write your comments.

It can be short. It can be long. It can go into detail about your experiences or your background. It can simply be an email saying "overdraft fees suck and should be illegal."

And it will affect policy.

Note, however, that comments are generally public record, so even though you're encouraged to give your name, don't give personally identifiable information.

Federal register comments are one of the least known yet most powerful ways to influence public policy.

Send in your comments!!

[mousedetective]

I know I still have loans to cover for my mom and myself, but we are in DESPERATE need of food. It’s five more days until we get our food stamps, and we’re out of milk, almost out of meat and cheese for sandwiches, and I need cream of mushroom soup and sour cream and evaporated milk to make at least three meals with. My kid is eating us out of house and home but I can’t just not feed him. If I can get $50 that would be a HUGE help.

My P*ypal is [email protected], my C*shapp is  $afteriwake23  and my V*nmo is @penaltywaltz.

[mousedetective]

So between making loan payments and covering the last few non-food stamp eligible things we need, we’re going to be short on bills this month. We should be able to cover our rent (hopefully), but this is what we still need:

$146.78 - Electric bill

$1,623.45 - My overdraft

$1,245.99 - My unpaid loans

$257.97 - My mom’s unpaid loans

(2/12/22 - Overdraft added)

$0/$3,274.19

[mousedetective]

I haven’t gotten any help in over a week, and we’re running out of food again without getting our second round of food stamps today like we expected. Please help? Please?

[springbok7]

Please help if you can

[jaimistoryteller]

An Exhausted Update

11/7/2021 7 pm EST

Hey Folks

I hope everyone is well. As of moment I can easily say I am not in a good place. I have been dealing with a migraine for the last two days, waiting for the insurance to approve one of my meds for a week now, and had a cat pass the rainbow bridge last night unexpectedly. That’s on top of dealing with everything else.

So! Update based on what I have as my GFM info:

My checking account was out of the negative, for 24 or so hours. Then the loan payment hit, and poof, back in the negative it went. Thankfully not nearly as bad, as it is only -$195, and if I can get $145 before six pm EST on 11/8/2021 I won’t get an over draft fee.

Roof supplies are still needed as snow will be starting any day now.

The electric bill was paid by an awesome person, so I removed that from the total needed.

I still need the money for Stasia and the loan, I used to take care of her, I now need the money to drop her sister off as well.

Car insurance hasn’t been touched yet, still have a little over a week to deal with it.

The loan is at $1900 after the part came out of my bank account, so I adjusted the total needed to reflect that as well.

Any and all help would be appreciated, thank you wonderful people who have helped thus far through donations, commissions, or sharing.

Jaimi

Ps. attached is a screenshot of my accounts and of Cinnamon

Keep reading

[mousedetective]

Check out my list on Amazon

I am in desperate need of some things on this list, one or two of which are pretty expensive:

The twin 12 inch mattress for my son's bed (he keeps falling off his bed because he currently has two mattresses stacked on top of each other)

Wet cat food (my cats love pate ones if there are cheaper ones on Amazon if you'd rather buy that)

$50 Visa gift cards (this will cover gas for an entire weekend so I can see my son)

If at all possible, the laptop (mine was fried when I used a off brand charger and it no longer works)

Anything off the list is much appreciated, but those are the things I need most.

[springbok7]

Please help!

[mousedetective]

Please Don't Scroll Past! Need Urgent Financial Assistance!

I am currently $902.16 overdrawn on my main bank account, and I have a $319 loan I need to pay as well. I need to cover as much of the overdraft and loan as I can or I will lose my account for nonpayment of insufficient funds. I use this account for everything. If I lose it I will no longer be able to pay my credit cards or recurring bills. I have to keep this account open. I'm disabled and can't afford to wait another 10 years to open an account again.

If you can help, here is the best ways to send money:

Cashapp - $afteriwake23

Venmo - @penaltywaltz

Pay Ragna Cook using PayPal.Me

Go to paypal.me/penaltywaltz and type in the amount. Since it’s PayPal, it's easy and secure. Don’t have a PayPal account? No worries.

Any help, even a few dollars, would be such a huge help. Reblogs are much appreciated.

In exchange I can write ficlets (I currently don't have a working laptop so I use Google Docs on my phone) and when I get a laptop I can make graphics if you're willing to wait. Thank you!

[springbok7]

Even a couple bucks will help, it all adds up!

[jaimistoryteller]

Help Jaimi Catch Up Bills & Fix the Roof

Greetings All

I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Jaimi. I’m a disabled creator in my early 30’s, primarily focused on art and writing. For the last eight years I have been unable to hold down a steady job due to my health problems, so I have been fighting to get my disability benefits in order to have a stable income.

I’m still working on my books, and I do commissions when I am able. Unfortunately, due to multiple concussions over the course of my life, on top of chronic pain from a car accident where I was the passenger, there are weeks I am barely able to do any work.

Jaimi’s GoFundMe

Paypal: [email protected] or Paypal Me

Ko-Fi

venmo @ JaimiST

Cash app $jaimist

Patreon

The rest of the update and story is beneath the cut, as it is long and a bit stressful. Any and all help, including commissions, sharing, $3 kofi all add up. Thank you all!

Jaimi

10/23/2021

Warnings for Background Below: domestic abuse, violence, ableism

Keep reading

[pen-for-sword]

*deep breath*

If you like a piece of art Reblog the Thing

👏👏

If you read something you like Reblog the Thing

👏👏

You don't have to pay us money

(but please do it, it'll be funny)

If you like the stuff we make Reblog the Thing