Book Nerd Queen

Edits, aesthetics, fancasts, book stuff...and my own lousy writing | Main blog: mylifeisaserie.tumblr.com

[knovesstorytelling]

Our first episode is out in the world!

In this introductory episode, Drew and May discuss favourite characters, foundational queer media and why middle-aged men who kind of hate each other are perfect crackship fodder.

Stream Something Queer is Happening Here now everywhere podcasts are podcasting.

[academicssay]

Academic referencing explained | ht @drshawna (Twitter)

[sp00kt0r-deactivated20221110]

“i hate sherlock holmes” my brother in christ you wrote the books

[academicssay]

[valtsv]

[xiranjayzhao]

How putting historical figures in giant mechas in Iron Widow may seem bizarre but is actually a natural extension of Chinese literary tradition 😂

[academicssay]

[universemagicreading]

Someone once said that the titles of jane austen’s novels are the name of the problems in the books. For example: in pride and prejudice the biggest problem is the conflict between pride and prejudice. So that makes Emma the biggest problem in Emma and, now that I have started reading the novel, I have never agreed more with something than I agree with this.

[only-tiktoks]

[lierdumoa]

[Hark! A Vagrant No. 202 by Kate Beaton]

[rainbow-femme]

You know a little detail I love in The Martian book? That Mark is obviously smart, but to different degrees depending on the subject.

He’s a mechanical engineer and a botanist. This makes him especially good at math, biology, food science, physics, and techy stuff that involves building things or taking stuff apart and making it do something else and general problem solving

He’s also generally good at chemistry. He knows that to make water he can breakdown hydrazine, but doesn’t think about the fact that it would cause the place to fill with hydrogen and almost blow up until it does. He also knows you exhale some oxygen each time you breathe, but doesn’t know how much.

He knows that solar panels are held at a 14 degree angle but doesn’t know why, and only knows the angle because he was in charge of setting them up

When he gets injured he doesn’t say what muscles, just that his back hurts. He fixes most of his muscle injuries with pain killers and warm baths while thinking about how the medic would have more detailed instructions

He has no idea how the pilot is so good at pilot stuff, and never differentiates different kinds of rocks like the geologist would

It’s just cool to have a smart character who is smart at things that make sense for their degrees and experience. So many characters get the Sherlock Holmes treatment where they’re good at whatever the plot needs, but in this case the book uses his blind spots as part of the plot. He knows enough chemistry to solve problems but not enough to anticipate the problems the chemistry would cause as well. It’s refreshing to have a book where what a character is bad at, or just not super good at, works with the story rather than just getting glossed over or having the character magically good at everything because if you know botany obviously you also know anatomy and geology and meteorology, etc

[blondejaneblonde]

“…knows enough chemistry to solve problems but not enough to anticipate the problems…” is such a good way to put it.

[lilinternetwarrior]

“Each crewman had their own laptop. So I have six at my disposal. Rather, I had six. I now have five. I thought a laptop would be fine outside. It’s just electronics, right? It’ll keep warm enough to operate in the short term, and it doesn’t need air for anything. 

It died instantly. The screen went black before I was out of the airlock. Turns out the “L” in “LCD” stands for “Liquid.” I guess it either froze or boiled off. Maybe I’ll post a consumer review. “Brought product to surface of Mars. It stopped working. 0/10.””

[obscurelittlebird]

I saw Goody Proctor in Spider-Man: No Way Home

[knovesstorytelling]

Audio Drama Casting Call

New project alert! The team behind your favourite queer Dracula podcast adaptation is working on a new audio drama adapting Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. Have a voice? Free time? A desperate need for commitment? Send us your audition(s) in .wav or .mp3 format at [email protected]! You can try for as many characters as you like, so go wild! We especially encourage voice actors of colour and from other underrepresented backgrounds to apply. We want to hear you!

Morland P.I. Audition Sheet

Project Description

Morland P.I. is a Knoves Storytelling production adapting Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey into a modern, queer audio drama. Kit Morland has a dream: being the best investigative true crime podcaster the world has ever seen. Or at least the best her small British town has ever seen. So when family friends offer to take her to Bath, scene of the infamous, unsolved Chawton murders, Kit jumps at the opportunity. Could she be the one to uncover the truth? If not, she’ll at least try to make some friends. And maybe just a bit more.

Kit Morland (F):

Role Type: Main character

Description: Late teens/Early twenties. British accent preferred. Kit is a sheltered young woman ready to take on the world with nothing but a podcast and a true crime obsession. She is naive and earnest, and wants to find her place in the world.

Audition lines:

*rehearsing in the mirror* Hi, I’m Kit. Wait no. Kit Morland, pleasure to meet you. No. Catherine sounds more refined right? More...grown up? Hello, I am Catherine. Catherine Morland, investigator. That just sounds wrong. God, why do I bother? No-one’s going to think I’m cool!’

*podcaster voice* ‘The Chawton murders are one of the most infamous cold cases in British history. An entire family, all dying one after the other, in mysterious circumstances. No DNA, no evidence, every suspect had an alibi. It was an unsolvable riddle but I am going to solve it. The Chawtons deserve justice, and I deserve a win.’

Henrietta ‘Henry’ Tilney (F):

Role Type: Major (love interest)

Description: Mid-Twenties. British accent preferred. Henry is a kind and confident young woman. As the eldest child, she is under a lot of pressure from her father to succeed and associate the best but tries her best to ignore it.

Audition lines:

‘No no, wait, we can’t have interesting conversation this soon. It’s not correct. We have to start with boring small talk. Let’s see...what are you doing in Bath, Miss Morland? Do you have family here? Any siblings? Who was your favourite member of One Direction?’

‘That is a lovely dress, Mrs. Allen. Beautiful fabric, and the seams...oh, my sibling’s studying to become a fashion designer. And I listen, so I guess I picked up a few things. Including this suit!’

Eleanor/Eli Tilney (F, M or N-B):

Role Type: Major

Description: Early to mid twenties. British accent preferred. Kind, shy and soft-spoken. Suffers more than their sister from the pressure put on them by their father.

Audition lines:

‘You must be Kit! It’s really nice to meet you, my sister’s told me all about you. I’m glad she found you, it’s quite hard to meet likeminded people in a city like this. Would you want to go for a walk with us sometime? I know a really nice trail just West of here, I go hiking there when I need to get away.’

General Tilney (M):

Role Type: Minor

Description: Middle-aged. British accent preferred. Rigid and intimidating. Obsessed with protecting the family legacy.

Audition lines:

‘I suppose Miss Morland can have dinner with us. I wouldn’t want to be rude to my daughter’s friend, after all. Have you been in town long, Miss Morland? You would think a bright young woman your age might be at university right now. But I suppose young people nowadays are in no rush to take on responsabilities. Shame.’

Isabella ‘Bella’ Thorpe (F):

Role Type: Major

Description: Early to mid twenties. Charismatic, flirty and outgoing, but a bit of a mean girl. Takes to Kit quickly, mostly because she can see she needs guidance and is easy to manipulate.

Audition lines:

‘And then she said I “stole her boyfriend”! Like I robbed her at gunpoint or something. Please, I won your boyfriend fair and square. She should have just let it go, for the sake of female solidarity. There are only so many hotties in the world, let your girl have a turn! Anyway they still got back together and they’re like basically married now, so no harm no foul, am I right? Kit? Kit are you listening?’

John/Jen Thorpe (F or M):

Role Type: Major (ish)

Description: Early to mid twenties. Bella’s sibling. Confident/arrogant. Kind of an asshole. Constantly trying to get with Kit despite her obvious lack of interest.

Audition lines:

‘See that? It’s the new Tesla model. Feels like driving the wind. Seriously try it...really? Well then get in the passenger seat, we’re going to London. Bella and J are meeting us there, we’re doing dinner at the Ritz then trying out this new underground club. It’s real exclusive, I heard they turned down Paul Hollywood. Three times. Mad. Why are you dressed like this, by the way? They’ll never let you in with those shoes, you better change.’

James/Jamie Morland (F, M or N-B):

Role Type: Minor (ish)

Description: Mid-twenties/Early thirties. British accent preferred. Kit’s sibling. Much more worldly but still has some of their sister’s naive and earnest nature.

Audition lines:

‘Are these two treating you well? I knew you’d like each other, John was the star of our rowing team at Oxford and Bella...well, Bella’s impossible not to like, right? Always the brightest thing in the room. I’m so glad you met each other.’

Fred Tilney (M):

Role Type: Minor

Description: Thirties. British accent preferred. Asshole. Fuckboy. Kind of the worst.

Audition lines:

‘Who’s that? Is she single? Wait, nevermind, I don’t need to know. Just get me a drink, will you? I’m going over there.’

Mr Allen (M):

Role Type: Minor

Description: Middle-Aged. Kind and pragmatic but a bit passive. Clearly cares about Kit despite his quiet nature.

Audition lines:

‘Be good. Be safe. Be back by midnight. Bring me back some fish-n-chips.’

Mrs Allen (F):

Role Type: Major (ish)

Description: Middle-aged. Trying-a-bit-too-hard-to-be-the-fun-aunt vibes. Just wants Kit to have fun and tries to be a good mentor.

Audition lines:

‘You are going to LOVE Bath. The sea air, the shops, the people! Ah, I wish I could have had a trip like that at your age, it’s all so exciting! Now I have to live vicariously through you, so you better have enough fun for the both of us!’

[knovesstorytelling]

Reblogging with the right email because ya girl done messed up. If you've sent an audition to [email protected], we're very sorry, please send it to us again at [email protected], we would love to hear it!

[knovesstorytelling]

Auditions are still open!

[obscurelittlebird]

Anne with an E (2017)

[meemeebee]

I often joke that the 3 things you can do to fix Dracula is:

1) Switch Jonathan and Mina's roles in the story, so that it isn't overly influenced by gender roles and instead better follows from Jonathan's character arc (also so that Mina can kill Dracula)

2) Genderswap Van Helsing and make her really snarky. I want at least one scene where she taunts Dracula to his face. Bonus points if she's one of the most comedic characters.

3) make everyone queer.

Guess what Murray Mysteries did guys!

[daughterofdessalines]

September 25, 1952 – December 15, 2021

[sandersstudies]

Love that in a lot of classic literature people just “randomly” fall ill but bro their homes were stacked to the roof with arsenic and asbestos and lead and radium of course they were sick all the time.

[sandersstudies]

And then they’re like “we took my ill wife to the seaside and her condition improved remarkably” and it’s like Edward your house has seven time bombs in it please just leave your wife at the seaside and she’ll do very well not getting mesothelioma.

[under-the-arch]

Edward your wife may be entitled to financial compensation

[obscurelittlebird]

Jane Eyre (2011)