A Creature of Dyke Experience

They/Them, 29 a horrid pile of meat

[millenianthemums]

many people will tell you that taking testosterone will turn you into a scary horny fat hairy wolfman. what they don’t tell you is that being a scary horny fat hairy wolfman fucking whips ass and you’ll love it

[spookyfoxinc]

this happens every night btw

[wiisagi-maiingan]

It is actually a huge red flag when people list their goldstone or opalite pieces as "natural." These are glass gemstones, completely man-made, and anyone trying to sell them as a "natural" stone is either lying to customers or doesn't know enough about how their own products are being sourced and produced.

[snailchimera]

I was once in a tourist trap adjacent rock shop and spotted some little pieces of very pretty blue aventurine (goldstone) glass. (There is also a natural rock called aventurine. That's an entirely different thing.) By sheer coincidence I had been reading about the history and production of aventurine recently, so I excitedly picked up a piece and started telling my friend about it. It's cool stuff! Metal oxides are mixed into the glass at extremely high temperatures, then kept in a low oxygen environment, allowing tiny crystals of metal to precipitate out throughout the glass. The type of oxide determines the color. Copper makes the golden-reddish classic goldstone, while cobalt, manganese, and chromium make blue, purple, and green. (The latter three are all typically extremely dark, and "blue" aventurine often looks like an incredibly deep black.) Though the process we know was invented in Venice in the 17th century, examples of aventurine dating back as far as the 13th or 12th have been found in Persia, where it was apparently used to make Islamic prayer/protection amulets.

Anyway I'm in the middle of yammering about this when I realize the woman at the checkout counter, who I believe also owns the place, is glaring daggers at me. I am autistic. I am not good at noticing or correctly identifying death glares. This was obvious enough for me to pick up. I falter to an awkward stop, midsentence, and there is a moment of dead silence.

Then she snaps, "well the copper is natural. It has the natural properties of copper."

(Again, it was blue, so it actually had "the natural properties" of cobalt, whatever that means. Mostly it is glass, and has the properties of glass.)

I wasn't insulting the aventurine! I was being very enthusiastic about it! If anything I was doing an impromptu sales pitch, pointing out how the irregularly distributed glittering crystals in the blue-black glass created a sense of depth that made it look like stars in a low-light night sky, talking about how difficult it is to make and what an interesting history it has! But she was so mad.

Aside from being kinda scummy, it's just sad. Aventurine glass is such a cool material, and it's beautiful. People should be able to appreciate it for what it is.

[historicity-was-already-taken]

(Yoinked this from LinkedIn, genuinely interested in seeing how responses align with demographics) (so far it’s those of us over 35 being indignant but I wanna see how those fully plays out) (it’s cultural and technological history/memory, bruh)

18

[bellisima-writes]

I am an old bitch - 20/20.

[subtextsays]

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[historicity-was-already-taken]

(Yoinked this from LinkedIn, genuinely interested in seeing how responses align with demographics) (so far it’s those of us over 35 being indignant but I wanna see how those fully plays out) (it’s cultural and technological history/memory, bruh)

18

[bellisima-writes]

I am an old bitch - 20/20.

[subtextsays]

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[historicity-was-already-taken]

(Yoinked this from LinkedIn, genuinely interested in seeing how responses align with demographics) (so far it’s those of us over 35 being indignant but I wanna see how those fully plays out) (it’s cultural and technological history/memory, bruh)

18

[bellisima-writes]

I am an old bitch - 20/20.

[subtextsays]

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Remaining time: 3 days 23 hours

[userfish]

[thatlavendergremlin]

Galaxies are yurinating...

[spotforme]

don't say it like that

[pitbolshevik]

"um but the right of way-" listen, yes. you SHOULD be able to cross the road. cars should stop for you. you are correct. but that doesn't make it not extremely fucking dangerous to dart into oncoming traffic

this is less of a "the road is for cars only and you have no right to be there" thing and more of a "holy shit you are going to get yourself flattened by an F150 if you try to do that. please don't." thing

[willgrahamscock]

being 30+ on tumblr is craazy 💀

cringe all you want but older fans are the ones who carved out this space and fight to keep fandoms alive so you can consume content for free

[willgrahamscock]

plus, anon you will age too and guess what? you’re welcome here even at 90 years old reblogging frerard

[toorurii]

mannn I gotta draw more black furries but that also means I have to draw ………….. send me power y’all July hit me with an anvil 🧍🏽in the meantime do you like them

( Krowzi.bsky.social ! )

[pangur-and-grim]

I won't publish the ask (they asked me not to), but I thought I'd still answer it publicly!

no, royalties are not a significant source of income for most authors. if you wrote something like Project Hail Mary, then absolutely, the royalties would be substantial! but that's like winning the lottery. Ryan Gosling is not starring in the movie adaption of most books.

when you sell a book to a publisher, you get what's called 'an advance against royalties'. it's usually split into multiple parts, so you might get one third for the initial sale, one third for the final revised manuscript, and one third on the publishing date.

an advance against royalties is the publisher saying "we believe you will eventually make X amount in royalties, so here it is ahead of time." and then you don't actually see any money from royalties until the advance is paid off. most books do not make enough in royalties to pay off the advance (I have two children's books and one fiction book, and have yet to see royalties for any of them).

advances are still great, but you need to make them stretch! for instance, last year my net income was about 30k Canadian (21k USD), which is fantastic when you consider that I mostly made it through writing. but I'm definitely not a millionaire. I can live off my writing (not trying to undersell that!) but I'll probably remain in a low income bracket for the foreseeable future.

this isn't meant to discourage anyone from seeking out writing as a career! however, there is a reason that many authors have alternate jobs with writing on the side. or, you know, rich spouses.

[pangur-and-grim]

this isn't me making a fuss about pirating (I've pirated way too many shows to run my mouth on that lmao), but there IS actually a financial incentive to having people buy your books!

buying books shows the publisher that they can make money off you, which means they're more likely to give you advances for future books. and advances are what authors live off (if they don't have a side job). that's why I always push pre-orders so hard! you have to be a racehorse worth betting on, or else they send you to the glue factory....

if I can offer one alternative to pirating: asking your library to stock the book also helps authors, and doesn't cost anything. the only downside is the patience required.

[pangur-and-grim]

OOPS yes, @stjohnstarling makes a good point! everything I'm saying is from the perspective of traditional publishing, but it's a very different game if you're a self-published author

[gollancz]

I will also add that this is why pre-orders can make a HUGE difference to authors - because if there's enough hype, publishers can pull more levers to build that momentum and reach more readers to help authors earn out their advance faster.

[gudgercollege]

Trad publishing contracts person here to co-sign everything in this post. If you want to support an author you really like but are broke as hell, then you can buy their book when it's discounted, buy it used, borrow it from a friend, or use the library. The first step as an author is to get your book read, not to get it bought. The important thing for you as a reader is to spread the word about how good the book is so the publisher knows the audience is there even if sales aren't spectacular. Piracy of books, especially books from small/indie publishers, means the publisher will print fewer copies of their next book, and sometimes if it's an ongoing series the next books in the series will be canceled, either to be replaced by a book with a different premise or they'll cancel the contract for the next books entirely. The "hack" where you buy the ebook or audiobook and then return it for a credit also takes money directly out of the author's pocket since those payment/royalty systems are set up differently than if you were to buy a book from a bookstore and return it. In that situation the bookstore absorbs that loss, but returning the ebook means the money gets clawed back from the author's advance or royalties and they'll have to earn that back.

Pre-orders and Amazon/Goodreads reviews are used as a gauge by publishers to predict how many copies they are likely to sell and therefore how many copies they want to print. They want to sell most of what they print rather than print too many and end up with a bunch of copies no one wants that they'll have to pay to store or sell at a huge discount or recycle, which is what happens to unsold books. Most publishers have a limited amount of money and manpower to dedicate to any particular book, so if there's a book building up a lot of buzz, that'll give them reason to put their resources towards promoting that book to get a better return on their investment. If the publisher can't make money off a book or author they'll dump them.

Generally, every aspect of the publishing and book industries, including writers, agents, publishing employees, librarians, and booksellers are overworked and underpaid. Unless you're Stephen King or already famous, you don't make money off of books. We do it for sheer love of the game.

Use your library! Publishers have a whole department dedicated to selling their books to libraries and the author gets part of those sales. Increasing circulation of library resources means the libraries can make a better case to get more money from the government to buy more books that you want to read and they're a place to hang out for free. Libraries are the best gift humanity gave itself, use yours as often as possible.

[bedupolker]

Sparklina in: Rawr of the Wild

[wouldyoufuckthisfurry]

Would You Fuck This Furry?

Ludmilla from Bartok the Magnificent

Yes

No

See Results

Remaining time: 1 day 21 hours

Ludmilla is a Russian noblewoman of great influence who arranged the kidnapping of Prince Ivan, as she found his progressive ideals to be a threat to her power, and in his absence, she took the throne. The con artist bat Bartok goes on a mission to try to find the prince, and obtains a magic potion from Baba Yaga that will supposedly help him in his journey, as it will make whatever is in his heart "show ten times on the outside."

This potion is later taken by Ludmilla, who upon consuming it (believing that it would make her more beautiful), became a huge, vicious dragon that terrified her subjects. She was ultimately defeated, because of course she was, but this cunning villainess sure left an impression!

---

There is no nuance button, if your answer is some variation of ‘I would if X’ then the answer is yes.

[weirdgirl247]

every year small towns and indigenous communities across canada are burnt to nothing by horrific wildfires and americans go on the internet to complain about it and blame us bc the smoke has spread to their state. i’m so tired.

go yell at mark carney or your own local politicians about climate change and urge them to do more to stop it. the namaygoosisagagun first nation had their community destroyed today. you can find a link to donate to them here. donate to your local food bank. go to the beach next week when the smoke clears and you don’t have to think about it anymore while the people who’s lives have been destroyed will have to pick up the pieces and try to move forward when we are already in a huge cost of living crisis across the country.

[goldensunset]

>‘this thing is too generic and tropey’

>look inside

>forefather of that genre

[firestorm09890]

[frankbelloriley]

[daysleftofsecondterm]

Forcing myself to believe this is a bit on 916 days left

[thyfl3shconsumed]

Gotta keep em guessing

[gahdamnpunk]

A QUEEN

[bathroom-stall-musings]

Okay, I don’t normally add on to posts but in this case I’ve got to.

Rachel Ann Bovier is a Pittsburgh legend who has been publishing her poems in city newspapers for decades. In more recent years, she started putting up these bill boards along major roads. For what reason? I have no clue. But I would often pass them on my way to Oakland for therapy. They never failed to cheer me up.

As a young trans writer, they gave me this precious little spark of joy. There was someone like me, a writer, a Pittsburgher, a trans person, who was confident enough to put their face on a bill board! I would always smile as we passed by and my mom took note.

Fast forward a few years and it’s my 21st birthday. My mom has been super excited about my gift and teased me about it over and over again. She said it was the best gift she’d ever gotten me and in many ways she was right. It was a custom poem she commissioned from Miss Bouvier! It congratulated me on my birthday, my academic success, lots of little stuff. It was simple and sweet and perfect.

I’m still not out to my parents about being trans, but that poem serves as a reminder to me that trans people are every where, they are artists, they are all ages, and their visibility is essential. So thank you to Rachel Ann Bouvier for being a great poetess and a Pittsburgh treasure!