Product Placement
i don't do bad sauce passes
d e v o n
blake kathryn
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TVSTRANGERTHINGS
JBB: An Artblog!
Today's Document
art blog(derogatory)
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
#extradirty
Three Goblin Art
dirt enthusiast
occasionally subtle
almost home
AnasAbdin
we're not kids anymore.
NASA
Stranger Things
taylor price
seen from Italy
seen from Spain
seen from Australia
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Malaysia
seen from Australia
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from France
seen from Singapore
seen from Greece
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Japan
seen from India
seen from Türkiye
seen from Mexico
seen from India
seen from Singapore
seen from India
@thisisoutofcustody
real paramedic x golden retriever firefighter AU energy with this
kinda wanna write that now.
Golden retriever firefighter and black-cat paramedic
firefighter tripping over themselves to "be strong(TM)"
paramedic eating pretzels and observing with a "no one touches my firefighter but me" air
Over the past few months, I’ve been creating guides to writing, editing, and bookselling on Medium. I’ve tried to take the chance to…well, not sum up everything I know. These articles can run long enough as it is! But to at least share my thoughts and experience.
I hope they prove helpful, and please feel free to share them with others you know who might use them and to ask questions or leave comments about things I didn’t address!
Writing with a Zero Draft – My latest post is a guide to steady productivity for writers using a low-pressure and fluid approach that’s less formal than outlines but more ambitious than the “messy first draft”: the Zero Draft, notes to myself that I rewrite into something story-shaped. Maybe it will work for you too!
Supporting the Small Presses and Authors You Want to Read More From: A Guide That Sometimes Gets Ranty – This is part 1 of a series I always intended to write, a guided tour of my experience publishing and selling books as an independent author and micro-press publisher (with the New Smut Project). It became a bit of a vent post about censorship, because most of the sales platforms I’ve used and enjoyed in the past turned out unworkable with policy changes around erotic content. (As an update from months down the line: one platform I’ve considered for future NSP anthologies, Kickstarter, recently had its own controversy around mature content guidelines – which it updated under pressure from the payment processor Stripe, then rescinded in response to concern from the creative community it serves. Now mature content on Kickstarter is in a kind of limbo, where you can run a Kickstarter to fund an adult project…so long as Stripe doesn’t stop you. Another platform I’m looking at, Payhip, has been good for many erotica and romance authors, but it processes payments through Stripe, too. I’ve set up a Ko-fi and am using it to offer editing services as commissions, and I’ve put some of my ebooks up in a store on my page, but Ko-fi has incredibly restrictive mature content guidelines – even fuzzy padded handcuffs are too extreme for them.)
My letter to payment processors – A slightly too long and polite template to payment processors asking them to adopt more reasonable policies around sales of “adult” content. Feel free to use it as a base for your own complaints and demands! I also share links to other resources around this campaign.
Where to Publish and Buy Books in 2026: Options for Indie Authors, Small Publishers, and Their Fans – Part 2 of my guide to publishing and selling books, this summarizes my experience with various ebook and paperback distributors and shares advice for writers who’d like to get started in self-publishing.
11 Favors You Can Do for Your Favorite Writer – This is part 3 of my guide to publishing and selling books, looking at the reader’s perspective on ways to boost a book, a writer, or a small press you love.
please don’t believe me when i say that i won’t start writing a new thing as long as i have unfinished work, because i’m lying…
but i’m having fun sooo, it makes it okay, no?
Chapters: 4/62 Fandom: 薬屋のひとりごと | Kusuriya no Hitorigoto | The Apothecary Diaries (Anime), 薬屋のひとりごと - 日向夏 | Kusuriya no Hitorigoto | The Apothecary Diaries - Hyuuga Natsu, 薬屋のひとりごと | Kusuriya no Hitorigoto | The Apothecary Diaries (Manga) Rating: Not Rated Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Gaoshun & Maomao (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Gaoshun/Maomao (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto) Characters: Gaoshun (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Maomao (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Basen (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Jinshi (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Original Characters, Lakan (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Lihaku (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dom/Sub, Naturalized Dominance Hierarchy, Slow Burn, Military, Slow Romance, Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 CE) Summary:
In the dying light of the day, the silk clung like a lie.
It was meant to whisper delicacy, submission. To flutter with every movement as if even her breath were pliant. The scraps of the fabric were sparse and strategically placed, high slits that would hint at the skin underneath, belted tightly under a bust that was modest on the best of days to give a hint of the shape underneath.
"She's the gift?" A voice, rough with too much smoke, hummed appreciatively.
"Looks soft enough to me." Another, laced with something darker, answered. She didn’t lift her head to look where it came from.
That was bad form for any submissive, but especially stupid for a person who didn’t want to garner more attention. If, indeed, such a thing was possible in her current situation.
"Think she kneels sweet, or is it all attitude under that paint?"
Someone laughed.
NEW CHAPTER UPDATE! :)
It always somehow helps me, when I'm stuck in a rut, to listen to what writers say about writing. It is always somehow inspiring, through words, through prompts, through their lives and makes me want to write. If you're similar, I want to give you the chance to listen to the interview between David Perell and Anne Lamott - I've had it running this morning while I was just doing life-things and getting up and about again, but I took some new things from it. Give it a try.
Sigh. At least I have this.
Bad writing is great!!!!
Bad writing means you took the time to write something, you, a real human being. It means you created something! And you have the awareness to see that there's room for improvement, too!!!
Bad writing is wonderful!!! Bad writing is a platform from which you can build your masterpiece! Bad writing is the backbone of good writing!
Give yourself permission to write badly. No, actually- give yourself permission to write something TERRIBLE. Give yourself permission to write such drivel that you can barely read it.
Nothing comes out a masterpiece the first time!! You think Isaac Asimov never wrote a total stinker he had to rebuild from the ground up? You think Jules Verne never wrote utter slop for a first draft?
WRITE SOMETHING AWFUL!!! Write something so bad you cringe about it years later!!! And then when that's done, write some more!!!!!
currently struggling with my WIP -- thought this might be appropriate for everyone else who is also struggling
Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: 薬屋のひとりごと | Kusuriya no Hitorigoto | The Apothecary Diaries (Anime), 薬屋のひとりごと - 日向夏 | Kusuriya no Hitorigoto | The Apothecary Diaries - Hyuuga Natsu, 薬屋のひとりごと | Kusuriya no Hitorigoto | The Apothecary Diaries (Manga), 薬屋のひとりごと | Kusuriya no Hitorigoto | The Apothecary Diaries - All Media Types Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Gaoshun & Maomao (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Jinshi & Maomao (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Gaoshun & Jinshi (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Gaoshun/Taomei (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto) Characters: Gaoshun (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Maomao (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Jinshi (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Emperor (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Western Capital 2 (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Post Bride-show, Choking, not the sexy kind, Physical Harm, choking scene, iykyk, fatherfigure Gaoshun, papaGao, Jinshi is bad at feelings, Maomao is Bad at Feelings, Jinshi stop, Jinshi Stop Touching Her Summary:
Gaoshun stepped closer. “We will adjust,” he said simply.
They would. Xiaomao and him. Xiaomao and Taomei and him.
His girl. His apothecary to worry about. His survivor to care for.
He found himself thinking of the years behind them, of the countless small moments. Zuigetsu leaning too close, voice soft with implication. Zuigetsu’s eyes following Maomao like she was the only thing in a crowded room that made sense. Zuigetsu’s stubborn insistence that she was his, even when he framed it as a joke. Gaoshun had assumed it was harmless, an indulgence turned sincere, a young man’s first real desire. He had assumed, perhaps foolishly, that desire would make Zuigetsu gentler, because he wanted her to stay.
His mind replayed the earlier scene from different angles, searching for the moment where he might have prevented it. Had he missed signs? Had Zuigetsu’s courtship always contained this shadow? Had Gaoshun been so focused on guarding the throne from outsiders that he failed to see the threat within?
Happy Valentine's Day! Remember that this date celebrates all kinds of love, not just romantic. We live in a society where romance is seen as the "ultimate goal", in spite of being totally optional. Friendships, familial love, qprs, etc are not lesser than romantic relationships and will never be, no matter how hard the media tries to convince us. It's of utmost importance that we all kick amatonormativity in the ass today!!! So say it with me FUCK AMATONORMATIVITY!!!!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: 薬屋のひとりごと | Kusuriya no Hitorigoto | The Apothecary Diaries (Anime), 薬屋のひとりごと - 日向夏 | Kusuriya no Hitorigoto | The Apothecary Diaries - Hyuuga Natsu, 薬屋のひとりごと | Kusuriya no Hitorigoto | The Apothecary Diaries (Manga), 薬屋のひとりごと | Kusuriya no Hitorigoto | The Apothecary Diaries - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Gaoshun/Maomao (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Emperor/Gyokuyou/Lihua, Basen/Jinshi (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Lishu/Xiaolan (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto) Characters: Gaoshun (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Maomao (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Gyokuyou (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Lihua (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Emperor (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Loulan | Shisui (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Suirei (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto) Additional Tags: Palentine's, Found Family, The Emperor's Name is Yoh, Gaoshun and Maomao are Friendgroup Parents, No Beta We Live Dangerously, Nonbinary Character, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Changing POVs Summary:
The campus looked like it had broken out in hives. If Maomao saw as much red in her ER as she did in the campus that day, she'd have suited up in a hazmat suit already.
There was red everywhere.
Pustulous balloons popped up over railings. Anatomically incorrect hearts were taped to glass doors and people were walking carefully as to not crush cellphane-wrapped evidence of floral murder. Someone had hired a student band to blast love-songs in the quad. The singer was enthusiastically off-key.
Maomao wished she'd brought ear-plugs.
Character concept:
A medieval European knight who's asexual, and being a product of his time, place and station, is also a complete dickhead. Being well-educated and passably good-looking, he has made a hobby out of the ideals of courtly love, charming and seducing impressionable noblewomen with absolutely zero intention to ever actually consummate the relationships, instead using them as excuses to also not engage in any other sexual activities. While the other knights think it's weird, it's not undignified or the wrong kind of weird to refuse to visit brothels because he's remaining pure and loyal to this one random bored and lonely married woman whose husband cannot prove anything that'd justify killing this guy.
The knight is just notoriously the most pure, chaste and virtuous rampant manwhore that anyone knows. His confessional priest has repeatedly told him to stop fucking doing this, to the response of "lmao no". The only person who doesn't either ardently love or madly hate this guy is a random stablehand who happens to look a lot like him, and has ploughed through an impressive amount of noblewomen who figured that he resembles the knight enough to suffice as a substitute.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: 薬屋のひとりごと | Kusuriya no Hitorigoto | The Apothecary Diaries (Anime), 薬屋のひとりごと - 日向夏 | Kusuriya no Hitorigoto | The Apothecary Diaries - Hyuuga Natsu, 薬屋のひとりごと | Kusuriya no Hitorigoto | The Apothecary Diaries (Manga) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Emperor/Gyokuyou (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Emperor/Lihua (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Ah Duo/Emperor (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto) Characters: Emperor (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto) Additional Tags: Character Study, Polyamorous Character, Polyamory, Exploration of a Headcanon, No Beta Summary:
"Gathering Together is a hexagram that shows interdependency and people coming together because of a shared ideal. "
Yoh knows that there are children beyond the walls of the Rear Palace, who learn early which wells run dry first, who wear the same robe through three seasons because cloth is dear and bodies grow whether one wishes them to or not. Children who grow up hungry, empty-bellied. Thin-limbed, gangly persons who learn early how to make a meal last one bite longer than it should have to.
(The knoweldge makes his silks itch sometimes. Makes the gold of his halls feel heavy and false. He cannot fix all problems, even though he wishes he could. If he truly has the power of Heaven as his ministers claim then he should be able to fix at least such trifles. Or if Heaven truly favors him the way they say it does then, at the very least, it could spare him this one cruelty: to see too clearly the limits of his own reach.)
From the outside, the palace and the throne must look wonderful. Must seem like unattainable paradise; like the end of want.
Still.
Being Emperor is difficult.
I've also seen someone in the tags recently that accused the Emperor of being a groomer, specifically for Gyokuyou and I just *muffled scream*
I swear to.... they're so close to understanding the problem with the Rear Palace with that, but they are so hung up on the need for the issue to be 'Man Evil' that they can't see the forest for the one single tree.
Like, yes, Gyokuyou and Lihua and many other young ladies sent to the Rear Palace were, in fact, explicitly and knowingly groomed from childhood to be consort and bed-mate to the Emperor of the nation - but not by the Emperor (who likely didn't know any of them before they entered the Palace - but by their families. As a political play.
Because the problem's systematic. Because it's not an absolute monarchy - it's a bureaucracy centered around a royal family. There are certain things that the royal family members are just not able to do because of the politics inherent to their actions and free love is one of them. Especially when it comes to who gets to be the Empress.
And the Rear Palace is all the worse for having been stewing for centuries - being constantly pushed and pulled by those politics and sometimes fully warped by selfish, incompetent, actual groomer pedophiles like the Former Emperor.
It's not even clear if the Emperor's even all that jazzed about having to have sex with women half his age (teenagers by our own value - recently entered adulthood ladies with a questionable, but not unheard of age gap by Li's society's value). They're just who gets thrown at him.
TDLR: yeah, shit's fucked in the Rear Palace - it's just not because of the one guy who's currently inherited it.
Itched at my brain a little and poked at the HC I've had for a while that Yoh is consentingly polyamorous with Lihua, Gyokuyou and Ah-Duo.
Wrote a thing.
Have fun.
45: Cuì - Gathering Together
Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: 薬屋のひとりごと | Kusuriya no Hitorigoto | The Apothecary Diaries (Anime), 薬屋のひとりごと - 日向夏 | Kusuriya no Hitorigoto | The Apothecary Diaries - Hyuuga Natsu, 薬屋のひとりごと | Kusuriya no Hitorigoto | The Apothecary Diaries (Manga) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Emperor/Gyokuyou (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Emperor/Lihua (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Ah Duo/Emperor (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto) Characters: Emperor (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto) Additional Tags: Character Study, Polyamorous Character, Polyamory, Exploration of a Headcanon, No Beta Summary:
"Gathering Together is a hexagram that shows interdependency and people coming together because of a shared ideal. "
Yoh knows that there are children beyond the walls of the Rear Palace, who learn early which wells run dry first, who wear the same robe through three seasons because cloth is dear and bodies grow whether one wishes them to or not. Children who grow up hungry, empty-bellied. Thin-limbed, gangly persons who learn early how to make a meal last one bite longer than it should have to.
(The knoweldge makes his silks itch sometimes. Makes the gold of his halls feel heavy and false. He cannot fix all problems, even though he wishes he could. If he truly has the power of Heaven as his ministers claim then he should be able to fix at least such trifles. Or if Heaven truly favors him the way they say it does then, at the very least, it could spare him this one cruelty: to see too clearly the limits of his own reach.)
From the outside, the palace and the throne must look wonderful. Must seem like unattainable paradise; like the end of want.
Still.
Being Emperor is difficult.
Chinese hanfu and armor
