being kitchen staff and then getting put on register/customer service is an experience that, for both staff and customers, is like watching an animal trapped in a convenience store/other human location
I hate how fandom has become “if you haven’t created anything in this very specific time frame after the release of the show/movie, everyone will have moved on”
And call me old fashioned, but that’s just not me. I sometimes take ages to create and publish. And I will love a show or movie for such a long time (years, babes, years) that I just can’t relate to the fast consumerism that’s going on.
Because, let’s be real, it can get really lonely in a fandom if most have simply moved on to the next shiny thing. Is what’s created less worth, just because it was created outside the hype? Why is it such a taboo for this new fandom generation to love an old or “late” fic or art?
It’s so tiring and I’m too old for the 30-seconds-hype-tiktok-shit. Just tired. So, so tired.
I don’t think anyone appreciates how funny Pope Franics actually is. Imagine being elected to the head of an over the top bad guy organization that would make you the final boss of a jrpg, and you spend your entire time there sitting around and saying things like “maybe we should reconsider our ‘people dying is good’ policy. I’m not saying we should reversethe 'people dying is good’ policy, it’s been our policy for thousands of years after all, but maybe we should, oh I don’t know. Reconsider it.” And every time you do so it causes half of a major world religion to get so pissed off that it almost causes a religious schism
In light of his recent decision, I’d like to let all the tradcaths know this: your entire religion is based around the idea that this guy is god’s main man on earth. If you disagree with the pope, that makes you a protestant lol
This is not normal. We are seeing the early stages of the settler colonial genocide of an indigenous population. Native leaders who have visited Gaza say its refugee camps look eerily like reservations. We can stop this. For the first time we are able to see wide scale accounts from the hands of the people suffering the genocide, and Israel is so scared of it they have cut all communications in Gaza.
This is our litmus test. I think we have never seen more clearly, with Palestine, Armenia, Congo and Sudan how colonialism has made our world a rotten place to live in.
The South African apartheid collapsed due to boycotts. We have to do everything in our power to stop Israel’s hegemony. Even talking to a group of friends about Palestine changes the status quo. There’s no world where we can live peacefully if Israel accomplishes their goals.
Educate yourself. Read into Palestinian history and the occupation. You can’t common sense people out of decades of propaganda. If your arguments crumble when a zionist brings up the “disengagement of Gaza”, you have to learn more.
You can participate in boycotts wherever you are in the world, through BDS guidelines. Don’t be overwhelmed by gigantic boycott lists. BDS explicitly targets only a few brands which have bigger impact. You can stop consuming from as many brands as you want, though, and by all means feel free to give a 1 star review to McDonalds, Papa John, Pizza Hut, Burger King and Starbucks. Right now, they are focusing on boycotting the following:
Palestinian Youth Movement is organizing direct actions to stop the shipping of wars to Israel. Follow them.
Educate yourself. Read into Palestinian history and the occupation. You can’t common sense people out of decades of propaganda. If your arguments crumble when a zionist brings up the “disengagement of Gaza”, you have to learn more.
Verso Book Club is giving out free books on Palestine (I personally downloaded Ten Myths about Israel by Ilan Pappe. If you still believe in the two states solution, this book by an Israeli professor debunks it).
Fuck that post going around saying “you can have coffee in your story without justifying it :) you don’t need to explain everything :)” I want, no, I DEMAND a fully researched ethnobotanical paper on every single food item in your work, if you don’t explain to me where did potatoes come from in your fantasy setting or don’t explain how the industry of coffee works over interstellar distances with full detail you are doing things wrong and I personally hate you and I hate your stupid story, fuck you
Why are your stupid little wizards and knights eating potato stew in your dumb European middle ages fantasy world. Where did they get potatoes from. Where is the center of domestication of potatoes, do you have a fantasy Andean civilization? What are the social and economic consequences of having such a calorie rich crop in cold climates. I don’t care about “themes” or “enemies to lovers with found family”, I didn’t ask about that. Where does your idiot space captain gets their shitty coffee from. Is it imported from Earth? Are there coffee growing worlds? Is it an alien species replacement with the same name? What are the social consequences of that? Don’t try to change the subject, I’ll stop pointing the gun when I want, I’m trying to have a conversation here,
b) things are going badly for the IDF in Gaza. When you’re in control of the battlefield, you tend to have a clear plan for the future because you know what the future actually looks like and how favourable it will be to your position
As you may have seen in my stories, an individual contacted me with this message.
This is absolutely unacceptable. My cover - my art - was fed into an AI generator without my permission to be “reimagined”. I did not give permission for my work to be used in this manner, yet this was stolen to be used in a how-to video on YouTube and possibly elsewhere.
Then, the audacity of this person to think they were doing me a favor by tagging me in said video “so that people could buy it on amazon”. As if this would absolve them of any guilt in stealing my work. And then they sent me the image like that was another favor.
I am all for folks making art about my books, characters, and what not. I am truly honored when someone feels compelled to make something because they were moved by my stories. But AI is not creating.
I am absolutely gutted. What was a lovely morning with my baby has now been tainted by my need to make these statements and work off this visceral feeling in my gut. Instead of spending time cuddling with my child it’s now spent typing this draft to work out some of this anger.
Soul Forgotten is my first book, my first story ever written. The first novel that opened the door for so much more. It’s rough around the edges, the actual cover is a bit cringe now, but at the time when I had some spare change to actually hire someone to make it for me? Freaking amazing. I’ll never forget that feeling. IT’S MINE, those characters are MINE, and that blood, sweat, and tears that went into creating it? MINE.
I have not and will never use AI in the creation of any of my work. Every word you read comes from my hard work - late nights and early mornings and quick moments during the day. I am proud of how much time I’ve spent growing and learning so I can keep making stories that y’all want to read. I love writing, I love creating, and I love doing it with my own hands. End of story.
ALT
