emeryleewho

[emeryleewho]

Bothering the beast

#the level of called out i feel #humor #misc

[emeryleewho]

The devastating difference between how much time it takes to write something vs how fast people read it lol

#also the best part of reading is not the reading itself but the post-reading reflection #I may spend 6 hours reading a book but it'll stay in my mind long past that #you know assuming it left an impression #and I think I'll ultimately spend more time thinking about my favorite stories than I spend writing most of my books #so that's pretty cool #misc #reading #writing

[emeryleewho]

Idk how many people on here actually follow me for my books, but as I've gotten a few asks from readers:

I'll be announcing my next book(s) on May 4th 2024 (the 3rd anniversary of Meet Cute Diary) on my Patreon & through my newsletter. Both are free so if you'd like the update, please subscribe to one of the above. I don't know when the announcement will be available on Tumblr generally. Thanks!

#author #books #meet cute diary #café con lychee

[emeryleewho]

DEAR WENDY IS AN INDIE BESTSELLER!!!!!!

thank you so so much to all the people who made this happen, including my publishing team, the indie bookstores who sold my book, and the readers who bought it from indies nationwide!

this is tumblr so i'll be more real with you. honestly making this list means so much to me because i know all these sales came from word of mouth and individual people's efforts—i wasn't part of any book clubs or subscription boxes, i didn't go mega-viral on tiktok, i wasn't super heavily pushed by my publisher's marketing arm. i did NOT think this would happen at all, i really 100% expected my book to completely fly under the radar and just barely sell enough to make a profit if even that. so thank you thank you thank you!!!!!

#books #dear wendy

[emeryleewho]

There's a dynamic that I really love and it's "character who's super cool, really impressive, everyone highly respects because is so impressive" and then their best friend/sibling/child who just thinks they're the world's biggest fucking loser.

[emeryleewho]

Every other week, someone starts a fight about how it's "unethical" for authors to charge for our books or how pirating is ethical because marginalized people don't have access to stories, but the irony is that every time I offer my stories for free, nobody wants them. I used to offer whole reserves of free-to-read books and no one would read them. I posted about my book that costs $15.99 in paperback and got a couple hundred boosts. I post about my free webcomic and literally not a single person interacts. If you want free stories, there are tons of them. Why are you insistent on taking the ones we need to get paid from? If "free" stories are only valuable to you when they're stolen from working authors struggling to pay the bills then maybe the problem is not accessibility but a separate thing.

[emeryleewho]

bring back tumblr ask culture let me. bother you with questions and statements

#i love questions #just don't start yelling douchey things at me and we're all good

[emeryleewho]

“am i bothering you?” no !!!! i really enjoy hearing you happy about your interests and you deserve to have someone who enjoys listening to you !!!!!

#people who don't care about other people's interests are weak lol #misc

[emeryleewho]

Some people are mistaking my previous Taylor Swift post as being a blind Swiftie devotion post, and I think they missed the point. I’m not a Swiftie. I like some of her songs; others I consider difficult to get through. Do I think she’s a groundbreaking artist who changed the musical landscape? No. Do I think she’s heralding in the apocalypse of intelligent lyricism? Nah.

My purpose was to remind you to evaluate your own judgements and hone the vocabulary to understand your observations and understandings. For example, if you think her lyrics are bad, explain why. I suggest moving away from terms like “good” and “bad” and “mediocre” and writing your own definitions of those empty abstractions anyway.

A few summers ago, a teacher friend of mine was complaining that teens are becoming stupider and stupider because the books they read (if they read at all) are becoming stupider. Like a parrot, I recited a statistic about the national reading level I’d read because I thought that was enough to support our shared claim, but then how easily I’d accepted “teen books are bad” started to bother me.

So I spent the summer making numerous trips to the library and reading all of the top seller books for young teens, and then the more obscure ones too. I made lists about what I liked and what I didn’t and why. I read author bios and about the publishing houses to understand the politics of who gets accepted and who doesn’t. I knew I wasn’t the target audience, but I tried to remember what I loved as a teen myself, and what I love now. Some of the books were unbearably difficult to get through; others made me cry, and I ended up buying them.

Maybe it was a pointless task, and maybe this anecdote is too. But all I’m trying to suggest is that if you’re going to be a critic, you should try to be the best critic you can be - someone who is considerate, who is contemplative, who is fair. I promise you’ll become a better reader and listener this way, and the journey will heighten your own enjoyment of the media you consume.

I’m not trying to be preachy either, so I hope it doesn’t come off that way. Criticism is its own art like any other. It takes time and practice. I’m still learning.

#ah yes #this is the sentiment i'm always trying to convey #'this is good' or 'this is bad' is totally chill for your personal reasons #but it shouldn't be the end of how you think about media #and you shouldn't be making broad sweeping statements like 'manga is bad' or 'ya books are unintelligent' #that's just such an easy way of dismissing all you could actually learn from these things #and all the reasons they became the way they are and all the context behind what purposes they serve #art becomes more enjoyable when you stop trying to dismiss everything as bad #and when you instead let yourself enjoy parts and pieces while learning to grow from the parts you don't like #when you realize that both the 'good' and the 'bad' can actually provide you with a lot all art starts having value #and that's a beautiful thing #media analysis #media literacy

[emeryleewho]

#this to me is like asking what's the best part of a recees cup the peanut butter or the chocolate#it's always about the balance and how the stakes and the characters inform one another#the pieces need to work together and reinforce each other#otherwise just write fantasy or just write romance

I'mma be real, I think this is the only take that I genuinely disagree with (not in like a fuck you kind of way, but just in a "I genuinely feel this argument misses the point" kind of way). Using the reece's cup analogy, this like saying "if you want a double-stuff cup so there's more peanut butter than chocolate you should just be eating peanut butter". Like... what? No, I still want both chocolate and peanut butter, I just like one more than the other? Or I think, when combining these things together, the one offers more to the relationship so I want more of it? Or I think they combine best when it's just a *sprinkling* of the one so that the other can shine? It would still be an entirely different thing to only have the one.

Even in a romantasy where the fantasy elements are largely just accessories to the romance or where the story focuses more on the warring kingdoms than the kissing, the story would still be fundamentally different if you made it conform to one genre or the other. Genres exist on a wide spectrum. Tuck, Everlasting without the fantasy elements would not be the same story. Beauty and the Beast without the fantasy elements would not be the same story. The Untamed without the romantic elements would not be the same story. Yet the angles these stories take as far as which framing the plot leans into are starkly different, and the experience as the audience is starkly different because of these choices, but they're all still within the realm of a "fantasy romance".

So I deleted my romantasy poll, not because people were being pedantic, as is usually the problem, but because almost all of the reblog replies included people saying that a story can't function with a romance as a main plot and reducing romance to things that are not at all what romance as a genre is actually about, and that was enough to tell me that at least a decent number of votes were from people who objectively do not like romance as a genre, which also meant they were literally the people I told to not vote in the poll, as it was a poll about fantasy romance and not about fantasy, as these are two different genres.

Anyway, if you're seeing this post and you read romantasy, as herein defined as "a romance story set in a fantasy world", which do you find yourself more invested in--the relationship between the main ship or the fantasy elements? Do you prefer the story to be driven by a "fantasy"-type plot, i.e. "clan wars" but where the romance is a pivotal aspect of that, or do you prefer the story be driven by a "romance"-type plot, i.e. "rivals to lovers" but against a fantasy backdrop?

You cannot have a fantasy romance in which the romance is not pivotal to the plot, so again, if that is the kind of fantasy you like, you enjoy *fantasy*, NOT *fantasy romance*, so I do not need to hear from you. I already know what you like. Thanks ^.^

#romantasy

[emeryleewho]

Same guy different time ⏳

#oooh this is so fun!! #art #cool stuff

[emeryleewho]

The thing that abled people who advocate for the disabled community don’t get is that there are times when disabilities/accommodations clash. Horribly.

Like I spent years having to come up with a solution to get therapy dogs into a series of residence halls. Why years? Because we had to decide who got to stay and who got to leave: the people who needed therapy dogs or the people with severe allergies to animals. Who got the alternative housing? 

Things like fidget toys might seem great for some disabled people but having them in the room could be distracting/overstimulating for others. The same goes with stimming. It can’t be helped but neither can the anxiety that another person in the room feels as they watch/hear it. Additionally, something like a weighted blanket might immediately calm one kid down and send the other one into a panic attack due to the claustrophobia it causes. (*Points to myself*)

Every Metro bus in New York City has a series of seats at the front that can be lifted up to accommodate people in wheelchairs but if I’m in one of those spots then someone with a cane/walker has to journey even further to sit down.

The flashing lights of a fire alarm are there to help deaf/hearing impaired but if they’re not properly timed, they can also cause a person to have a seizure.

The worst part about all of these is that there is rarely a concrete solution that makes everyone happy/safe. And I’m not here to offer any because I don’t know them. I’m just here to remind you all that as you’re taking your education/health classes, as you’re reading your textbooks, as you’re preparing to go be an advocate, just remember that there is rarely ever such a thing as a one-size-fits-all solution to advocacy and that something you do that can help one disabled person might actually hinder another.

Food for thought.

#and this applies to more than just disability too but i'm not gonna derail #psa #disability

[emeryleewho]

So I deleted my romantasy poll, not because people were being pedantic, as is usually the problem, but because almost all of the reblog replies included people saying that a story can't function with a romance as a main plot and reducing romance to things that are not at all what romance as a genre is actually about, and that was enough to tell me that at least a decent number of votes were from people who objectively do not like romance as a genre, which also meant they were literally the people I told to not vote in the poll, as it was a poll about fantasy romance and not about fantasy, as these are two different genres.

Anyway, if you're seeing this post and you read romantasy, as herein defined as "a romance story set in a fantasy world", which do you find yourself more invested in--the relationship between the main ship or the fantasy elements? Do you prefer the story to be driven by a "fantasy"-type plot, i.e. "clan wars" but where the romance is a pivotal aspect of that, or do you prefer the story be driven by a "romance"-type plot, i.e. "rivals to lovers" but against a fantasy backdrop?

You cannot have a fantasy romance in which the romance is not pivotal to the plot, so again, if that is the kind of fantasy you like, you enjoy *fantasy*, NOT *fantasy romance*, so I do not need to hear from you. I already know what you like. Thanks ^.^

#if you show up in my mentions just saying that romance cannot carry a story I'm blocking you #everyone else feel free to interact #romance #romance books #romancelandia #romantasy

[emeryleewho]

this is a way better model... you'll still get transphobic & intersexist drs of course but i prefer this to male / female or even having separate questions for gender & sex.

[we can't see the full form, but i'd suggest having a "something else" option and dominant hormone question too.]

#this stuff #psa #trans stuff #intersex stuff

[emeryleewho]

Does anyone else do this

when I'm writing a character sometimes I'll go ooooh this character has really adhd/bisexual/trans vibs, I'll headcanon them as-WAIT I'm the author I can just MAKE them adhd/bisexual/trans. Becuase I swear my most neurodivergent, queerest most mentally ill ocs just started out as average vanilla bean people.

#i actually headcanon my characters as things a lot #because if i don't write it into canon explicitly i usually consider it a headcanon #but a lot of times i don't care to make it explicit #i just don't like the checklist-y nature of having to name everything? #like i don't need to tell everyone my gender to be very loudly my gender #so my characters don't need a formal label to be very explicitly whatever identity they have #but i also think that if someone who has a different label feels equally connected to that character #then that's super cute and i don't need to deprive them of that by telling them what i think #i like letting people draw their own thinks because thinking is (usually) fun #misc #characters #ocs #media analysis

[emeryleewho]

I don’t know who this guy is but I’m obsessed with him and have been scrolling through his reviews for the past half hour

#okay but legit the second i see a bio like that i'm like 'cool i'll respect whatever you say' #bc this is blatantly a man who is not taking anything seriously and i'm vibing with that #a shit opinion the shitter knows is shit is actually just quality shit #media analysis #humor

[emeryleewho]

"In a historic “first-of-its-kind” agreement the government of British Colombia has acknowledged the aboriginal ownership of 200 islands off the west coast of Canada.

The owners are the Haida nation, and rather than the Canadian government giving something to a First Nation, the agreement admits that the “Xhaaidlagha Gwaayaai” or the “islands at the end of world,” always belonged to them, a subtle yet powerful difference in the wording of First Nations negotiating.

BC Premier David Eby called the treaty “long overdue” and once signed, will clear the way for half a million hectares (1.3 million acres) of land to be managed by the Haida.

Postal service, shipping lanes, school and community services, private property rights, and local government jurisdiction, will all be unaffected by the agreement, which will essentially outline that the Haida decide what to do with the 200 or so islands and islets.

“We could be facing each other in a courtroom, we could have been fighting each other for years and years, but we chose a different path,” said Minister of Indigenous Relations of BC, Murray Rankin at the signing ceremony, who added that it took creativity and courage to “create a better world for our children.”

Indeed, making the agreement outside the courts of the formal treaty process reflects a vastly different way of negotiating than has been the norm for Canada.

“This agreement won’t only raise all boats here on Haida Gwaii – increase opportunity and prosperity for the Haida people and for the whole community and for the whole province – but it will also be an example and another way for nations – not just in British Columbia, but right across Canada – to have their title recognized,” said Eby.

In other words, by deciding this outside court, Eby and the province of BC hope to set a new standard for how such land title agreements are struck."

-via Good News Network, April 18, 2024

#wow this is nice to hear #good news #politics