#the new best niche rare pair in town

[durotoswrites]

For the writing meme thingy: 🍄how do you get yourself in the mood to write? 🍑 do you/would you write smut? 📒 any fics planned?

🍄 How do you get yourself in the mood to write?

Getting in the mood to write and actually wanting to sit down and start writing are two very different things, but they're connected, so I'll explain both.

To set into “creative mode” it helps me to do these things:

Listen to music that makes me think of a character/situation in my story/stories. I've got playlists separated by character and pairing. Sometimes I also just work on curating those playlists for fun and get my brain going.

Bounce overall ideas off of my friends and husband/editor (but he's my best friend, too 💗)

Reread old chapters or recent ones and future snippets based on what I want to do.

Once I actually want to put words down, I get a little more strict with myself. I get distracted verrrry easily sometimes and I have to fight the urge to open a million more tabs when researching a small detail.

I move to instrumental music (I have playlists for different moods like “emotional”, “soft”, “sad”, etc. I usually listen to “soft” as a general soothing background sound, as I can get pretty dang emotional when I write, especially with the stuff I've been churning out lately.

So, yeah, I need tissues within reach if I get upset. (Wow, I'm not making this sound fun at all, lmao)

After sound has been established, I like to eat a snack (something with protein) because I can be under for hours, lol. Eat it and finish it. Otherwise, I get distracted.

I also like to have drinks available. I always have a bottle of water, but I also like having a hot cup of tea. I think it's the time of year for me to switch to cold barley tea.

I write while seated on a recliner with my feet up. I have my laptop on a lap desk and it's a pretty cozy setup.

I basically try to remove any excuse I have to get up once I start writing, because I am the worst procrastinator I know.

🍑Do you/would you write smut?

Heheh... heck yeah, I do. Waaaaay more than most people realize. Stuff I've actually posted? It's pretty limited. I posted a couple pieces (Let Me Love You and You're Like the Sunshine) a few years ago, but I've been practicing ever since. One of my planned stories literally has what I refer to as a “smut dump” in the draft where I've been experimenting with writing different moods. I like the intimate scenes to play a role in the overall plot or have it be a bonding experience.

Despite that, I do have a shameless Gray x Mary story I should just get out there that has zero plot, just two cuties in love. In my mind it's so naughty and kinky and I get flustered thinking about it (Mary is hot, okay?), but it's probably hella vanilla, lmao. I really am grateful that people have been really supportive about my writing smut despite what I usually write, and they've been so encouraging, too! I honestly feel like the smut I've posted is really stilted because I was so self-conscious about it. I don't feel like they are terrible for first attempts, but I have definitely grown more comfortable writing it.

Will The Shy Newcomer become explicit? I kinda really want it to, but I might separate the chapters for those who don't care for that content. Overall, I'd like to write more and post more, and I want to write more than just male x female smut as well. I have some of those in my planned pieces (more about them later).

📒 Any Fics Planned?

Firstly, I'm super tickled more than one person was interested in this. I copied the answer I wrote earlier.

Short answer: Yes. I also plan to bring more of my stories over from ffn to Ao3.

Long answer under the cut, heheh. I rambled quite a bit.

Ask me about my writing processes and stories!

I have so many WIPs that haven’t been touched in years that I’d like to finish, so new planned fics aren’t posted yet. Some of them have more adult themes than most of the stuff I’ve been writing, so I get flustered sharing them. I’ve been at a crossroads, as I feel that you can’t have growth without changing things up. On the other hand, I feel like a lot of my readers associate my works with a specific “wholesome” feel-good mood. It’s kinda nice to be known for something, although that might just be my ego talking, thinking that people recognize my work as a “type”.

Regardless, in the end, I feel growth is necessary.

I don’t want to leave a lot of unfinished WIPs waiting because they stress me out and I have too many of them already, so I’d like to have a bulk of my new stories with a good chunk written before I decide to post them.

Among those include:

A longfic featuring Pete’s farm in Forget-Me-Not Valley (A blend of HMDS with the FoMT plugin and AWL). It takes place in the same universe as The Shy Newcomer (Claire in Mineral Town) and there are a few overlapping moments, although Pete’s story starts first. Pete’s personality is verrry different from Claire’s, and his story was kind of supposed to be the yang to TSN’s yin. Pete’s best friends in his story are Ruby (not sure if I’m adding Tim yet), Nami, and Rock. Readers will be treated to a poorly-socialized pre-Mineral Town Cliff (if you think he was bad at the beginning of TSN, well… heh… he’s a wreck here).

Another planned unpublished story is a crossover of Harvest Moon and the movie “In This Corner of the World”, based on a manga of the same name by Fumiyo Kouno. It was written as a gift for a friend. I have the entire outline figured out and have slowly been filling it in. My friend asked for an AU where Claire and Cliff have an arranged marriage and live with his family in Akiyama, the hometown I had created for Cliff in The Shy Newcomer. I took the opportunity to expand the characters in his family. I have it written during the same time period and society as “In This Corner of the World”, but had decided to write a spreading disease as an allegory for war, but then COVID happened and some parts of it just got really hard to write. There are also a lot of sexually explicit content as Claire slowly grows and learns from her spouse that it’s okay to express what she wants despite sex being a taboo issue. If there’s enough interest in the story, I’ll post it, but I worry it’s a little too niche for there to be many people into it.

Pastor Carter and Doctor Trent are one of my favorite rare pair ships. I’ve had a partial draft for a story about them for a few years now, especially focusing on Trent growing up and acknowledging that he has an unhealthy addiction for things that he knows he can’t have. There are some more adult/sexual themes in this piece, too, including the main character lusting after a married woman (who also happens to be his patient) and some lemons. (Does anyone call it that anymore or is it just referred to as “smut” nowadays? Haha) I always feel so bad for neglecting the folks at the clinic in-game and wanted to write a piece that focused more on them, Trent specifically. It’s a multi-chap fic, but I don’t think I’m going to let it get as long as some of my other pieces.

I also really want to write a short romantic oneshot for every marriage candidate in Mineral Town, around 1,000 words each. So far, I have one for Cliff and one for Gray. I want to write Claire with everyone, because I think it would be fun to explore all the different personalities.

I have more installments planned for A Single Day, including a day in the life of the following characters, all with drafts in varying degrees of progress:

Anna

Doug

Nora (yes, I’m writing from the point of view of the cat living at the inn)

More to come – I think Lillia and Thomas would be especially interesting to explore

I do still have that Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask piece I’ve been pondering where Link befriends the soul of the deku scrub child while possessed by the mask. I don’t have much written about it, but I really love the world of Majora’s Mask. Such a fun game.

I also think about the lead carpenter’s son in Ocarina of Time and that weird side quest involving the blue chicken and the son being lost to the forest. Then that unique-looking kokiri girl explaining that all who get taken in the lost woods become stalfos. Like, did the guy die? Was he sick? Did he want to die? There’s just so much going on there that would be fun to explore.

I also have played OMORI recently and have like… A LOT of feelings about it. I don’t know what I’d write, but I’m still damn impressed at how well the characters are developed in such a short game.

Other games I’ve had vague ideas about writing for include the following:

The Flame in the Flood: I’m thinking a survivalist/action story fleshing out Scout’s backstory a bit more and her thoughts as she’s traveling. I feel like she’s a very lonely person, but isn’t given the chance to really dwell on it.

Night In the Woods: I’d love to write more about Mae’s dreams and what they mean to her. She doesn’t really talk to anyone about them openly, so it’s really hard to tell her feelings about them in some regards. We know that she’s distressed about them, but I’d like to dive a little deeper. Do the nightmares end after the games does? What about Bea’s new nightmares?

Hades (Supergiant Games): I think it would be fun to write more about the events that take place before the game starts, like Zagreus’s duties in the house of Hades, and expand on the strained relationship with his father.

#ask games #writing #jake-marshall

[inkedstarlight]

Bittersweet: Chapter One

Summary: Nesta up and moved the minute she graduated high school. Now, seven years later, her father has died. After years of separation, Nesta is now living in the same city as her sisters, with Elain as her roommate. Feyre introduces Elain and Nesta to the Inner Circle. But they're missing a certain member... Cassian returns to the Marine Corps to find two new members of the Inner Circle. He pushes Nesta's buttons more than anyone ever has. Cue heavy angst, mutual pining, and a very, very slow burn. Note: So I’m reposting this because I made a lot of changes to the fic and just wanted to start fresh. I had deleted the last things I posted for it, but now it’s officially here! I also just uploaded it on AO3 too, and you can read chapter one here! Warnings: heavy angst Bittersweet Masterlist

June

Nesta was accepted into graduate school today, and she didn’t know whether to cry or smile.

To throw a pity party or a celebration.

To be or not to be.

She was trifling through her mail this morning when she saw the large envelope with the words ‘Prythian University’ printed front and center. She wasted no time ripping it open, and a gasp left her mouth when she read the first sentence.

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into the Master’s program of English at Prythian University.

She had grabbed her phone to tell someone about the news, but her smile quickly faded when she realized she had no one to call, no one to celebrate with. No one to tell her, “I’m proud of you.”

Nesta had scrolled through her contact list, which consisted of only fourteen people. Fourteen people and not one of them close enough with her to warrant such a text. Heart sinking in her chest, Nesta slammed her phone on the coffee table and fell on the couch. A lump formed in her throat, but she refused to let a single tear shed.

But she was in no position to complain. Nesta chose to move away. She chose to be alone. She was the only person to blame for her own unhappiness.  

Nesta had lived in the dreary state of Massachusetts since she graduated high school, leaving her family behind in Maine. The place that conjured nightmares, that was teeming with ghosts. Every corner she turned in her hometown, she was met face to face with her past – the one she so desperately tried to forget. Her family had lived there since Nesta was born. They didn’t have the funds to move to a better town or a bigger house. Up to this point, Nesta’s entire life happened in that horrible town.

Her younger sister, Elain, cried when Nesta announced her decision to move to Massachusetts for college. Feyre’s eyes remained dry, but she wished Nesta good luck.

Nesta and her two sisters had been close as little girls. Sure, they were wildly different from each other – Elain was intelligent and soft-spoken, Feyre creative and stubborn, Nesta hot-headed and brash. They argued. They resented each other in ways sisters did. But they looked out for each other. Since Nesta was just five years old, she did everything she could to protect her sisters, whether they knew it or not.

When Nesta was just fourteen years old, their mother left them. She walked out of the door forever, and everything changed. Elain was crushed but she continued to look out for their father, whose depression worsened when his wife left without saying goodbye. Feyre took her absence the hardest. She had the closest relationship with their mother as the baby of the family, relying on her more than her other sisters. Feyre was the last one to see her. Apparently, their mother made her promise to look out for the rest of the family. She said Feyre was the only one who could do it. And because Feyre was stubborn to a fault, she kept that promise every damned day.

And Nesta? Nesta was relieved and confused and angry and heartbroken. She still was.

So, when Nesta left for college, she promised that she would keep in touch with Elain and Feyre. They all promised. However, they inevitably got busy with their own lives and grew apart. When Elain graduated high school just two years after Nesta, she chose to remain in Maine to tend to their sick father. She attended community college, even though she’d dreamed of being a pediatrician since she was just nine years old. She sacrificed her opportunity for a higher education, and Nesta admired her for that. At the same time, however, she also wanted more for her sister. She had a habit of being too selfless. Always giving, never receiving.

Just a year later, Feyre became the last to graduate. She too flew from the nest, heading west to Colorado. Nesta wasn’t the only one who had a distaste for their hometown. Feyre was born an adventurer. She wants to explore, create, travel. More importantly, Feyre was doing something for herself. Feyre had assumed the role of provider when their mother left them in their youth. At only thirteen, she managed to find a job, and continued to do so until she was eighteen. Feyre had grand plans to visit every New England state during her high school career. She wouldn’t shut up about the places she would see, the people she would meet.

Feyre didn’t stepped foot outside of Maine until she graduated.

The only person Nesta completely cut loose was her father. Elain and Feyre had tried to rationalize with her about this many times, but Nesta put an end to every discussion.

Elain was very close with their father. Feyre was neutral. Nesta resented him. She knew they judged her for that, even if it wasn’t explicitly said. She also understood their reasoning.

They just didn’t understand hers.

Last Nesta heard, Feyre had found her niche at college. Back when they called more often, she had gushed about her new friends and latest conquest. His name was Rhysand (to which Nesta sniggered – who named their child that?), and the pair had recently begun dating after a year of pining for one another. Nesta told her that their love story sounded like the kind of fanfiction she (shamefully) loved. From what Feyre told her, it sounded like she was head over heels, despite her sarcastic deflections.

That was two years ago.

Of course, Nesta had spoken to both her sisters since then. It was rare for them to call, but they would share occasional text conversations. Just last month, Nesta texted Feyre to congratulate her on graduating Summa Cum Laude. It didn’t go much beyond that, though.

Nesta and Elain’s text message history was quite sad to look through. Once a month, Elain would send her an update on their father’s wellbeing. Nesta would not respond. The next month, she would receive another update. No response.

It never angered Nesta to see those texts; it only saddened her.

Elain wore her heart on her sleeve, ever the peacemaker in the family. Her intentions were pure, but she didn’t know the story of Nesta and their father’s relationship. She’d asked, but Nesta was always quick to shut her down.

Despite their one-sided texting, Elain called Nesta every couple of months. It was awkward, but it warmed Nesta’s heart to hear her sister’s voice. Their calls never lasted more than ten minutes, Nesta the one to end the conversation. When they hung up, however, guilt crushed her. Nesta was slowly losing everyone she loved, and it was entirely her fault.

After Nesta had gotten her undergraduate degree in Massachusetts, she worked at two minimum wage jobs for three years to save up enough money to pay for grad school (along with several loans). Her first choice, Prythian University, happened to be just outside of Boulder, the town where Feyre was living. It was also one of the best graduate schools for an English degree in the country.

Nesta considered telling Feyre her news. Obviously, she had to share it at some point. But anxiety crept into her chest whenever she picked up her phone to tell her. What if Feyre wasn’t happy about it? What if she didn’t want Nesta living near her? She had created her own life in a new state. Nesta couldn’t just interrupt after years of shutting her out.

After spending the entire day overthinking, Nesta decided to venture downtown in the evening for a small, lonesome celebration. She would treat herself to a drink (or two), go home, and read a romance novel or two while Iroh, her black, grumpy cat, snuggled in her lap.

So, there she was. Sitting at the local bar, legs crossed as she people watched. Nesta had even dressed up for the occasion. She wore a dress that fell to her ankles, the forest green color complimenting her golden-brown hair. Her arm sleeve tattoo was on full display, and her other ink that disappeared beneath her dress. Dark kohl coated her eyes with a smokey finish.

The bar itself was a welcoming environment. String lights latticed the ceiling, the bulbs providing dim lighting for those who had secrets to keep. Wooden tables faced a small stage at the opposite end of the building – presumably where they held open mic nights. Dark oak walls were plastered with photographs, license plates, and other décor.

It being a Tuesday night, there weren’t many people out. Nesta noticed a couple middle-aged men drinking beers together, an older couple sitting close in a booth, and a small group of what looked like college aged women. Smiles were etched on all their faces. Nesta lifted her hand to touch the frown she wore. It only deepened.

Just be happy for once, Nesta thought to herself.

As the bartender refilled her gin and tonic, someone approached the barstool to her left. Nesta glanced sideway to discover a young man with a hard face. He looked about her age with dark hair and a tanned complexion. He was handsome in a rugged kind of way. Removing his leather jacket, he revealed the fitted shirt he wore, which clung a body that screamed “I go to the gym every day.” Before he sat next to her, the man dropped a duffle bag on the floor with a loud thud.

He didn’t seem to notice her as he flagged down the bartender and ordered a drink. His voice was low, tired. She recognized the sound. It was the sound of someone who was exhausted, and not just in the physical sense.

“Running away from home?” Nesta asked. The man turned his head to find her gesturing to his oversized bag.

Why did I just say that? she asked herself. Nesta rarely made conversation, much less with some stranger at a bar. It was abundantly clear that she had certainly drunk enough alcohol to wash away any and all inhibitions.

He chuckled. “Something like that.” The man peered at her closer. His hazel eyes twinkled in the dim lights as he inspected her. “Bad day?”

“Care to elaborate?”

A sober Nesta would have shut him down before he had the chance to even ask. A sober Nesta wouldn’t have even made conversation with this dark, handsome man.

Alas, she was three drinks down and had no intention of stopping anytime soon.

“I got into my dream school,” she started. “It has a really great grad program. When I read the letter, I reached for my phone to tell someone. Only, I realized I had no one to call. I… I realized that I’m all on my own.”

He stared at her for a moment. “That’s quite a feat. You should be proud.”

Nesta shrugged, uncomfortable with the man’s genuine tone. She never figured out how to tolerate a compliment, much less accept it.

They fell silent before he spoke again.

“I’m about to be on my own, too,” he confessed, focusing his attention on his calloused hands that rested on the counter. “And I don’t know how to feel either.”

No wonder he looks so exhausted, Nesta thought. She could see the conflict in his body language, his tone. War was waging in the stranger’s eyes, and it didn’t seem like the first time he’d gone to battle.

She wanted to ask where he was going. What was in his bag. Who he was leaving behind. But Nesta only nodded with understanding.

I see you.

In that moment, they formed some sort of kinship. They weren’t just two strangers at the bar. It was longing, Nesta realized. Longing for a connection, a companionship. To escape from the perpetual loneliness.

They stared at each other until the man broke his gaze when he checked his watch. He cursed.

“I have to leave now if I want to catch the bus,” he explained. Nesta watched him down the rest of his drink and stand up.

“Good luck,” Nesta said feebly as he shrugged on his jacket.

She wanted to say more. He seemed to need it… and so did she. “Whenever you get lonely, just remember that strange girl at the bar. She’ll be thinking about you.”

His face softened. “Good luck,” he whispered.

#nessian #bittersweet #nesta archeron #cassian #acomaf #acotar #acowar #acosf #a court of mist and fury #a court of thorns and roses #a court of silver flames #my writing #fanfiction #angst #fic

[dweemeister]

The Daydreamer (1966)

By the 1960s, Christmas television specials were in vogue in the United States. Yet this recent phenomenon had yet to yield a true cultural touchstone. On December 6, 1964, the first Christmas special mainstay aired on NBC. Produced by a fledgling animation studio, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer put Rankin/Bass, named after co-founders Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass, into the public consciousness. Rankin/Bass’ brand of stop-motion animation (“Animagic”) was mostly outsourced to Japanese studio MOM Productions in Tokyo, under the direction of Tadahito Mochinaga. With the windfall of Rudolph, Rankin/Bass and MOM Productions delved into the realm of feature theatrical films. This review concerns their second feature film, The Daydreamer – a stop motion animation/live-action hybrid based on Hans Christian Andersen’s stories. The Daydreamer has starpower in its cast that no Rankin/Bass production had yet matched. But as one might expect from a Rankin/Bass film, there are narrative flaws abound. The Daydreamer, episodic in nature and alternating between live-action and animation scenes, suffers due to the inconsistent quality of the handful of Hans Christian Andersen adaptations it has and the kitschy live-action acting.

The young Hans Christian Andersen (“Chris”; Paul O’Keefe) is the son of a cobbler (Jack Gilford). Papa Andersen often has to face the verbal tirades of frequent customer Mrs. Klopplebobbler (Margaret Hamilton; it is difficult not to think of Hamilton’s portrayal of the Wicked Witch here). His struggling business often means he cannot pay the gangling Pie Man (Ray Bolger; yet another Wizard of Oz star). To take him away from these troubles, Chris will let his imagine run wild while napping. If he can only just find the mythical Garden of Paradise, all these troubles might vanish. One evening, the Sandman (voiced by Cyril Ritchard) promises him to guide him there. Along the way, Chris is subject to dreams that may seem familiar to the viewer. These dreams shift away from live-action into the signature Rankin/Bass animation – adapting “The Little Mermaid”, “The Emperor’s New Clothes”*, “Thumbelina”, and “The Garden of Paradise”. Elements of “The Ugly Duckling” and “Little Claus and Big Claus” also appear.

Among the many voice actors during these animation sequences are Hayley Mills (The Little Mermaid); Burl Ives (Neptune – I have never heard Ives’ voice so devoid of jaunt before); Tallulah Bankhead (the sea witch); Terry-Thomas (the first tailor); Victor Borge (the second tailor); Ed Wynn (the Emperor); Patty Duke (Thumbelina); and Boris Karloff (the Rat).

The film’s adaptations of Andersen’s tales differ in that Andersen himself becomes a character in each of the stories. The Daydreamer approaches the stories as if the ideas are only just forming in the young Chris’ head, to be written and published when he is an adult. Within these dreams-someday-to-be-stories, Chris is largely a passive character. He takes instruction from the central figures of his future tales, never really asserting himself or asking basic questions about the misadventures he goes through. Chris acts as if lost in his own imagination – which fits the conceit of the film. So when he awakens into the real world, the film’s pacing slams the brakes. In the real world, everyone except Chris is a caricature, somehow less realistic than the individuals appearing in the daydreams. The transitions between animation and live-action will take the viewer out of the film because of the unceasing manic acting in the latter, as opposed to the charming puppetry of the former. As such, The Daydreamer’s weaknesses lie almost entirely with the live-action scenes – too consciously playing to the audience and over-the-top in their absurdity.

In an era of American animation defined by Disney on the screen and Hanna-Barbera on television, Rankin/Bass carves out its own niche in how it tells its stories. The meta humor and fourth wall breaking of Hanna-Barbera’s works (a legacy of the duo’s work at MGM) makes no appearances here. Disney’s clean-cut fairytale endings also do not apply. The Daydreamer’s adaptation of “The Little Mermaid” does not have the gruesome premise as Andersen’s original fairytale, but it retains the ending’s heartbreak. There appears to be no alterations to “The Emperor’s New Clothes” – which includes Chris, but he just feels superfluous to the plot and to the tale’s keen comedy. Each of the film’s segments bring Chris closer to the final animated sequence, “The Garden of Paradise”. The adaptation of that tale sanitizes its deathly overtures for a devil-like creature, but keeps the ambiguous, open-ended conclusion. By maintaining the original conclusion, “The Garden of Paradise” is a curious coda for The Daydreamer – a film that ends as abruptly as its several transitions, like a daydream.

The Daydreamer’s live-action sets benefit, however, due to the fact many of its scenes were shot at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. The World’s Fair pavilions used in this film mimic a feel of small-town, nineteenth century Europe more realistically than a Hollywood soundstage might. The production design for the animated dream sequences, too, are mesmerizing. Perhaps this is best exemplified in “The Little Mermaid”. There, the special effects work make it appear as if the whole sequence was shot underwater, rather than a room that contained blue lights streaming into Neptune’s palace. Where are the strings and wires suspending the puppets in mid-air while they “swim”? To the animators’ credit, there are none to be found. Neptune’s palace is one of the grander sets constructed for a Rankin/Bass production; its imposing walls and generous empty spaces reflect a sense of regal grandeur. That royal otherworldliness does not extend to “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, but many of the same production design decisions carry over. Rankin/Bass and MOM Productions are obviously working with more money and manpower for these animated scenes than in the likes of Rudolph or their many holiday television specials. The sense of scale and grandiosity seen here in The Daydreamer and Mad Monster Party? (1967) would rarely, if ever, be replicated for television. And it is also obvious that the filmmakers put the money into the animation and for paying headline-worthy actors, rather than for any writers able to string the animated and live-action halves together.

Seven songs comprise The Daydreamer’s musical soundtrack. Composed by Maury Laws and Jules Bass, most of the songs are forgettable once your viewing is done (including Robert Goulet singing the title song over the opening credits, despite the fact I admire Goulet’s voice). But there are notable exceptions. Sung by Hayley Mills at the end of “The Little Mermaid”, “Wishes and Teardrops” brings the segment to a worthy close. Her loved ignored, the Little Mermaid sings this lament – backed with percussion straight from a ‘60s love ballad and timeless swelling strings – for herself:

Wishes and teardrops Won’t make him love me. He’s gone and he’ll never return. Does he know how teardrops can burn, When they fall for a wish That can never come true?

In the film’s final third, “Luck to Sell” injects a jolt of energy sorely missing from many of the other live-action scenes. The song itself is simple and the singing just avoids being flat, but when paired with the energetic choreography from Paul O’Keefe and company, it elevates itself from the rest of the soundtrack (save “Wishes and Teardrops”).

Not often will a viewer encounter a film with two sets of opening credits. I’m not writing about films that have an overture that transition to opening credits (an entirely different approach that modern filmmakers should utilize more), but two sets of opening credits that list the names of the actors involved. For the first set of credits, caricaturist Al Hirschfeld (uncredited) was hired to draw caricatures of the various actors and actresses appearing in, or lending their voices to, The Daydreamer. The Daydreamer is the second of three films that Hirschfeld was involved in. The first, appearing as himself uncredited, was in Main Street to Broadway (1953); his third and final film was as an artistic consultant on the “Rhapsody in Blue” segment (which was influenced by his caricatures) in Fantasia 2000.

Rankin/Bass’ ventures into feature film animation peaked several months later with Mad Monster Party? After that and the unfortunate production of The Wacky World of Mother Goose (1967; a traditionally animated eyesore), Rankin/Bass almost completely dedicated itself to its animated television specials. The Daydreamer, distributed by the now-defunct Embassy Pictures and currently owned by Sony Pictures Television (the ownership of the rights to Rankin/Bass’ features are exasperatingly scattered), has not been widely seen when compared to Mad Monster Party?, let alone Rankin/Bass’ television specials. If one can find a serviceable print of The Daydreamer, the viewing experience will be a valuable glimpse into the studio’s collaboration with MOM Productions. A Rankin/Bass fan that has only known the studio through its television specials will see their work operating with higher production values; Rankin/Bass novices can experience a dimension of animated filmmaking too often considered an afterthought.

My rating: 6/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. Half-points are always rounded down. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog (as of July 1, 2020, tumblr is not permitting certain posts with links to appear on tag pages, so I cannot provide the URL).

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

* “The Emperor’s New Clothes” was adapted twice by Rankin/Bass. The second adaptation is the heart of the television special The Enchanted World of Danny Kaye (1972), starring Danny Kaye. That adaptation of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” is distinct from the one that appears in The Daydreamer. The Danny Kaye special’s adaptation has a more developed storyline, completely different voice cast, and completely different soundtrack.

#The Daydreamer #Rankin Bass #Jules Bass #Arthur Rankin Jr. #Paul O'Keefe #Jack Gilford #Margaret Hamilton #Sessue Hayakawa #Patty Duke #Boris Karloff #Hayley Mills #Burl Ives #Tallulah Bankhead #Victor Borge #Ed Wynn #Ray Bolger #Maury Laws #stop motion #TCM #My Movie Odyssey

[phoenix-before-the-flame]

Beginning of the week I post one drabble, end of the week and I post another. 🤣

This one's been sitting in my drafts for a while, ever since @fainttwinkling posted this nalu art sometime ago (which was the inspiration). And i didn't feel like scrapping it 😅

So as usual please enjoy!

Rating- T(for suggestiveness) since i'm on mobile i can't put a read more link so you young'uns keep on scrolling >_>

Lucy's head snapped up as natsu's teeth sank into the hollow of her neck.The gasp that fluttered from her throat came out strained and wanton, hardly sounding like herself as his tongue lapped at the tender skin, rocking harshly against her as his arms snuck around her bare back, hugging her close while his mouth roamed the side of her neck. A leg wrapped around his back from where it straddled his waist, rolling back on him with a smirk when he grunted. 

She never was one to back down from a challenge.

Natsu blew out a warm breath that made her shudder despite her already heated skin, hands roaming the expanse of her back, nimble fingers skating down her spine with practiced ease. He stilled if only for a second before his fingers dipped beneath the band of her skirt- the only article of clothing still on her person that was sure enough soon to go- to tease at the side of her hip. 

His heart beat in her chest as sure as he was that hers beat in his with how closely they were pressed together. Didn't quite stop Lucy from trying anymore though, splaying her fingers wide on his shoulders and greedily tugged him forward with a throaty giggle. She squirmed at the sloppy kiss he pressed at the base of her jaw, distracting her from the hand that snuck down, squeezing her thigh before grasping hungrily at her ass, the supple flesh spilling through his palm. He used his grasp to hoist her up as she slipped from his thighs. 

Natsu's hips circled Lucy's, his movements slow and deliberately so, feeding the burn in her blood. Lucy drew her nails through his hair, the soft keen he let out on her skin made her shiver excitedly. 

"You're taking this awfully slow for once." Lucy teased, taking a deep breath. "What changed when I was out of town?" 

Natsu paused, his lips pressed to her pulse point and thinned. Suddenly his grip on her tightened. Lucy frowned, glancing down at him as he buried his face in her neck, avoiding her gaze.

"Natsu...?" She asked, concerned. She tried to pull back to look at him but his grasp held Lucy in place. He mumbled something that she only felt, the words lost on her skin. But she didn't push him to say it again, smoothing her hands atop his hair instead- the unruly spikes popping back up with each passing. The heated moment calmed in the darkened room. Well, almost. Natsu shifted somewhat, drawing weak hisses from the pair. She tried again.

"Natsu? What's wrong?"

Then she saw it through the gloom, the red of his ears. 

"I... I missed you Lucy. A lot. I really did." It was strange to hear his voice so hushed, so quiet, and yet she caught the tinge of embarrassment there with little difficulty. And she could tell he meant it.

Lucy wasn't gone long, a month, maybe two, maybe three. It sure felt like that and more. Too long. The first few weeks went by quick enough with light teasings from his guildmates. But when the emptiness of her apartment became too commonplace and her scent became but a faint smattering, his shoulders started to droop. He still kept it going though, carrying on well enough. Enough to not garner worry from anyone, not even Happy.

It just never struck him how lonely it could be without her. Just her being there, her voice clear and beside him, not tinny and strange as it sounded on the lacrima. The tricks and pranks that he'd honed just for her and just, Lucy. The niche she'd dug out in his life grew without him even realizing it.

His fingers curled in her hair, cupping the back of her neck tenderly, lifting his head away from her and she would've almost laughed at his sudden awkwardness, with darkened cheeks and downcast eyes. 

"It wasn't just this i missed." Natsu continued, a softness in his voice that she rarely ever heard. He toyed with the ends of her hair. " I guess I got so used to having you around all the time that when you were gone, I just felt really lonely. And not a regular lonely, just…..something else i guess? I dunno what to call it Lucy. But i just, don't wanna feel it again."

Natsu caught her gaze at last, his eyes still dodging hers slightly but he tried for a weak pout  that didn't quite meet with the look. "Don't go on such long missions without me alright? I can't tell ya to stop but just consider it next time." 

Natsu combed his hand through Lucy's hair, the other softly rubbing circles into the side of her hip. He gnawed at his bottom lip and on instinct his hand left her side to rub at his neck, a habit she knew well enough by now from years at his side. 

Lucy reached out for him, delicately taking the embarrassed hand from his neck, twining their fingers carefully. She pressed a light kiss to his knuckle and pulled him back to her in a tight hug. Natsu blinked in surprise, his lashes tickling her collar. 

" I'd have a good amount of concerns if you didn't miss me." She joked softly, stretching out a cramped leg to his side. Natsu huffed against her. " I don't think I could describe how much I missed being home. Happy stealing all my socks, hearing everyone's crazy stories down at the guild. And you of course Natsu. With your own special brand of crazy; something new everyday."

And there it was, the feeling of lips curling on her skin in a grin, squeezing her hand a little tighter. Maybe trying to tell her something more. Something else that he didn't quite know how to voice. "The pay might've been good but I don't think long distance missions are for just me alone." Lucy continued, musing over her journey out of Fiore to Veronica, then from Veronica to Bellum. The trip had wore her out and the craving for home was a hunger that made her curl up on her bed the nights she was away, the bed feeling far too cold and empty. 

Lucy worked as best as she could with the situation, keeping an even face for the frequent calls that never felt like enough.

"I can't promise not to go on long missions anymore." Lucy murmured, pressing her face into Natsu's hair. "But next time I know for a fact I won't be going by myself. Of course my two favourite people are there with me. As long as one of them promises to not cause problems getting on the train."

Natsu snorted, pulling away from her chest, gratitude shining softly in his eyes. "I can't promise that, but I'll give it a shot."

"That's good enough for me. Now then…." Lucy wrapped her leg around his back, pulling him back to her with a quick snap of her hips. "Can we get back to business? And pick up the pace a bit?" 

Natsu bit back a groan through his grin, hand slipping from her grasp and trailed down her chest. His touch feathered over her heated skin, circling a tightened peak. "You've been away for so long and you want me to end this quick? That one I definitely can't promise."

#fairy tail #fairy tail fanfiction #nalu fanfiction #nalu #natsu dragneel #lucy heartfilia #natsu x lucy #ft natsu #ft lucy #what a phoenix can do #smut but like #not really #its like #ish i guess #its more like hurt/comfort with a side of light lemon zest #but like #wait #why am i rambling up in here #yall #im losing it

[intergalactic-zoo]

I was almost ready to comment on how this series is using single-word episode titles, just like "Smallville" did, but now we've got this mouthful playing on a book that was roughly contemporary with that show. It's pretty clunky, but whatever. 

It's nice that this episode gave us a break from the Luthor story, choosing instead to focus on Lois's investigation and some good character moments for the Kents and Lana's family. The mantra that "life is simpler in Smallville" gets an explicit repudiation, some fences are mended, and some new mysterious antagonists are introduced.

Spoilers ahoy! 

If not for the enormous amount of COVID-imposed lead time this series had, and the amount of time it takes to write and record and add special effects to a live-action TV show, this episode would feel like a course correction for a lot of the problems I've had with the last couple of installments. 

I'm writing this a little longer after watching the episode than I typically have, so I'm going to go plot-by-plot rather than chronologically through the episode. 

Painting the House: a cute scene, and a good way to remind us that, even with all the drama and the teen angst, the Kents are a loving family. 

Jonathan & Jordan: Jordan joining the football team is a neat plot point that goes in unexpected directions, given how that kind of thing has typically played out in Superman stories. I like the way that it sets up conflict with Jonathan in the beginning, but eventually he realizes that Jordan's not trying to take away the thing that makes him feel special. Jonathan being the one to convince Clark to let Jordan play—and making the case that Jordan's abilities just even the playing field with respect to his size—is a good moment of solidarity and understanding for him. 

And Jordan, for his part, really does seem like he's found what he needed. Being able to take out some aggression on the football field—and having Clark's support—ends up being the key to getting a handle on his anger and being able to solve some problems with kindness rather than sulking and violence. I also appreciate that at least one of our initial antagonists—Sean—has moved out of that role, at least for now.

Coach Clark: There have been lots of attempts over the years to saddle Superman with various character flaws, but I think the one that fits best is being overprotective. On the macro scale, you get "Must There Be a Superman" and "King of the World," and on a micro scale you get stuff like this, being a bit of a helicopter parent and nearly losing Lois early in their relationship by eavesdropping. It rings true in a way that other attempted flaws—being dull-witted or indecisive—haven't. So it's nice here to see him realize it and acknowledge his mistakes, and to realize that he doesn't have to make the same choices his father did in order to keep his kids safe. After all, Jonathan Kent I didn't have superpowers. It'll also be nice for Clark to have a place to be earnest, mild-mannered Clark Kent, since he's outside the Daily Planet environment.

Lana and Sarah: Somewhere in my drafts I have a post about poor Lana Lang, a character made to fill a niche—the Lois Lane analogue for Superboy—and has never had much of a life outside of that niche. Every time Lana is introduced into adult Clark's life, she has a different deal. She's a TV reporter with a British accent, she's married to Pete Ross, she's a successful engineer, but she's almost always the girl whose life fell to pieces in one way or another after Clark Kent left. It's not fair to either character—Clark's presence in a person's life should elevate them, not devastate them—and while I understand the reason for giving her a failing marriage and conflicts with her children, I do want to see Lana have a happy ending in some adaptation or incarnation. 

Anyway, I like Sarah as a character, and it's interesting to see how her story parallel's Jordan's, with her mother's overbearing overprotectiveness leading to conflict. It creates a contrast between how Clark and Lana are handling their respective teenage offspring, and gives them a nice bonding moment. It's easy to see how these bonding moments could turn into Lana trying to rekindle the old flame with Clark, and I really hope that doesn't happen, but platonic male-female friendships are rare enough on TV that I can imagine it's hard to set one up without everyone seeing a ship setting sail. 

Speaking of ships, I know that Jordan and Sarah are an obvious pairing, but I hope Jordan is smart enough not to try to be her rebound relationship (and ruin his reconciliation with Sean). But honestly, I kind of hope Jordan is gay or bi, giving a way to tie his feelings of being different and search for identity to the struggles queer kids commonly face in an explicit way rather than an allegorical one. 

Seriously though, let Clark and Lois have a strong marriage that doesn't need to be threatened by the Other Woman for unnecessary drama. Let the drama build out of normal family conflicts, not tropes that were sexist and outdated when they were common in the Silver Age. 

Lois's Story: "The news comes to Lois Lane" seems to be an ongoing theme, as the next lead in her story just walks through the door of the Smallville Gazette. Unsurprisingly for a story involving Lois Lane, this leads to a conspiracy involving disappearing workers and super-powered enforcers. Lois explicitly makes the point I said earlier, that the stories in small towns do matter, and too often get overlooked because there aren't enough reporters covering them. 

The action scene where Lois is attacked by someone with Kryptonian-level abilities is pretty good. I always like when Superman enters a confrontation by trying to de-escalate before fighting, and I always like when Lois enters a confrontation by trying to fight before calling in the big guns. The fight between Superman and the assailant (who I think is credited as Subjekt 11, but I assumed that character was going to carry forward and, uh, doesn't look like he is) showcases both a nice escalation as Superman learns what the guy's strength is, and some nice uses of powers. The CW effects teams have gotten pretty creative over the years. The one issue I have is that Superman slams the guy through a cinderblock wall right at the start of the fight, before he's tested those abilities, and I feel like that would have done some real damage if he'd guessed wrong and the guy was a baseline human. The No-Prize Answer would be that either he scanned the guy before hitting him and knew, at baseline, that he was a meta, or that he knew Lois wouldn't call him unless she was dealing with a metahuman threat. Still, it bugs me. 

I do hope we learn more about what Subjekt-11 was. Metahuman? Kryptonian? Some kind of experiment? I'm frankly more interested in the Morgan Edge stuff than alt-universe Luthor. 

The woman who takes out Subjekt-11—who I guess was also with Edge at the meeting last episode—seems to be named Leslie Larr, no doubt a reference to Lesla-Lar, the Silver Age Kandorian villain who happened to be an exact double for Supergirl, because every major character had a double living in Kandor. Whether that means she's Kryptonian or some other swerve is something, I guess, we'll learn later.

Other: I noticed an Easter Egg that I haven't seen reported anywhere else: The Whitty Banter Show! For those who don't remember, Whitty Banter was the host of a Metropolis talk show in the 80s and 90s; there's ads for it all over the Death of Superman Newstime issue. In trying to remind myself what Easter Egg I remembered catching, I also learned that Kryptonsite still exists! What a blast from the past. There was a time, many moons ago, where that was a daily visit for me, along with the Superman Homepage. 

And Blogger.com, for that matter. But those days are clearly far behind us.

#IFTTT #Blogger #TheFortressOfSoliloquy

[aheavenofhell]

Shooting Stars

dedicated to and inspired by @mindsummerdream

The thing about being an astronomer is, you don't get much, well, face to face contact in your profession. That is to say, though Crowley can gaze at the stars from afar, he has never had the opportunity to actually look at one—to touch it, feel it, look at it up close. So when the London Center of Space Exploration writes him an email describing an asteroid that they think will hit Shaftesbury, and they want him to go and take samples, he is, of course, ecstatic. Normally, geologists do the collecting bit, but apparently a professor at the Center had read a rather reputable paper by A J Crowley and had decided he would be exactly the man for the job. Crowley couldn't possibly disagree. A shooting star is, of course, not really a star. It is actually tiny bits of dust and rock called meteoroids, that, when spiraling into Earth's atmosphere, begins to burn. If anything survives the flames and hits earth—that is what we call meteorites. The flames are what cause the fantastic streaks of light that spin through the sky. Why does this happen? Sometimes, as the Earth orbits the Sun, it passes through debris left by a comet. This causes a meteor shower. Of course, Crowley is after an asteroid, which is like a much bigger version of a meteorite. Crowley had watched many meteor showers, but had never actually come in contact with one. He didn't have any type of proper geological sampling tools, so he settled on taking gloves and plastic bags and a sharpie, for labeling the bags. Oh, and a bottle of Loire Rose. He preferred dark, dry wine for special occasions, and it would be a celebration, of course. The professor on the phone had warned him specifically not to go to the area during the shower, but he dutifully ignored that and took a train to Shaftesbury the next morning. He shacked up in a nice local inn for the night, where he spent most of his time methodically looking over the pictures that determined the asteroid's orbit and descent. Exactly where it was going to hit was sketchy at best, but Crowley had a sort of sixth sense about this one. He wouldn't know if he was right until the next evening. He packed up his backpack of essentials, grabbed his smallest telescope, and started his trek. Shaftesbury was a rural town, small, quaint. Crowley preferred London's bustle and noise, but he could appreciate places like this—places where the light of the city didn't drown out the lights in the sky. It was an excellent place to set up a telescope and wile the night away. Of course, he would've liked to have someone to do it with. Got a bit. . .odd. Just talking to yourself about things. He would like to have a pair of eager ears once in a while, someone else who saw the same beauty in the universe he did. Oh well. Maybe someday. For now, he focused on where his astronomy-senses were taking him. He ended up in a large, empty field. It would be very nice if the asteroid were to land there, because it would make finding all the pieces much easier. Crowley sat down in the grass, opened his bottle of wine, and waited. For maybe an hour, he sat, just drinking and watching. He never lost his sense of childish wonder when it came to space—every time he looked up, he still felt that same sense of excitement and curiosity. What's up there? Will I ever see it? He was about to. It came streaking through the sky at exactly 12:34 AM. Crowley knew, because as it did he scrambled to check his watch and write the time down before watching in amazement as it soared just over the treeline, the light dying as it fell. He gathered up his things and ran in the direction it had gone. He wasn't too far off, because it ended up only being about a two kilometers away. Of course, two kilometers feels a bit longer when it is night time and there are mosquitoes about and the terrain is rough. Still, not too shabby. He brandished his flashlight as he swept the landscape, hunting for the crater. There it was. Big! Much bigger than he thought it would be! He felt a fresh wave of excitement wash over him. Cautiously, he approached the crater—all organic matter left would certainly be hot. But he could, at least, look at it. He got to the edge, shined his flashlight down, and— There was no asteroid at all. There was a man. There are several reasons Crowley found this extremely disconcerting: 1. A lack of asteroid was, admittedly, very disappointing. 2. The man was not burning himself alive, somehow. 3. The man was glowing. “Hello?!” Crowley yelped, because it was the only thing he could think to say. “Erm, hello!” the man in the crater said. “I seem to have made a bit of a mistake. Oh dear, this is very embarrassing. Gabriel will not be happy with me—“ “Isn't it hot down there?” Crowley asked, deciding that the best way to handle this would be to roll with it. “It's a bit toasty, just comfortable, I'd say. Oh no! Now this is a problem.” This is where Crowley was doubly confused. He was almost as confused as the first time he'd used an ATM. Because the man had just stretched out a feathered wing from his own back. And it looked. . .not good. The bird-man flinched as he attempted to flex it. It was bent all the wrong way. “That's a wing,” Crowley said stupidly. “It's a problem,” bird-man agreed. He climbed out of the hole. “I'm sorry, I don't think I properly introduced myself. I'm Aziraphale.” He stuck out his hand. Crowley, dumbfounded, shook it. “Crowley,” he said. “And, ehm, what exactly. . .are you?” “Oh yes. I'm an angel, a Principality, to be precise. I was popping over here for a visit, they have the best fish'n chips here, you know, and I must have hit something—“ “So wait.” Crowley held up his hands to pause him. “You're an angel. Like, a supernatural entity that fell from the sky.” “Just the sort.” Aziraphale smiled. It was a bit adorable. “And now your wing's injured,” Crowley added as an afterthought. “And I have no asteroid to bring back to London.” The angel frowned. “I was mistaken for an asteroid? So you're some sort of scientist, then?” “An astronomer,” Crowley clarified, a bit bitterly. Now wasn't really the time to be petty, but, well—he'd wanted his rock. Aziraphale wrung his hands. “Do you think, that, perhaps—“ he licked his lips, “—perhaps I could accompany you, back to London? I could even miracle us there, so you needn't pay for a ticket home. Just—you know, until I fix my wing.” Crowley stared at him. “You want to stay at my flat?” “You seem like a very nice human, and I'm in a rather tight spot. You see, I was already reprimanded last week over an incident with a dead cat that came back to life a bit too suspiciously—“ “You, an angel, want to stay at my flat because—because you don't want to get in trouble with. . .?” “Gabriel. Archangel. Big deal, you know.” Crowley put a hand to his forehead. Maybe he'd had a bit too much to drink. The angel was giving him an awfully pleading look, though. And his wing did look all bent and pathetic. . .and he did come here to bring back a shooting star. “Fine,” he said. What could go wrong? When Crowley woke up in his flat, a tad hungover and definitely spotty, his first thought was that he'd had a very bizarre dream. Then he heard someone humming in the kitchen. He leaped out of bed, silently hoping it was some sort of burglar, and crept into the kitchen. Nope. It was Aziraphale. He had cooked a rather nice looking breakfast, and made tea, and was now quietly humming “Water Music” and reading in a chair Crowley knew he didn't have before. “How'd you do all this?” Crowley asked, rummaging around for some aspirin and seltzer. “Good morning,” Aziraphale said, looking up in surprise. “I went shopping—your fridge and cabinets are rather barren, you know, and thought you might enjoy a spot of breakfast.” Crowley raised his eyebrows. “I meant, how did we get back here?” “Oh! A small miracle—literally. I just sort of—wished us back.” Crowley decided that was enough information for now. “How's the wing?” he asked. Wincing, the angel stretched it out. It looked worse than before. Crowley tentatively touched it, and Aziraphale immediately flinched. “It will heal,” the angel muttered. “Want an aspirin?” Crowley said, in an attempt to be helpful. “That's very kind, dear boy, but I think some rest will be the best medicine.” Crowley shrugged, and found very suddenly that his hangover was cured. Maybe having an angel around wouldn't be so bad. For the next week, Crowley got to know Aziraphale a bit. His habits were niche, but not peculiar. He seemed to enjoy books, and food, and classical music. He often invited Crowley to dine out, as a sort of payment for letting him stay, and his taste in restaurants was admittedly excellent. Crowley often found him pouring over an old tome or making notes beside one. By the end of the week, they had fallen into a sort of comfortable pattern—they were very compatible flatmates (a rare thing indeed) and Crowley found he was actually enjoying the angel's company. He told Professor Knox that the asteroid was simply a no-show, a mistake, and went back to going to the Observatory and studying there. One evening, Aziraphale even went with him, eager to “learn something new” and perhaps even “spot that one that Uriel said looked like him”. Crowley thought it would be annoying, but. . .Aziraphale actually listened to him. He genuinely seemed to find what Crowley was saying interesting, and made comments and asked questions. By the end of the night, Crowley had smiled and laughed more times than he had in years. But the angel couldn't stay forever. His wing was healing—it got worse first, but then gradually began to heal. Angels heal faster than humans, and Crowley suspected that Aziraphale's wing had already healed a while ago. But he was just as reluctant to leave as Crowley was to let him go. “Perhaps we should talk,” the angel quietly said one night. They sat down, facing each other, and Aziraphale suddenly looked quite sad, and Crowley knew what was about to come. Aziraphale managed to meet his eyes, and smile a bit. “My wing is healed,” he said softly. “I want to thank you—for everything. You've truly been gener—“ “Right, yeah,” Crowley said, words a bit thick. “'S no problem.” Aziraphale smiled. “Well, as a thank you, of sorts—I had something arranged.” He handed Crowley a scroll. Crowley went to unravel it, but Aziraphale stopped him. “After I leave,” he explained. Crowley nodded. “Well, erm, good luck,” he said. “Back up there, Hope you don't get in any trouble.” “Thank you, dear fellow. And good luck to you here. Perhaps I could. . .visit.” They shook hands, and Crowley tried his best not to cry, or kiss him, or cry. “Right. Goodbye.”   And the angel was gone. It took Crowley a few moments to gather himself before he could properly examine the scroll. He swallowed, turning it over in his hands. It had a lovely red ribbon around it. Gingerly, he untied the bow and let the paper unravel. It read, in very elegant handwriting, like this: Anthony J Crowley, In the Name of Heaven Itself, I, Principality Aziraphale, Angel of the Eastern Gate, dub you Saint of Astronomy. May the stars glimmer in your honor. Aziraphale got back to Heaven, and found it a bit empty. “Sorry I'm late,” he told Gabriel, even though time didn't actually exist there. “Aziraphale. How is “earth” doing?” “Good, good.” He walked around for a bit, feeling strangely saddened. He wondered if Crowley was reading his letter—if he liked it. He found himself thinking about the human for a very long time. I think I must have left something in his flat, he thought hopefully. Maybe. . .my first edition copy of Dorian Gray? Now I can't have that going missing. . . “I left something, I'll be right back!” he squeaked suddenly to Gabriel. “Aziraphale—“ He disappeared. “Crowley! Are you still here? I—“ He was interrupted as a certain saint yanked him into a kiss. Oh, he thought. I think I could get used to this.

#ineffable husbands #writing prompt #good omens #wingfic #au

[durotoswrites]

For the Ask Game! 🧑 favorite character to write? And/Or 📒any fics planned?

Sorry for the delay on these - my heat exhaustion has left me knocked out for a while.

🧑 Favorite character to write:

Short answer: Harvest Moon's Cliff (all incarnations)

Long answer: I don't think it's really any secret that my favorite Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons characters to write for are the ones that reside at Doug's Inn. I see Doug, Ann, Gray, Kai, and Cliff as a large, dysfunctional family – AKA Doug and all of his children, haha. There are so many different personalities in one small space playing off of one another, and there's so much fun to be had. I loved how all the guys in shared a room in the GBA version of Mineral Town. It kinda reminds me of those cheesy sitcoms where clashing personalities all reside under the same roof. That being said, there is a particular shy, reclusive young man who blossoms with confidence as he finds purpose in his life. Bonus: he comes with a vague, tragic past that has tons of potential for exploration. I have a hard time resisting woobie-type characters.

📒 Any Fics Planned?

Short answer: Yes. I also plan to bring more of my stories over from ffn to Ao3.

Long answer under the cut, heheh. I rambled quite a bit.

Ask me about my writing processes and stories!

I have so many WIPs that haven't been touched in years that I'd like to finish, so new planned fics aren't posted yet. Some of them have more adult themes than most of the stuff I've been writing, so I get flustered sharing them. I've been at a crossroads, as I feel that you can't have growth without changing things up. On the other hand, I feel like a lot of my readers associate my works with a specific “wholesome” feel-good mood. It's kinda nice to be known for something, although that might just be my ego talking, thinking that people recognize my work as a “type”.

Regardless, in the end, I feel growth is necessary.

I don't want to leave a lot of unfinished WIPs waiting because they stress me out and I have too many of them already, so I'd like to have a bulk of my new stories with a good chunk written before I decide to post them.

Among those include:

A longfic featuring Pete's farm in Forget-Me-Not Valley (A blend of HMDS with the FoMT plugin and AWL). It takes place in the same universe as The Shy Newcomer (Claire in Mineral Town) and there are a few overlapping moments, although Pete's story starts first. Pete's personality is verrry different from Claire's, and his story was kind of supposed to be the yang to TSN's yin. Pete's best friends in his story are Ruby (not sure if I'm adding Tim yet), Nami, and Rock. Readers will be treated to a poorly-socialized pre-Mineral Town Cliff (if you think he was bad at the beginning of TSN, well... heh... he's a wreck here).

Another planned unpublished story is a crossover of Harvest Moon and the movie “In This Corner of the World”, based on a manga of the same name by Fumiyo Kouno. It was written as a gift for a friend. I have the entire outline figured out and have slowly been filling it in. My friend asked for an AU where Claire and Cliff have an arranged marriage and live with his family in Akiyama, the hometown I had created for Cliff in The Shy Newcomer. I took the opportunity to expand the characters in his family. I have it written during the same time period and society as “In This Corner of the World”, but had decided to write a spreading disease as an allegory for war, but then COVID happened and some parts of it just got really hard to write. There are also a lot of sexually explicit content as Claire slowly grows and learns from her spouse that it's okay to express what she wants despite sex being a taboo issue. If there's enough interest in the story, I'll post it, but I worry it's a little too niche for there to be many people into it.

Pastor Carter and Doctor Trent are one of my favorite rare pair ships. I've had a partial draft for a story about them for a few years now, especially focusing on Trent growing up and acknowledging that he has an unhealthy addiction for things that he knows he can't have. There are some more adult/sexual themes in this piece, too, including the main character lusting after a married woman (who also happens to be his patient) and some lemons. (Does anyone call it that anymore or is it just referred to as “smut” nowadays? Haha) I always feel so bad for neglecting the folks at the clinic in-game and wanted to write a piece that focused more on them, Trent specifically. It's a multi-chap fic, but I don't think I'm going to let it get as long as some of my other pieces.

I also really want to write a short romantic oneshot for every marriage candidate in Mineral Town, around 1,000 words each. So far, I have one for Cliff and one for Gray. I want to write Claire with everyone, because I think it would be fun to explore all the different personalities.

I have more installments planned for A Single Day, including a day in the life of the following characters, all with drafts in varying degrees of progress:

Anna

Doug

Nora (yes, I'm writing from the point of view of the cat living at the inn)

More to come – I think Lillia and Thomas would be especially interesting to explore

I do still have that Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask piece I've been pondering where Link befriends the soul of the deku scrub child while possessed by the mask. I don't have much written about it, but I really love the world of Majora's Mask. Such a fun game.

I also think about the lead carpenter's son in Ocarina of Time and that weird side quest involving the blue chicken and the son being lost to the forest. Then that unique-looking kokiri girl explaining that all who get taken in the lost woods become stalfos. Like, did the guy die? Was he sick? Did he want to die? There's just so much going on there that would be fun to explore.

I also have played OMORI recently and have like... A LOT of feelings about it. I don't know what I'd write, but I'm still damn impressed at how well the characters are developed in such a short game.

Other games I've had vague ideas about writing for include the following:

The Flame in the Flood: I'm thinking a survivalist/action story fleshing out Scout's backstory a bit more and her thoughts as she's traveling. I feel like she's a very lonely person, but isn't given the chance to really dwell on it.

Night In the Woods: I'd love to write more about Mae's dreams and what they mean to her. She doesn't really talk to anyone about them openly, so it's really hard to tell her feelings about them in some regards. We know that she's distressed about them, but I'd like to dive a little deeper. Do the nightmares end after the games does? What about Bea's new nightmares?

Hades (Supergiant Games): I think it would be fun to write more about the events that take place before the game starts, like Zagreus's duties in the house of Hades, and expand on the strained relationship with his father.

#ask box games #writing #beck-a-leck

[danyelle756games]

Where to get a good gaming laptop yahooanswers

Caesars Casino Gaming Weblog

On the internet Gambling Web sites covers the complete industry of gaming over the Internet. Scump is skilled American Contact of Duty player. He is a two time MLG X Games gold medalist and is sponsored by various gaming hardware firms, like Turtle Beach and Scuf Gaming. He is also sponsored by Loot Crate, Gymshark, and Brisk Mate. As of September 2016, Scump has won $262,293, of which practically $one hundred,000 was won in Contact of Duty: Advanced Warfare.

It really is tough to compare 15mm rulesets simply because they're frequently so distinctive, so rather than try I'll just say this Patrol Angis stands on its personal laurels as an exemplar of modern day wargaming. It is fast to play, it has elegant systems, and it is not overburdened by rules. It has a working points technique. It rewards tremendously from the awesome fluff of the Ion Age and the miniatures that go with it but could simply be employed for any 15mm games you want to play. Despite its billing as a one particular-platoon skirmish game I can not see any reason why it wouldn't hold up properly with 10+ units on the board.

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Do you enjoy to fight though constructing your personal town or village in a game? If yes, Clash of Clans is the best answer for your gaming demands. It is one of the most common games by Supercell. It is a multiplayer game that comes free of charge of cost with in-app purchases. The most important aim of the player is to make a village and fill it with all the things that the villagers will need to have. A town hall, gold mine, army camp and significantly more get unlocked for the duration of the course of time.

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Naturally, gaming” as a topic has a incredibly broad which means and there are a number of possibilities today, both for the casual and hardcore PRO gamer. Even though consoles can provide access to exclusive titles, which are rarely accessible for PCs, this goes hand-in-hand with a higher price of games. Consoles also function some gaming nuances within joystick controls, as well as unique tactics such as progress saving, which is optimized for consoles.

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[ramajmedia]

10 Forgotten TV Spinoffs That Were Actually Good | ScreenRant

There are some spin-offs that go on to be just as popular (if not more so) than their predecessors. Spin-offs like Frasier, with 37 Emmy wins and eleven seasons, proved even more popular than Cheers. Family Matters certainly became must-see TV with the hilarious Steve Erkel, even though he never featured in the series it was based off, Perfect Strangers. Then there's all the wildly acclaimed Star Trek spin-offs from the original series, each with its own niche audience.

But what about all those spin-offs that people rarely talk about, that were wildly successful at the time and actually decent? Do audiences even remember that they carried the torch for their respective franchises even after their parent shows went off the air? Without further ado, presenting the 10 forgotten spin-offs that were actually good.

10 MAUDE

Though most fans of Bea Arthur know her as the sardonic high school teacher Dorothy from The Golden Girls, serving withering asides like they're slices of cheesecake, she was the star of a spin-off that featured an even more scathing character.

Maude was a spin-off of All in the Family, and featured Edith Bunker's liberal minded Maude (Bea Arthur) confront all sorts of timely issues, from race politics to civil rights and labor disputes. Maude lived with her fourth husband and adult children in the suburbs of Tuckahoe, NY, and had a sassy comment for everything.

9 MORK AND MINDY

In the fifth season of the popular series Happy Days, Richie Cunningham sees a UFO, and then later the extra-terrestrial inside it, Mork (Robin Williams). While it may have made for a strange episode, audiences liked the character of Mork enough to be curious about his origins.

Fantasy as a genre was popular to mashup with the torpor of everyday domestic sit-coms, such as Bewitched or I Dream of Jeannie. Adding a science fiction element proved a new twist, and it became one of Robin Williams' most beloved characters.

RELATED: I Dream Of Jeannie: 10 Hidden Details Everyone Completely Missed

8 TORCHWOOD

While Torchwood may very well be in the minds and hearts of Doctor Who fans, many viewers may not realize its origins. It began in the mid '00s after the Doctor Who reboot saw great interest, and followed a secret agency called the Torchwood Institute.

Led by their leader Captain Jack Harkness (who guest starred on Doctor Who), the Torchwood team investigated strange extra-terrestrial events all over England (and occasionally further). It combined the whimsical fun of Doctor Who with its own brand of adventure and excitement.

7 THE GOLDEN PALACE

After the huge success of The Golden Girls, and Dorothy was married and left the series, the rest of the girls weren't finished sharing their misadventures on television. In 1992 The Golden Palace premiered, and featured Blanche, Rose, and Sophia purchasing a Miami hotel recently lacking in luster.

The series didn't have the same tone of four ladies gathered around a coffee table eating cheesecake and talking about their sex lives, but the additional cast members added a different comedic charm. Don Cheadle as the concierge and Cheech Marin as the chef were particularly amusing.

6 THE CLEVELAND SHOW

After the extreme success of Family Guy, Seth McFarlane tried to capture lightning in a bottle twice with The Cleveland Show. Initially, it relied heavily on Family Guy style humor, until it settled into its own rhythm and decided to embrace its differences.

The Cleveland show wasn't for everyone. It wasn't the animated version of Family Matters. It was gloriously odd, having more in common with American Dad than its predecessor. Cleveland Brown and his family interacted with a family of talking bears, a British family stuck in the 19th century, and tried not to kill each other. Once you embrace its eccentricities, it grows on you.

5 STAR TREK: THE ANIMATED SERIES

When news spread that Gene Roddenberry's science fiction series Star Trek was being taken off the air in 1970, he tried to think of ways to have it live on. He ultimately decided that the crew of the USS Enterprise would have their adventures chronicled in animated form.

Star Trek: The Animated Series has been called both a spin-off and a sequel - it involves many, but not all of the characters from the original series, and is often regarded as a continuation of its storyline. The animated format allowed for the creative team to do a lot more without the budget constraints of the live show.

RELATED: 10 Star Trek Spin-Off Series That CBS Should Make

4 KENAN AND KEL

All That, the immensely popular sketch and variety series on Nickelodeon, produced several spin-offs, including The Amanda Show and Kenan and Kel. These days, you can watch Kenan Thompson on Saturday Night Live, but back in the '90s, him and Kel got up to all sorts of shenanigans on their own showh.

The show was set in Chicago, and followed Kenan the humble grocery clerk and Kel, his orange-soda-addicted buddy from high school as they tried to come up with a variety of schemes and dreams to get them rich and popular. It features some truly side-splitting skits from the dynamic duo, especially for such a kid-friendly comedy.

3 SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH

Though Sabrina the Teenage Witch is getting some newfound love thanks to the dark and spooky reboot of the series on Netflix, the original series starred teen star Melissa Joan Hart as Sabrina, a teenage girl that had to balance learning how to be a witch with learning how to have a normal life.

What some viewers may not have realized, is that the series was actually spin-off from the Archie Animated Series, which features a Sabrina that actually looks a lot more like the one featured on Netflix currently. She also received her own comic, but the '90s series followed a very different path loosely based on her appearance in Riverdale.

2 DARIA

Though there have been talks of a Daria reboot almost ever since the incredibly nihilistic animated series went off the air, it seems that it's endured long enough on streaming platforms to feel fresh in the mind of a whole new cynical generation.

What new viewers may not realize is that it was actually a spin-off from another animated series, Beevis and Butthead. Daria, the jaded high school student who just wanted to survive small town American high school, was the pairs' neighbor, and her lack of personality ended up ironically enthralling to Gen Xers steeped in peak irony.

1 SAVED BY THE BELL

Saved by the Bell may get a bad rep for taking a squeaky clean approach to the rigors of high school, but no one can deny that as far as programming went for teens of the '90s, it set the trends and knocked them down with its ridiculously good looking cast of youngsters.

What viewers of today may not realize, is that it was actually a spin-off of Good Morning, Miss Bliss, a series about a school teacher (Hayley Mills) that only lasted for one season in 1988 but featured all of the same cast (including Mr. Belding).

NEXT: The 10 Best TV Shows Of All Time, According To IMDb

source https://screenrant.com/10-forgotten-tv-spinoffs-actually-good/

#screenrant

[ofrowanss-blog]

you’re introduced to sports at a young age by your neighbor that watches you while your mom works. he’s always wanted a SON  so by the time you were up and walking, there was a glove in your hand, a ball following it shortly after. then, you met the bat and the ball would come to you, but you’d hit it so far that it would go soaring and you wouldn’t be able to see it anymore. even though this is very sweet, this isn’t where your story starts.

it starts with a young woman named EMILY. people call her emma, eli, milly along with a handful of other names that can’t be mentioned. she was adopted and raised by strict mormons, who fit in. little do they know, their town whispers about them behind their backs and act nice to their face. that’s where emily learned how to do it, after all. now, i’ll be honest - her life isn’t BAD. but she hates it. she doesn’t have any friends, her parents want her to believe in some god that doesn’t exist [ to her, at least ] and she hates school. she just wants to go as far as she possibly can. so that’s what she does. one night she just packs up and leaves. she’s fourteen so she can’t drive herself. she catches rides with strangers, even though she was RAISED better than that. a truck driver drops her off in LAS VEGAS, NEVADA. she falls in love with the lights and decides that this is her new home. she changes her last name to bak. however - she hasn’t finished high school and is too young to get a job. so she does what she cans: sex working. at fifteen, a year later, she gets pregnant with you and you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to her.

every day she tells you “ you are what i was missing, callum ” and every day she tells you how much she loves you and every day, she does her best to put food on the table. you’re YOUNG and you don’t understand why you have to stay at your neighbors so much or why you have to sleep in the car sometimes, but, at least you know you’re loved. your mom is your everything. but then again - you’re six, the only people you know are your neighbors, the flynns. they’re nice and you like ‘em, but no one’s compared to your mom.

back to where i was in the beginning: you and sports. your neighbor smiles as he watches the ball. “ woah. kid – you’re gonna go places some day. ” but then, his smile fades. “ that was my only ball. ”

it swingers first swing luck or whatever you call it but with practice, you get on your neighborhood’s little league team a year younger because you’re just that GOOD.

as you grow older, you decide baseball just isn’t your thing anymore, so you try out for basketball. maybe it’s just because of how tall you’re getting. but, anyways, after playing a couple of rounds with your neighbor, you decide that you love it and that you’re gonna try out for the team.

your coach says you’re the best he’s ever seen. this makes you just practice harder.

then - you get introduced to HOCKEY.

you’re on a trip with your mom and your neighbors. they’re going to chicago to visit family for the holidays and they invite you two. emily accepts and you all drive there. your head is stuck in the window, watching the highways changes into weird lumpy roads, smiling at the animals and the corn you see.

you arrive in CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. as soon as your feet touch the ground you decide if you’re ever going to move out of vegas, you’re gonna come here.

all the other kids are on the lake in the backyard. it’s frozen over so they have special shoes on. you’re watching from the window, brows furrowed as you tried to piece together what was going on. your neighbor shows up behind you, scaring the shit out of you with “ they’re playing hockey. wanna try?? ”

you nod eagerly and go to his old room. he’s droning on about how he used to play it and how his old skates should fit him. you put them on, then you wobble onto the ice, gripping the hockey stick so tight your knuckles are white.

like every sport, you’re a natural. but this time, it’s different. you’ve finally found your niche. anyway - you fall on your ass a few times but get right back up, laughing as you tried to steal the puck and make a score.

throughout junior high and high school, you play basketball and hockey. they’re during the same season so you’re rarely home, but that’s fine – you know what your mom does now and although some people make fun of you for it, you don’t care. she does what she has too.

however, you try to stay out of the house as much as you can, seeing sometimes work and home life gets mixed together.

when you’re not playing basketball or hockey, you’re practicing. when you’re not practicing, you’re working at the local movie theatre. when you’re not doing that, you’re baby sitting your neighbor’s twins.

your mom gets invited to a bachelor party to be someone’s fake date. while she’s there - she meets a woman. her name is raina and they fall in love immediately. emily ditches her date and raina ditches the party. “ it was lame, anyways ”. they talk all night. you meet her the next morning. you’ve never seen your mom this happy before. raina is rich. the first thing she does is buy you a nice pair of braces to fix those crooked teeth of yours. your mom begs her not to, that she doesn’t need “ charity ”. raina says that’s not what this is. “ i love YOU. and callum is a part of you. i want what’s best for the both of you. ” it’s nice to have someone who cares so much. she pays for the wisdom teeth removal, too. you’re seventeen and when you wake up, you start CRYING for your “ mommies ” and then you cry even harder because you didn’t get to see your teeth after they pulled them out.

you get a full ride to the UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA for a HOCKEY scholarship. your moms couldn’t be prouder of you. you graduate high school with a 4.0 gpa. you go away to college and on your first night, you cry because you miss your moms.

things are great. your grades are great, the game is great. you’ve made so many friends. you even have a girlfriend.

sadly, nothing lasts forever.

it’s your school verses some rival college. now, you get angry because you can’t even remember their name.

HOWEVER, the game was going good. your team was winning. you had the puck, about to score the final goal.

then, you get checked. hard. and you land funny. it happened so fast.

there’s three different cracks. maybe four. your face smacks into the ice. your leg is numb and you can’t feel your face. there’s blood everywhere. someone is screaming your name and someone is crying but you can’t answer back to any of it because your ears won’t stop ringing.

you spend the next few days in the hospital. you’ve broken your leg in threedifferent places, you’ve got a major concussion - the type where you definitely, 100%, CANNOT fall asleep - you knocked out a few of your front teeth, your tongue needed stitches in two different places because of how hard you bit it when you fell.

your grades start slipping because of obvious reasons. your roommate, god bless his soul, drops off homework for you at the hospital. but you can never get it finished because of your headaches.

your moms and little brother have basically moved in. they stay there as long as they can, trying to make it easier on you. however, your brother is still a baby, so he puts his hands in places that still hurt, like your face. sometimes he grabs your toe too hard and it leaves you yelping with tears in your eyes. you can’t stay mad at him. you LOVE him. he’s just a baby. he doesn’t know what he’s doing.

you’re mad anyways. but not at him. at yourself. how could you let this happen??

because of your grades and not being to play in any of the games, you lose your scholarship in your sophomore year of college. raina, your mom, she tells you “baby, you know i can pay your tuition. ” each time, you say no. you want to pay it yourself. but you know you’re not going back.

your girlfriend is supportive. your moms love her and she loves them. once you’re released from the hospital, she takes you back to campus and helps get you set up in your dorm. you have to use crutches to get around and your leg has to be elevated. all the time. including in classes. and – it itches. which is a big distraction.

you spend most of your time in the library, trying to catch up on missing work and trying to understand what’s happening in class now. you want your scholarship back. if you’re able to pass your classes, that should do it. but by the looks of it …….

it just doesn’t click like it did before. the information used to make so much sense to you but now… it’s just going in one ear and out the other. you consider getting a tutor, but – those cost money. money you don’t have and money you don’t want to borrow from your mom.

you decide to end your study session early and make your way back to your dorm. your roommate forgot to put the sock on the door, so you barge in on him. most of the time, it’s not a big deal - it happens. but instead of sleeping with some girl you didn’t know, he’s in bed with your girlfriend. you’re lost for words when this happens. you trusted them. both of them. how long have they been doing this?? why couldn’t she just dump you?? that would be better than this.

you leave. and within a week, you leave for good. you don’t care anymore. you distance yourself from everyone and have trouble trusting the doctors that are supposed to help you get better.

you spend your days at the hospital. when you’re not there, you’re bumming at one of your friend’s house. but then again, you don’t stay for long.

you learn how to use your broken leg again, then go back to vegas. you live with your moms, for awhile. they’re disappointed you dropped out, but they won’t say anything. they notice how different you are. how sad you are. they just let you babysit your brother and help you find a job. 

DEADBEAT job after DEADBEAT, you’re fed up. you love your home, yes. but you need something new. so you come here. to rose hollow.

#( bio. ) #( writings. ) #general tw // #injury mention //

[therealestatesparkblog]

What Being a CPA Has Taught Me About Becoming a Millionaire

Usually my articles are all about taxes and how real estate investors and business owners should approach various scenarios and apply sets of tax regulations. I always try to share my knowledge to help you improve your bottom line. What Ive come to realize through speaking with and advising hundreds of real estate investors and having a front row seat to their financial lives and mindsets is that Ive learned quite a lot about wealth over the past two years. Ive learned about creative and unique means to generate wealth. Ive learned about market niches that are rarely brought up in the BiggerPockets Forums that turn out to be quite lucrative. Ive learned about ways to mitigate exposure to various financial and market risks. However, one of the most beneficial thing that Ive learnedand the topic of todays postis how millionaires build their wealth. Im not talking about the mega-millionaires. While Im sure everyone would love to be in the mega-millionaire category, frankly its unattainable for most. Im talking about the Millionaire Next Door type of millionaires. This type of millionaire is, as Ive found, relatively easy to become. Full disclosure: Im not a millionairenot even close. However, I have been lucky enough to interact with and advise many homegrown millionaires. Hopefully, youll still be able to take away something of value from my article. So what does the everyday millionaire do differently than the rest of us? They develop key habits, defer their gratification, and treat their passive income like the most important business theyve ever run. The #1 Non-Money Habit of Millionaires The number onenon-money habit that will make you a millionaire is waking up earlier than the rest of the world. I know its hyped up and over-sold. I always rolled my eyes when I heard about this habit, too. Im not a morning person, and the thought of waking up before the sun was dreadful. But that was before I got into the business of advising successful real estate investors and business owners. That was also before I established this habit for myself. Waking up early has plenty of benefits;however, the two that stand out the most when Im conversing with clients are that it gives you time to work on projects you never have time for and it jump starts your productivity. Related: Building Wealth: What Key Practices Separate Millionaires From the Middle Class? The difference between people living mediocre lives and people living successful lives is that the successful people create time to work on the projects that the mediocre people dream about. Dont have time to review three real estate deals a day? Wake up early! The projects dont have to be real estate-related; in fact, they dont even have to be business-related. Maybe you dream about starting a podcast or writing a book about the tea and food pairings. Maybe you just want to paint more often or get in shape. When interviewing my clients, other investors, and business owners, Ive realized the most successful ones have some sort of cool project theyre working on. As I noticed the trend, I began inquiring not only about the projects, but also about how they have time. The answer almost all of these successful people provided was that they wake up early. Its that simple. And think about itwhen you wake up early to work on the project youre always putting off, do you think youll be excited to wake up? Not only will you be motivated to get out of bed, but your entire day will essentially see a jump start in productivity. You will create this sort of productivity momentum, which will result in you performing better throughout the day at your job, business, real estate, or whatever it is youre working on! I dont have scientific data. I dont know the neurology behind it. But I do know that almost all of the successful investors and clients Ive collaborated with wake up early to work on their various projects. I was skeptical at first, but I tried it. I read Miracle Morningfor some motivation, and Ive now created a habit of waking up early. My productivity has exploded, and Ive seen the benefits spill over into other areas of my life life business, investing, relationships, and overall health and happiness. Best of all, waking up at 5:00 a.m. isnt bad at all after a week or so. Im used to it and have a routine that motivates me to jump out of bed every morning. If you get nothing else out of this post, I highly recommend trying this for 30 days. The benefits will exceed your expectations. Deferring Gratification and Value-Add Spending All, let me repeat, ALL of the successful people Ive spoken with understand the art of gratification deferral. The thought process goes like this: That purchase will make me happy, but is it necessary today? Do I really need that product or service? Will it help me reach my goals? Oftentimes, the answer is a simple no. So they put off buying the new shoes, fancy dinners, and concert tickets. They buy used vehicles rather than new and expensive cars. They focus on saving and investinggrowing their dollar and paying their future selves. This allows them to get out of the rat race and snowball their investments into financial freedom territory. Buy the Tesla once your net worth reaches $1,000,000. Your future millionaire self will thank the present you for waiting. Another key trend semi-related to this topic is that the successful investors and business owners focus on value-add spending and savings. For instance, one of the investors I know built up an enormous amount of wealth by simply owner-occupying multi-family properties and slowly rehabbing all of the units. He would buy a four-plex, live in one unit for a year, rehab it, then move to the next unit and rinse and repeat. While he was flipping the unit, the other three would be rented out, covering his mortgage and then some. He used this strategy for two four-plexes, and it took him about eight years to complete. He was able to 1031 exchange those properties into a much larger apartment complex, which is valued at over $1,000,000. Related: 5 Habits of the Wealthy That Helped Them Get Rich One of my clients spends tens of thousands of dollars each year on seminars and trainings. However, she has a high net worth and has determined she can do this without it negatively impacting her financial position. Her business is centered on building a network of people, and shes quantified the value of every $1,000 she spends at these seminars and found that she will eventually earn revenue about twice the size of the cost to attend. But it wasnt always this way. Had she spent thousands of dollars going to a seminar while her business was trying to get on its feet, she may not have succeeded at all. In the early days, her money was better spent creating content, advertising, building a local network, and implementing business systems. She understood that while the seminars may be valuable, there were better things to spend her money on at the time to grow to a level where it was financially feasible to attend these larger events. Treating Real Estate Investing Like a Business One of the more eye-opening conversations Ive ever had was with a gentleman who invests in apartment buildings. I was showing him a property I thought was a good deal, and before he even looked at the deal, he asked me how the local economy was. The investors that see large-scale success analyze real estate in a completely different way than the rest of us. The successful investors start by analyzing economic conditions of various cities, towns, etc. When they find one they like, they narrow down their search and identify the best locations and neighborhoods in the area. They dont start with Realtor.com. They also dont necessarily start by contacting a real estate agent. They want to understand the macro and microeconomic conditions that may affect their investment performance to determine if its even worth their time to continue looking in the target area. Then they worry about building relationships and getting boots on the ground. And when you think about it, that simple reversal of the typical methodology many of us employ makes complete sense. Why invest in the best neighborhood in a city that has declining economic conditions? Its backwardlogic. On top of that, before they even attempt to identify a property, they learn all they can about the competition in the area. If they want to invest in apartment buildings, they will find out exactly what the other apartment buildings in the area have to offer. If they find a value gap, they exploit it. For instance, the gentleman I briefly mentioned above told me that his apartment building has washer and dryer hookups, and no other apartment building near him has washer-dryer hookups. Something that simple can give you a huge competitive advantage over all the other investors in your area. Thats how businesses are run. Theres a constant jockeying of positioning to have the best value-add offerings. The investors who understand and can identify competitive advantages will win every time. The Wrap-Up Being a CPA has allowed me to peer into the financial lives of many successful real estate investors. Though Im not a millionaire myself, Ive identified habits, mindsets, and logic that I believe can make anyone a millionaire if they are all applied. I find wealth a fascinating topic, and I hope you are able to take something away from this article. Until next time! Were republishing this article to help out our newer readers. Which of these lessons strikes a chord with you?What would you add? Leave your comments below! https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2016/01/31/cpa-taught-millionaire/

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YOU’RE A SAP, MISTER JAP

When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7 1941, Tin Pan Alley’s songwriters reacted with instant fury and patriotic zeal, churning out hundreds of war songs at a ferocious clip. Amateurs jumped into the fray as well. By December 20, just two weeks later, The Billboard was already reporting that music publishers had received more than one thousand war song submissions. Only a fraction were ever published and recorded, but even that amounted to a lot of records, and a few would have big impacts on American morale early in the war.

The hive of most of that activity was the Brill Building on the west side of Broadway between 49th and 50th Streets. At the start of the century, when the term “Tin Pan Alley” was coined, the music business was concentrated on West 28th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, with Broadway cutting diagonally through. Its nickname referred to the constant racket of cheap upright pianos where guys stacked five stories high toiled long into the night banging out a cacophony of competing tunes. By 1941 most of the publishers had migrated uptown to the eleven-story Brill Building, opened in 1931. Lindy’s, immortalized by Damon Runyon as Mindy’s, was across Broadway.

The first two Tin Pan Alley songs reacting to Pearl Harbor — “We’ll Knock the Japs Right into the Laps of the Nazis” and “We Did It Before (and We Can Do It Again)” — were allegedly written that very day, December 7. Hearing the news from Hawaii, composer Lew Pollack and lyricist Ned Washington whipped out “We’ll Knock the Japs” on Sunday afternoon and rushed it to Bert Wheeler, of the vaudeville and Broadway comedy duo Wheeler & Woolsey. (Woolsey had died in 1938.) Wheeler apparently introduced the song that night as part of his club act in Los Angeles. In part it went:

Oh, we didn't want to do it but they're asking for it now

So we'll knock the Japs right into the laps of the Nazis,

When they hop on Honolulu that's a thing we won't allow

So we'll knock the Japs right into the laps of the Nazis!

Chins up, Yankees, let's see it through,

And show them there's no yellow in the red, white and blue

I'd hate to be in Yokohama when our bombers make their bow,

For we'll knock the Japs right into the laps of the Nazis!

Also on Sunday, another pair of Tin Pan Alley stalwarts, Charles Tobias and Cliff Friend, knocked out “We Did It Before,” a rousing George M. Cohan–style march. Friend is best known now for having written the theme song for Looney Tunes (“The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down”) in 1937. Tobias’s long list of credits includes “Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer,” “Merrily We Roll Along” — which he cowrote with his brother-in-law Eddie Cantor, and which Warner Bros. adapted for its Merrie Melodies theme song — as well as one that became a huge hit during the war, “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree (With Anyone Else but Me).”

Cantor introduced “We Did It Before” on his popular weekly radio show that Wednesday, December 10. Dinah Shore sang it on her radio show the following Sunday, and Cantor went on to interpolate it into his stage revue Banjo Eyes, which opened on Broadway on Christmas Day and ran into April 1942. The sheet music was a top ten seller for a couple of months. Bringing things full circle, in 1943 Warner Bros. would use the song in a Merrie Melodies cartoon, Fifth Column Mouse, in which the mice mobilize for war against a dictatorial cat.

By Monday morning, December 8, the Tin Pan Alley trio of lyricist James Cavanaugh (best known for “You’re Nobody till Somebody Loves You”), John Redmond, and Nat Simon had written the upbeat “You’re a Sap, Mr. Jap”:

You’re a sap, Mr. Jap, you make a Yankee cranky,

You’re a sap, Mr. Jap, Uncle Sam is gonna spanky

It was released as a single before the month was out. In 1942 it also found its way into a cartoon, the first Popeye cartoon of the war, with caricatures of Japanese that were so extreme it was removed from circulation after the war — along with a number of other patriotically racist cartoons — and rarely seen again until the birth of the Internet.

By the week of January 11 Billboard counted twenty-four war singles released since December 7. There was the catchy “Goodbye Mama, I’m Off to Yokohama,” written by Brooklyn-born J. Fred Coots, better known for writing “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” in 1934. The singer of this song was going to “teach all those Japs / The Yanks are no saps.”

Kate Smith weighed in with the spritely “They Started Somethin’ (But We’re Gonna End It)” and the sentimental ballad “Dear Mom,” a soldier’s letter home. She would follow them in February with “This Time,” a not particularly memorable Irving Berlin number. (“We’ll fight to the finish this time / Then we’ll never have to do it again.”) Billboard listed three different recordings of the inevitable “Remember Pearl Harbor,” plus the clever “Let’s Put the Axe to the Axis” and the swinging “The Sun Will Soon Be Setting (For the Land of the Rising Sun).”

The list also included two interesting “hillbilly” songs, as country music was then called. They emanated not from Nashville but the Brill Building. Tin Pan Alley had been exploring the relatively small markets for hillbilly and folk music since the 1920s. Then the genres got a boost in popularity in 1941 from an unlikely source. In January, ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), the professional organization that licensed music to the radio broadcasters, demanded a doubling in fees. Broadcasters responded by pulling all ASCAP music from the airwaves and plugged the gap with music by non-ASCAP members, especially hillbilly and folk. By October, when ASCAP and the broadcasters came to new terms, hillbilly and folk had expanded their niche in the market, and the Tin Pan Alley pros cashed in.

One of those pros was Fred Rose, whose “Cowards Over Pearl Harbor” was a mournful, guitar-strumming folk ballad recorded by Denver Darling. Two of the most prolific were Memphis-born Bob Miller and Kansas-born Carson Robison, who both came to Tin Pan Alley in the 1920s. Miller worked for a while as Irving Berlin’s arranger, while Robison specialized in country and cowboy songs that humorously treated topical themes. Their response to Pearl Harbor was the outrageous “We’re Gonna Have to Slap the Dirty Little Jap,” sung to a silly, quick-time oompah melody:

We're gonna have to slap the dirty little Jap

And Uncle Sam's the guy who can do it

We'll skin the streak of yellow from this sneaky little fellow

And he'll think a cyclone hit him when he's through it

We'll take the double crosser to the old woodshed

We'll start on his bottom and go to his head

When we get through with him he'll wish that he was dead

We gotta slap the dirty little Jap

We're gonna have to slap the dirty little Jap

And Uncle Sam's the guy who can do it

The Japs and all their hooey will be changed into chop suey And the rising sun will set when we get through it

Their alibi for fighting is to save their face

For ancestors waiting in celestial space

We'll kick their precious face down to the other place

We gotta slap the dirty little Jap

Robison went on to record several more humorous war songs, including “Mussolini’s Letter to Hitler” and its flip side “Hitler’s Reply to Mussolini,” “Get Your Gun and Come Along (We’re Fixin to Kill a Skunk),” and “Who’s Gonna Bury Hitler (When the Ornery Cuss Is Dead)?”

Far and away the most successful song responding to Pearl Harbor was Frank Loesser’s “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition,” one of the biggest hits of 1942. Born into a wealthy Upper West Side Jewish household, Loesser had dismayed his family when he went first to Tin Pan Alley and then to Hollywood, where he wrote the lyrics for such standards as “Heart and Soul,” “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” and “Two Sleepy People.” “Praise the Lord” was inspired by a Pearl Harbor legend concerning the fleet chaplain (“sky pilot” in the song) Father William A. Maguire, who helped carry ammo to the guns firing at the attacking planes and supposedly cried out the song’s title. Father Maguire told Life he didn’t remember saying the line and it would not have been heard in all the uproar even if he did, but you can’t stop a legend. In some versions — including Loesser’s — Maguire actually manned a gun himself.

First recorded by the vocal quartet the Merry Macs, then by Kay Kyser and others, “Praise the Lord” sold huge numbers in both disc and sheet music, nearly matching Irving Berlin’s giant “White Christmas” in sales and jukebox plays for a time. No doubt much of its popularity stemmed from its easy-to-sing simplicity, with lyrics that weren’t much more than the title repeated over and over to a strolling melody that sounded like an old-time spiritual.

Loesser donated his proceeds from the song to the U.S. Navy Relief Fund. After the war he would have a big Broadway hit with Guys and Dolls.

by John Strausbaugh

Excerpted from John's new book Victory City: A History of New York and New Yorkers During World War II.