We have the funds to pay the other bills and not starve (I think) but rent? …Yeah, not so much on that one. The mate is employed, but his current employment pay rate isn’t yet enough to carry the load. He’s still keeping an ear out, but in the meantime, we need to continue to have this roof over our heads…which means I am continuing the Fundraisening for the foreseeable future.
You guys helped to carry us this far, and we are not going to forget that. There is gratitude beyond words for the help we have received this year. I hate to ask again, but I have kids and cats who do not deserve to be homeless.
I do not come empty-handed (Hatted?) this time, though. I have the first three shinies of October!
I’ve set a base price for the three of them. If you buy one and then want to add a tip so I am that much closer to rent-paying, then I will be extremely grateful.
(Shipping rates in the US are $3.95 First Class & $7.95 Priority; International is $15.00 First Class estimate and Hell No That Costs Too Much for Priority.)
Water of Life: Iolite, Citrine, Hematite, Gold-plated Stainless Steel, Gunmetal-finished Steel, and Stainless Steel on 49-strand coated stainless steel wire, 23″ long with a stainless steel toggle clasp. Pendant is Stainless Steel and Gold-plated Stainless Steel and is 2.25″ from bail to tip. Things that don’t often go together decide it’s time to give it a try. $45 + Shipping. SOLD
Drylands: Rose Quartz and Picasso Jasper with Silver-plated Stainless Steel on 49-strand coated stainless steel wire, 20″ long with a silver-plated stainless steel toggle clasp. Pendant is .925 Sterling Silver and is 1.25″ from bail to tip. Delicate while absolutely refusing to be fragile. $50.00 + Shipping.
Weaving: Varying shades of awesome marble beads double-strung on 49-strand stainless steel wire with stainless steel bead cups on the end and a stainless steel lobster clasp, and is 27″ total length. Basically, this is made of Awesome.$75.00 + Shipping.
I need to raise $1852.95 by…well, the 28th would be convenient, but definitely before the end of the month.
Halp.
I’d absolutely love to say I had chapters to fling at you guys for surpassing fundraising goals, but you guys ate my backlog. Which is great, because it meant we didn’t starve! But less great for having writing ready to earn my keep. Instead, I will just do my best to get stuff ready for publishing, not to mention make more shinies.
Creative Writing Professor at a former college: Welcome to creative writing! By the way,
you will not write fantasy, ghost stories, pranormal, or science fiction
in this class, as this is a creative writing course.”
What the ever loving fuck is with “creative” writing professors who think that speculative fiction of any stripe ISN’T CREATIVE?
I still remember my own creative writing teacher telling me this because he saw the Terry Pratchett book on my desk and got this smug smirk on his face like “aha, gotcha”. He had the nerve to pick it up and call it “popularist fiction”, like somehow being popular and easily accessible made it less inherent in intellectual value.
I had it in my back pack because I did my final thesis on the evolution of mythology and folk tails into fantasy and sci-fi and the societal importance of telling stories (before anyone asks, no I don’t have it, I lost it when I moved continents), and I used Terry Pratchett because there wasn’t a single humanitarian issue the man did not touch on.
Which I told him. And then he kind of floundered and went “ah, well but, it’s…well I mean it’s not exactly high brow”, like neither the fuck was Shakespeare or Dickens you self-important turnip. Dickens was literally selling his stories by the chapter. He was the popular author of his time. Shakespeare was too, he fucking made up words and phrases all the time because the language he needed to express himself didn’t exist in the way he needed it too.
Intellectual elitism is nothing more than a hold over from class warfare and the belief that only certain people should get to be truly educated. And it needs to be smashed.
My name is Kelsey Juliana and I’m suing the United States government
for causing and accelerating the climate change crisis. I’m 22 years old
and I’ve been a climate activist for more than half of my life.
I know that young people like me, and others who have yet to be born,
have a right to a safe climate system. The constitution guarantees all
Americans the right to life, liberty, and property. But how is anyone
supposed to live a life of freedom amid a climate crisis? My own
government is violating my constitutional rights by its ongoing and
deliberate actions that cause climate change and it’s not right.
I, along with 20 other young people from around the country, filed a lawsuit against the federal government in 2015, called Juliana v. United States.
We’re not asking for money. Instead, we’re asking the court to order
the government to develop and implement a National Climate Recovery Plan
based on the best available science.
This plan should end the reign of fossil fuels and quickly
decarbonize our atmosphere so that we can stabilize our climate system
before it’s too late.
The longer we go without climate recovery, the more we risk allowing our climate to spiral completely out of control.
And the climate is spiraling out of control, no matter how many
politicians claim we’re experiencing normal fluctuations or, worse, a
“hoax.” All of the expert witnesses in our lawsuit say that we are
currently—already—in the “danger zone” and an “emergency situation” with
only 1°C of planetary heating. Allowing the planet to heat up any more
is not safe for our species, as well as so many others. And according to
the Trump administration’s most recent environmental impact statement,
the planet could heat as much as 7°F before the end of this century. We
cannot allow this to happen because we simply will not survive.
We originally filed our lawsuit against the Obama administration.
That administration tried to have the case dismissed, but the judge
ruled in our favor and found that we should be allowed to go to trial.
In 2017, the Trump administration inherited the lawsuit and it has
done everything in its power, employing every conceivable tactic, to
deny my fellow plaintiffs and me our right to present our case in court.
This administration is so fiercely attempting to silence our voices.
At this point, every level of the federal judiciary—the U.S. District
Court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court—has
denied the Trump administration’s efforts to have the case thrown out.
Yet it will not halt its efforts to avoid standard legal procedures and
confront us, the nation’s youth, in court.
Our trial is officially scheduled to begin on October 29, 2018 in Eugene, Oregon.
What we’re asking for could change everything.
My fellow plaintiffs and I want you with us as we head into the
courtroom to confront the United States government for knowingly
violating our constitutional rights. Supporters will hold rallies in
every state around the country, so if you can’t be with us in Eugene, find your local rally here.
Get regular updates by following @youthvgov on social media.
Creative Writing Professor at a former college: Welcome to creative writing! By the way,
you will not write fantasy, ghost stories, pranormal, or science fiction
in this class, as this is a creative writing course.”
What the ever loving fuck is with “creative” writing professors who think that speculative fiction of any stripe ISN’T CREATIVE?
Rather than writing up a whole other thing, this is what @dadhoc wrote for the fundraiser:
Hello friends!
As many of you are aware, Mandy’s been having a heck of a time with their KD Smart Chair. It’s been fritzing out on us at conventions and events, and finally sparked out and died quite dramatically at HLG Con in Atlantic City a couple weeks ago.
To make matters worse, we were struck by another vehicle on our way there, and are going to be stuck paying the deductible since no witnesses stopped and the other driver is refusing fault.
After talking with the fine folks over at Wheelchair and Scooter Repair for an estimate and tossing on the cost of the insurance deductible, we’re going to be out of pocket about a grand. This is, to put it mildly, not money we have right now.
Mandy needs their wheeled legs back, as we depend upon their mobility at conventions and shows in order to make a living. Once we’ve got the money, we can order the repairs and have their chair back and running in short order.
Every little bit helps! Thank you in advance, so so much!
***
So, …yeah. Our car needs repairs and my chair completely died and it’ll cost at least this much to get the car fixed and have a tech assess if my chair can even be repaired.
Hopefully it can because otherwise we’re looking at funding a whole new chair.
Anyway, here’s the fundraiser. Please help if you can and share if you can’t. Losing my mobility has been emotionally crushing.
TMSM: With The Librarians being cancelled is there any possibility of it being picked up?
Christian:
Not quite sure about a possibility of it being picked up. People have
moved on to different stuff. There is always a possibility. Dean is
talking about doing something. I know Noah has expressed his interest in
doing a movie. I don’t know if it would be a movie of the week or on
the big screen. The Librarians is 12 years old. Noah created it so I
don’t see it going away.
TMSM: Is there any possibility of seeing Leverage return?
Christian:
Leverage is actually closer to being a reality than The Librarians.
Everyone is kind of in on it. I just had dinner with Tim Hutton, he
wants to do it. Dean wants to do it. The whole cast just got to dinner
the other night. We all sat down and were all talking about it. It’s
such a huge possibility. I gotta be honest with you, at some point it’s
gonna become a certainty. There is no way that’s gonna disappear.
I teared up. I need more Leverage in my life.
Leverage is what 2018 needs. And probably 2019, too. Desperately.
Creative writing prof:You’re in control. You’re the puppet master. You control these characters – what they do, what they say, what they think–
Every writer I know: My characters stopped listening to me and now I’m 8272836 words in to a plot that went of the rails on page 3
Honestly though
Big mood omg
… Where is this Creative Writing Prof? I’d rather have had that one than the one who graded me down for using fantasy elements for the short story and failed me because my prefered style of play to emulate is Shakespeare.
(Meanwhile, my characters still merrily ignore my planning, because I’m just the author, not the boss of them.)
There's a Mirror on the Wall 