Maybe I Did Want To Get The Next Chapter Out Before I Got To College But. Packing. Moving.

Happy 2023, hope everyone’s got their bingo cards ready!

Fanfiction Authors: HEADS UP

(Non-authors, please RB to signal boost to your author friends!)

An astute reader informed me this morning that one of my fics (Children of the Future Age) had been pirated and was being sold as a novel on Amazon:

(And they weren't even creative with their cover design. If you're going to pirate something that I spent a full year of my life writing, at least give me a pretty screenshot to brag about later. Seriously.)

I promptly filed a DMCA complaint to have it removed, but I checked out the company that put it up -- Plush Books -- and it looks like A LOT of their books are pirated fic. They are by no means the only ones doing this, either -- the fact that """publishers""" can download stories from AO3 in ebook format and then reupload them to Amazon in just a few clicks makes fic piracy a common problem. There are a whole host of reasons why letting this continue is bad -- including actual legal risk to fanfiction archives -- but basically:

IF YOU ARE A FANFIC AUTHOR WITH LONG AND/OR POPULAR WORKS, PLEASE CHECK AMAZON TO SEE IF YOUR STORIES HAVE BEEN PIRATED.

You can search for your fics by title, or by text from the description (which is often just copied wholesale from AO3 as well). If you find that someone has stolen your work and is selling it as their own, you can lodge a DMCA complaint (Amazon.com/USA site; other countries have different systems). If you haven't done this before, it's easy! Here's a tutorial:

HOW TO FILE A COPYRIGHT COMPLAINT FOR STOLEN WORK ON AMAZON.COM:

First, go to this form. You'll need to be signed into your Amazon account.

Select the radio buttons/dropdown options (shown below) to indicate that you are the legal Rights Owner, you have a copyright concern, and it is about a pirated product.

Enter the name of your story in the Name of Brand field.

In the Link to the Copyrighted Work box, enter a link to the story on AO3 or whatever site your work is posted on.

In the Additional Information box, explain that you are the author of the work and it is being sold without your permission. That's all you really need. If you want, you can include additional information that might be helpful in establishing the validity of your claim, but you don't have to go into great detail. You can simply write something like this:

I am the author of this work, which is being sold by [publisher] without my permission. I originally published this story in [date/year] on [name of site], and have provided a link to the original above. On request, I can provide documentation proving that I am the owner of the account that originally posted this story.

In the ASIN/ISBN-10 field, copy and paste the ID number from the pirated copy's URL. You'll find this ten-digit number in the Amazon URL after the word "product," as in the screenshot below. (If the URL extends beyond this number, you can ignore everything from the question mark on.) Once this number has been added, Amazon will pull the product information automatically and add it to the complaint form, so you can check the listing title and make sure it's correct.

Finally, add your contact information to the relevant fields, check the "I have read and accept the statements" box, and then click Submit. You should receive an email confirmation that Amazon has received the form.

Please share this information with your writer friends, keep an eye out for/report pirated works, and help us keep fanfiction free and legally protected!

NOTE: All of the above also applies to Amazon products featuring stolen artwork, etc., so fan artists should check too!

No thoughts, only this mess

For me it’s all about how you make the initially awful situation a comfort compared to other stuff, and I don’t mean this in terms of just torture vs worse torture. It’s about the way a cramped closet in the dark feels like hell at first but has since become comforting now that it’s the only place they feel safe because at least here they’re left alone. Or how a whumper can’t help but keep thinking that they’d rather be actively hurt than try to recon with the mind games and forced intimacy because at least when they’re being hurt they feel like they know how to feel about whumper. Or even little things they took for granted like a rag they used as a blanket, or disgusting food that was they’re only option, being taken away.

It’s escalation sure, but in a way that makes recovery for whumper so much harder, because of those constants, and those sources of comfort that make you feel as soon as your snapped back to the reality that it isn’t normal. in constantly choosing between the bad and the worse in their head, wishing things would go back to just being not as awful, they later realise they completely forgot about anything else. And with those few scraps of comfort being the only thing that makes them feel safe anymore, even after being rescued, can lead to some interesting and possibly harmful coping mechanisms as they try to feel normal again.

What feels comforting is often what us familiar, but sometimes what is familiar to whumper can be the furthest thing from comforting to caretaker.

But then again it really comes down to just balancing reader experiences. Too much of the same isn’t fun, you gotta dangle that hope that things can be better even if whumpee doesn’t believe it in the moment. To me they’re stories about how people survive, regardless of how different they come out the other side of it all, and that struggle will always be more interesting to me than everything constantly getting worse with no promise of resolution. Surprises are fun, but the same set up with different unique ways of whumping the whumpee can get tedious.

Idk just my thoughts.

I feel like total discomfort/ constant complete suffering can become sort of numbing for a character, taking away the impact of escalation at a certain point. It's the scraps of comfort the character gets or finds that hit harder then some of the most brutal scenes I've read/seen. That's just me though, what are yalls thoughts on this?

Never in my life have I found a post that actually makes me feel okay with being aro and not loving people the conventional way.

What is Love (An Arospec’s Perspective)

(This is a Really Long One, so full comic is under the cut)

Keep reading

It him!!!!

Finally made a reference for Titan from me and @jcryptid au (it’s ours now shhhhhhh) so if you want to get to know the boi a bit more here he is!!

I don’t know who you are but I’m gonna show y’all all the thanks I can

Reblog to send every single person who has read one of your stories a forehead kiss

I know cameras don’t really exist in fantasy worlds but I needed to see the floof squad smiling.

Did i impulsively spend weeks on rendering after getting hooked on a Batfam fic? Yes.... Yes I did.

for real though guys, the author of this fic is an absolute angel. So... @lulurythmea: Happy Birthday.... thanks for making me cry and go feral.... can't wait to see what the hell you do next you crazy son of a bitch ;)

the fic in question is Across the Sands on Ao3, go check it out if you also want to go feral and get some of that sweet sweet hurt comfort!

It's been one hell of a ride, but my god am I glad i got on board when I did.

Happy Birthday lulu, here's to many great works of writing and art from us all to come

I can’t believe “Across The Sands” is nearing its conclusion pretty soon. Almost two years of work have gone into this journey, from the sandy compound of Nanda Parbat to the grimy streets of Gotham. I’m having a lot of emotions right now, and this before/after was a good way to vent them.

Thank you so very much to those who participated in this birthday challenge, including @haikuofmanyhues & @jcryptid. Your contributions were wonderful!!!