“Speak The Truth, Even If Your Voice Shakes.”

If only one of my posts gets read by amateur authors let it be this:

SUBMIT YOUR WORK TO THE TOP PUBLICATIONS FIRST AND WORK YOUR WAY DOWN!

What do I mean by top? Standards of quality, audience, pay rate, legal contract; it can be anything. What matters is that you set the metric you prefer and aim for the top.

I say this because most new authors think that when submitting short stories, or flash fiction, or poetry, you need past credentials to publish with the highly-ranked publications. That's probably true but the logic is backwards. By the time you're good enough to publish in the highest ranking magazines, you've probably already published in a lot of others. Don't settle, you have nothing to lose.

Let's look at two scenarios. One in which you believe in your writing and one in which you don't.

The confident writer starts submitting to all the top publications. They submit, wait for a rejection, and submit again to a different one. They slowly work down the line until finally they hit the very top of the range of publications that are willing to accept their work. They now know what market they have a chance in and what markets to read from to improve.

The insecure writer starts submitting to all the unknown/unpaid/unvetted publications. They need to build credentials before they can submit to the preferred publications, right? If they don't get scammed out of rights they slowly move up the line of publications. They stop when they get accepted by the very bottom range of publications that will pay them the least amount, or give the least exposure, and think themselves lucky. And now they find themselves gaining much less confidence, and much less understanding of the markets, than if they started from the top. They'll have markets they believe they have to learn from when really they've surpassed them.

Even in the worst case publishing scenario: only one market accepts your publication at the very bottom, the only thing that is lost by being confident is your time. With any other publications willing to accept your work, you're guaranteed to get the better deal by being confident. Starting from the bottom is only self sabotage.

You may get more rejections (or even fewer than you think), but if you keep your head up and keep pushing, it'll be better for your writing and your confidence in the long run.

Besides, you'll probably be scammed less if you start with the ones that everyone trusts.

Don’t you hate it when you look in the mirror and see someone else?

once again there’s not enough JJ content in the world so I made more. Poor Timmy boy, I am putting him through hell.

Been spending my time lately thinking of a House MD au where, through a series of accidents and lies and a bet he didn't rly intend to win, House ends up as a registered foster parent (he's still addicted to Vicodin and his normal dickish workaholic self but for some reason he cleared the requirements and trust me he's as stunned and mildly concerned as everyone else is).

Through further Shenanigans™, he ends up accidentally getting handed fostership of not one, not two, but three hellish but brilliant kids:

1. This total smartass 16 year old named Robert Chase who yeah he's a bitchy teenaged boy and a former rich kid and Australian with enough mommy and daddy issues to reawaken Freud after his dad dipped and absconded all parental rights and his mom drank herself to death, but he's also got a nice car left over from his rich kid days and an eye for detail and weirdly enough his best friend/mortal enemy (some other teen named Eric Foreman) and his on again off again girlfriend (Allison Cameron, totally won't last if u ask House) both work at the hospital as a candy striper and after school in the cafeteria respectively so House can get all the inside gossip from Chase. Plus Chase has no problems breaking and entering into patient's homes which helps bc since he's not employed by the hospital Cuddy can't complain as far as House is concerned.

2. A 14 year old girl who only answers to Thirteen (House knows he could look her name up in her file but honestly it drives Chase nuts that she won't tell him her real name and that's good enough for him) and who's dad was declared unfit after the death of his wife to Huntington's devastated him. She's a total nightmare, snarky and quick witted and freakishly smart even tho she puts most of those smarts towards things like shaving Chase's entire head (eyebrows included) bc he's trying to grow a sucky teenage mustache, and trying to take House's wallet bc she keeps calling him Old Man and he informed her he's actually only 25 but the stress of fostering has aged him prematurely and she's like 95% sure that's a lie but she wants to check his license and make sure bc everyone lies. She loves tormenting Chase by telling him his best friend and/or his girlfriend is hot and asking if they're single.

And 3. This 6 year old boy named Lawrence Kutner who's weirdly cheerful considering his parents got killed in front of him. He's way too chatty and excellent at puzzles and the only morning person in the entire house and therefore frequently tries to make breakfast (he likes to be helpful and he hasn't burned the place down yet so House doesn't feel the need to stop him). Once he told House he was gonna build a Death Star in the living room and House said lol sure go ahead whatever, only to return home from work to discover Kutner called himself out from school and has a huge wooden frame made of broken furniture in the living room. House rly can't argue since he did say go ahead. Benefits of fostering a 6 year old are 1. The babes love it, 2. Free excuse to leave work early/come in late/not show up at all, and 3. Justification for buying juice boxes and Ritz crackers. The neighbor kid Taub is his go to babysitter bc his mom volunteered him forcibly and Taub is lowkey praying that babysitting Kutner could lead to an in at Princeton Plainsboro once he graduates high-school and finishes medical school (it won't, House doesn't believe in nepotism unless it benefits him).

The adventures of House and his Foster Ducklings mostly revolve around being a Found Family, but do involve frequent plots such as:

House fired his brand new fellows again (he tosses em every three or so months, he hasn't found The Right Team yet) and will sometimes bring his foster kids in, hand em doctors coats, and tell patients that they're just a bunch of medical savants here to consult yes even the 6 year old he's actually Harvard's youngest graduate ever.

House sends the kids to break into a patient's home. They refuse. House tells them the first one to find black mold or lead paint or a dead animal or whatever gets $20. They agree. Chase drops Thirteen and Kutner off at a bus stop across town and drives over himself so he can get an hour and a half head start (ultimate fuck them kids moment, however Thirteen did steal his wallet so guess who's paying for lunch and their taxi ride to the patient's house? Net loss.)

Cuddy demands House does his clinic hours. House sends his foster kids to do his clinic hours for him. Tfw you go to the free walk in clinic for a sore throat and a cough and your doctor is a 6 year old boy who keeps asking for help with spelling whilst filling out your chart.

Wilson babysits them one (1) time since House doesn't trust Chase not to throw a party or sell his foster siblings on eBay if left as the one in charge. He wakes up with a big strip of hair poorly bleached right down the middle. Chase crushed up stolen sleeping pills and mixed them into a juice box, which Kutner 'innocently' offered to Wilson. Thirteen was going to bleach and dye his whole head blue (for practice, she wants to dye her hair but she's certainly not gonna fuck up her own hair until she has the method down) but Wilson woke up pretty quickly due to years of House drugging him. Wilson has not offered to babysit again.

Anyways this is my House Foster Ducklings au which I'm thinking about actually writing. Thank u 🫡

TXT as buzzfeed unsolved

Yeonjun does not in fact give it up. As in he literally bugs Soobin for a straight month before Soobin snaps and is like “OKAY FINE” but like,,, Soobin isn’t dumb he’s not doing this alone. So he forces their (underage but you know what that’s besides the point) friends into helping them. Kai and Taehyun are all for it but Beomgyu (their resident scaredy cat) is like …uh …no???? But Soobin bribes him with food and threatens him with blackmail so he got on board pretty fast.

Yeonjun forced all of them to film an intro to all of the channel’s and it’s literally the cringiest thing the others have ever seen. Like it’s all of them crammed into Soobin and Yeonjun’s tiny ass dorm room sitting on Soobin’s bed screaming “Hey! It’s the spooky boys!” into the camera with their names edited on as captions with comic sans. They Hate Him.

They gain popularity like crazy fast,,,,it’s five attractive young men with chemistry anyone can see. People fall in love with them bc of their dynamic.

Yeonjun and Taehyun firmly believe in ghosts, Beomgyu says he doesn’t and then end up crying when he hears the wind and crying “Yeonjun hyung!!!!” and Soobin and Kai both think it’s bullshit

So like there’s a bunch of compilations titled things like: Beomgyu being a scaredy-cat for five minutes straight, Soobin and Kai being done with Yeonjun and Taehyun for fifteen minutes, Spooky boys being dumb af for twenty minutes straight and many more.

Once Soobin and Kai set up a prank where there was like a little tube of toothpaste just sitting on a counter in the bathroom of the hotel they were staying in and there was an invisible rope attached to it that Soobin can reach from his bed so when poor Beomgyu gets up in the middle of the night to take a leak he can pull it and make it seem like a ghost did it

Seems funny right?

It was not

Beomgyu cried so hard they had to cut the camera for an entire hour as the rest desperately tried to calm him down On that note there are Beomgyu getting so scared he cried compilations. There are currently six of them.

Poor boy

Occasionally they take requests but that’s rare tbh

Most of their videos go: Yeonjun awake at four am with bloodshot eyes and every light of Yeonbin’s tiny ass apartment turned on and Soobin sitting in the back looking dead inside: “Ok! Guys! There’s this! Murder house! Thing!!” “the lizzie borden house” “YEAH! THAT! And we’re gonna go so here’s all the research I did instead of studying for my finals!” *cue Soobin choking: you didn’t study?!* yeonjun ignores him

Beomgyu, Kai, and Taehyun both get checked out of school like once a week for this and their teachers are always like ??? And they’re just like “time to haunt some spooks” the teachers Hate Them

People are literally like ??? Do yall go to school ???

Also Yeonjun is a dance major and Soobin is an arts major and when their fans find out they beg for covers

So they start a new channel

It’s called something stupid like Spooky Boys Try Things

And they do dumbass challenges on it but they also showcase their musical prowess so that’s fun People fall even more in love with these idiots

They end up getting so big they get to go to VidCon

Which like-

It was a MESS

Beomgyu was sent to go get drinks and he got so lost he literally ended up in an abandoned part of the hotel and he was vlogging the whole thing for their side chanel and it literally went like: “H-hey g-guys… So… I’m *sniffles* l-lost and-and I-I’m a-afraid I’m go-gonna h-have to haunt this place *sniffles* forever and everyone will make fun of me as a g-ghost because o-of it.” and then he breaks down in tears

Taehyun finds him and drags him back by the ear

And like they all tease him bc he got lost but Yeonbin institute a mandatory buddy system afterwards (because for the few minutes that they couldn’t find Beomgyu it was literally terrifying because that’s the underage boy they’re in charge of so they were like where the hell is he)

At the end of the day even if they’re mean as hell to each other they do love each other a lot and it shows up on and off camera (even when SooKai make Beomgyu cry for the fifth time that week )

Somebody mentioned in a tag on one of my posts the scene where Marco Animorphs is showering after antmageddon and he finds an ant stuck to his hip by the pincers where it presumably was trying to bite him in half when he was an ant and then it died from him becoming very big very fast and I feel like that scene, and the scene where Cassie finds a sliver of a sentient person’s flesh between her teeth while she’s flossing and then flosses until her gums bleed, really deserve recognition in the literary canon. Applegate deserves an award. There should be a TV Trope named after whatever the fuck that is. Like fridge horror but diegetic. Bathroom horror. Your bedtime bathroom routine as an opportunity for personal confrontation with the violent detritus of the dead which lingers in and on your body even after you have ostensibly stripped yourself of weapons and healed over all your wounds.

Me: wow everyone did so well acting in the final scene in the garage I wonder what they were thinking about during it

Jeremey Shada at his panel at comic con: we were in that garage for TWELVE HOURS

Kim Hongjoong, son of Captain Hook

“You can’t be afraid of the dark when you’re the monster lurking in the shadow.”

Fic

Danger Force Head canons

(If you recognize these it’s bc I posted them before I accidentally DELETED MY ENTIRE BLOG😭)

Bose calls Henry to talk about his parental problems a lot

Mika does her own hair and occasionally does Miles’ too

Sometimes Miles and Mika have to sleep in the same room to ensure they’re both still there and okay

Miles has multiple places only he knows about and that he occasionally teleports to just to get some time away

Bose occasionally has trouble setting boundaries leading to the others’ unintentionally hurting him

In the opposite direction Chapa occasionally preemptively sets too many boundaries causing the others to accidentally exclude her

Miles runs late to things a lot of the time because he constantly thinks, “It’ll only take me a second to get there!” even if he’s meant to already be there

Mika drinks tea almost every night to soothe her throat preemptively

Chapa makes most of her own clothes but Miles can sew better than she can

Mika struggles to meet the expectations she has set for herself, often leading to burnout and breakdowns

Miles often struggles with how his interpersonal values conflict with beating up criminals all the time

Due to going to school together and fighting crime together all four kids quickly become codependent

Chapa sometimes has to spend hours or days to herself just to get away from all the stress being a superhero causes

Bose was the first of them to get seriously hurt on a mission, forcing him on bed rest for a week, and off active field duty for at least a month

It was the first time the others really realized that one day this job may kill them

A few villains retired after Kid Danger “died” and more are extra careful with how they treat Danger Force, just in case

As the kids get older they spend a lot of time making up on the schoolwork they missed when they were younger

As the kids get older they get more and more disillusioned with the whole superhero gimmick

They all quit being sidekicks like Henry did although at different times

Miles quits first, deciding he’s ready for a more peaceful approach

Chapa quits next, feeling constrained by Ray and like she’s ready to be an adult

Bose leaves after her, more peacefully than the other two but not without at least one screaming match

Mika lasts the longest but eventually has to leave to go to college and live her life

Ray often wonders if taking in more sidekicks was truly a good idea

Schwoz loves the kids as though they’re his own

He often gives them money (that he may or may not have taken from Ray) to allow them to go out like normal teenagers

If Bose overuses his powers he can get migraines occasionally resulting in nose bleeds and on the worst days nausea

The first time it happened he threw up and fainted

It was terrifying for everyone to witness

If Mika overuses her powers she loses her voice for about a week and can’t super scream for even longer

The overuse will make her throat swell as well, causing her to have difficulty breathing

It’s extremely painful and the only thing the others can do is give her medicine and make her soothing drinks

When Miles overuses his powers he gets extreme vertigo.

He’s also often nauseous making it near impossible to move.

It’s disconcerting and no one's ever sure how long it will last.

When Chapa overuses her powers her hands and other extremities go numb

She can still summon lightning but she has no control over the output or direction it goes leading it to be dangerous for everyone around her

She usually just has to carry around insulation gloves and wait for her hands to regain feeling

When the short becomes the tall

I was lowk guessing w the height so mb💀

"You were acting out of self-preservation, but you didn't have enough determination!"

I had the idea in my head to draw the Rise turtles be swept in the violence, in B.E.A.S.T. I think it turned out well ^^