It’s Friday the 13th and I have a ghost story for you… 👻
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Category: Blog
Book Announcement!
I’m so excited, I’m just going to copy paste the announcement here.
Several books in our collection subvert tropes commonly found about our communities. “Bury Your Gays” turned into the Unburied Fables collection and brought together many authors to raise money for The Trevor Project.
Suicide By Ghost will be the second charity book. This time fifty percent of the proceeds will go to True Colors United, an organization working to prevent youth homelessness in the LGBTQ community.
This novella will continue in the vein of acknowledging the bad, while refusing to forget the hope and community that can be found together. Suicide by Ghost has an expected release of Winter 2019.
Spiritually divorced from the church, former exorcist Ryan Macy is finding his own path as a ghost hunter. Traveling with only what can fit in his trusty truck, he roadtrips around America trying to prove the paranormal. When he’s called to a church to investigate a demon possession, what he finds is unexpected and, perhaps, just as divinely in need: A seventeen year old kid named Andrew.
Ryan is certain something evil lives within the house: home-grown hate. Kicked out for being gay, Andrew hitches a ride and joins the ghost hunting team. But something is following them….
If you’d like to join the early reader team, be sure to sign up here.
So exciting, right?!
Same Books, New Me
There’s a Shakespeare quote I think of fairly often. “A rose by another other name would smell as sweet.” It’s a line that claims that names don’t change what things are. While I believe in this, we also all know the power of names, and to the trans community they often have a phoenix-like property to them.
That’s why I’d like to introduce my new name to you.
Rose Sinclair
Not only do I love the look and sound of this name, I also think it will be a benefit to me as an author. It’s easier to google for example, it’s has a clearer tone for my genres, and so on. Most authors once they have a book out are stuck with a name, but thanks to people I work with I’m not. Hopefully, with your help the progress made with the old name is ground that can be quickly regained.
Bone Diggers and Unburied Fables over the next few weeks will be updated to reflect this change. Since Pandamoon Publishing has elected not to join in, Hello World will have the old name until the contact’s end in 2021. Because of that you don’t have to treat the old name as a no-go zone. This serves as another reason why I wanted to write to clarify that the two names are not pen names of each other, and wherever it can be avoided I won’t be writing under multiple names. Everything is heading in the direction of this change.
I’m really excited for it and even more excited that I can do so without leaving behind works that have meant, and continue to mean, so much to me. Not everyone is able to do that and while my path may not be traditional, it is somewhat blessed. I hope you find this news half as magical as I do. Thanks for much for reading!
⁃ Rose Sinclair
Evergreen Hope Time-lapse Painting
I was following along with Bob Ross and then my table started having a problem with all of the leaves so by the end I let inspiration and my digital options turn this piece into something really atmospheric.
Why I’ve Given Up Hope For Cyberpunk 2077
A short essay on marketing, flavor text, and Poe’s Law
Cyberpunk 2077 is no stranger to controversy when it comes to its behavior towards trans people. Faith was all but lost when their official twitter replied with a transphobic meme.
They said sorry, and there’s a rumor that whoever tweeted this was fired, who knows though. The point I want to make is highlighted by this nearly year-old tweet. In order for this joke to be funny, you have to believe that misgendering is funny when it’s been shown that doing so leads to higher suicide rates. This types of jokes come at the expense of trans concerns and always from an outsider pov.
Many found new love for the name when Keanu Reeves appeared by surprise announcing he’s in the game. Known for the Matrix, a movie that has strong trans themes and was made by two trans siblings. And as much credibility Keanu can bring, Cyberpunk 2077 has a huge problem: Poe’s Law
It’s an internet adage that says without a clear indicator of the author’s intent, it is impossible to create a parody of extreme views so obviously exaggerated that it cannot be mistaken by some readers for a sincere expression of the parodied view.
This week at E3 when they showed off more of the game, a lot of people saw a new problem. Namely, this fictional soda ad:
On it you have a femme model with a penis showing, which caused many to ask why. And the art director was quick to defend saying, “their beautiful body is used — for corporate reasons.” as reported by Polygon. Not only am I concerned that irony has died in the year 2077, but here’s where Poe’s law kicks in.
The art director went on to say: “In [the year] 2077, especially with how much body modifications are available, I think people just mix and match however they want, however they feel. […] This is not to say that the player should see this kind of advertising as good. Redesiuk said that it was designed to feel jarring and overly aggressive, like all the other ads in the game, but not because of the femme-presenting trans model.
While that’s all well as good, it has the same problem that “did you assume my gender” jokes have if not something worse and worthless. 2077’s critique of “soda companies sell to trans people” is not criticizing rainbow capitalism. It’s hardly even critiquing capitalism. It’s largely saying “isn’t it edgy to be trans, mix it up, buy two of our sodas and combine them.”
Let’s look at Watch Dogs Legion, another do crime ‘n hack shit game coming out around the same time. In the top image, their flavor text images show something that is clearly pro-nationalism, and if you ‘misread’ or even agree with these ads the whole plot is there to correct you. It’s a game about subverting the police state, something they make known from the first seconds of the trailer.
Cyberpunk 2077 (shown again as the second image above) instead uses this background space to have two meaningless ads and then this one. And here’s the point I don’t think I can emphasize enough. If you “misread” 2077’s ‘critique of capitalism’ you end up with ‘soda companies are selling transgenderism, aren’t they out of control?!” That’s a problem, one the developer CD Projekt Red could have easily avoided instead of trying to play a double negative about hypersexuality.
But instead, their defense is: There are many examples of hypersexualized women, hypersexualized men, and hypersexualized people in between. […] You fight against corporations. That [advertisement] is what you’re fighting against.”
In 2077, the “we’re not sexist, we objectify everyone” defense is still around?
That’s cispicious.
Best Bath Ever
I feel like I’m sticking my toe into “lifestlye blogging” today because I want to talk about things you might otherwise see on HGTV. That’s the trick kids, few care about HGTV until you are old enough.
I once had an apartment that when we toured it the guide said, “that tub is so big you could have a party in there.” It was a wasted opportunity because we have since moved and have a tiny shallow bathtub combo that Home Depot workers looked at and said nope, you are on your own replacing that one. We can’t even use those bath trays because there’s no lip for it to sit on. If you bath prospects look grim like mine did, I’m here to help!
My move to try to reclaim bath time as part of my best life was inspired by these Sugar Fizzies on Etsy. I’ll talk about them more soon, but the first step of my journey was to ask myself what I liked and disliked about baths. and here’s the winning combination of inexpensive products I got.
Waterproof eReader Case – Paid $10
This is designed for an apple device, and I do want to try just watching movies in the bath, but I stuffed my kindle paperwhite into it and it worked perfectly. I read without worrying once that the water or even stream was going to ruin the device.
Magic Shower Hook – Paid $2.14
A shelf or a short table will really prevent you leaning over to tub and dripping water on your phone or anything you keep near you on the bath. Since mine doesn’t have that and I didn’t always want to move a table in and out I got this shower hook because the eReader case has a big string on it. That way I can put the kindle down without getting it soaked. I mean the case worked, but do you really want to fish around in the water for it?
Bath Pillow – Paid $11
These things can get sooo expensive. I didn’t want the cheapest one but I also didn’t want to blow the budget on a pillow I may or may not use much. I tried this pillow because like everything listed so far, it was returnable. But no need, it’s great! Small enough to dry fast, didn’t have to blow it up with air. Simplicity is a wonderful thing.
Sugar Fizzies – Depends on quantity
I actually got mine as a pre-lease trial from my friend and mod who fights for everyone which is why I can honestly say the themeing of these sugar fizzies as self care is not a marketing ploy, they are a thought out act of pride and self acceptance. I used the “Merlin” one which had a great smell of Apple Cinnamon. Normally scent appears then vanishes for me, but from start to finish it lasted. Zero clean up, didn’t have to try to get it to dissolve. Effortless. I have two left and I’m excited to make the best of them!
Merry Book-mas Eve!
If there is one thing that allows me to embrace the spirit of giving year round it’s my Little Free Library. For anyone who doesn’t know what those are, it’s a nonprofit organization that encourages people to set up outdoor community libraries in their yards. It’s a take book, leave a book set up that aims to help make books accessible to every household. There might even be some right around you!
I personally use mine a few different ways. First, as an excuse to buy indie books I already have in hopes that I can share my love of them with new people. This month with Christmas in mind I went through my collection and picked out books that I felt deserved a more loving home. These books have been very well received, I just for whatever reason did I not get super into them so instead of hoarding them like a book-ish Grinch I decided to release them into the wild where they hopefully can find someone who truly cherishes them.
Before I get into the books a little more, I also picked up a new accessories for the library itself. The stuffed little elf decoration you see above. Who I believe was recused from the Island of Dollar Store Dog Toys. And a magnetic light with a flip switch since it gets dark so early these days I wanted to make sure if someone drove around at still early hour of five pm they could see see what was inside my Read Box without having to aim their headlights or pull out their cellphone and turn on their own flashlight. But hey, it also will come in handy year round for anyone burning the midnight oil in hopes of a new read.
The library’s collection now contains Daemon and Annihilation. Both are very big science fiction stories. The first doesn’t have a movie is likely among the most known in cyberpunk circles, the second I first heard when it was made into said movie. I don’t do scary movies or even really monster movies but watching Annihilation was like nothing really else so when I saw the book had such a nice binding I picked it up. I hear this series is even better than the movie (no surprise there, right?) but book almost falls open to scream, “Read me!”
The Iron Cast draws the eye. Its one of those that proves covers sells books. I’ll link you to goodreads here so you can see it better. The book is set in 1919 and design really helps you get there. Author Destiny Soria is also a great author who goes the distance to add much needed diversity and I’m always so excited to offer books like that to people who might not otherwise be able to afford them.
Speaking of good authors doing good things. Rick Riordan’s The Sword of Summer won a Stonewall Book award for children’s literature. Named for the historical trans-led history event that’s considered the “start” of the LGBTQ rights movement in America.
That brings us to Heart of Iron. I picked this one up originally because it was sold to me as Anastasia in space and while I hadn’t gotten far in it I definitely see why it was given such a killer comparison.
Plus, the first among the first Santa themed events I can remember was wanting the Anastasia toys as I kid. I think they came from Burger King and I most have had them all. The tiny bat, the bigger dog that you could squeeze and his ears would go up. An Anastasia doll with like hair that you could bring up or down with a wind up or down in her back. And of course, a themed but classic Christmas train. If that toy was big enough to set around my Christmas tree I’d rebuy it for the memories in a heart beat. (In my heart, that Polar Express train has nothing on Anastasia nostalgia.)
As an adult that same excitement over toys is gone, but I think as adults we are often able to recapture that feeling with books and I hope one of my books either personally written or donated to a stranger does that for someone.
No matter what you celebrate, I hope you have a great Holiday!
99 Cents Sale!
For the first time ever you can get Bone Diggers for 99 cents on Amazon!
But hurry the offer for this bi video game adventure is only for today!
It’s a busy time for everyone with holiday shopping and/or NaNoWriMo so I won’t keep you any longer thanks for your time today and hopefully, you read! ❤ Rose
Review: Culture’s Skeleton by Adam P. Knave
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Culture’s Skeleton by Adam P. Knave
First off, the paperback is such a small, cute, and perfect size.
Culture’s Skeleton has the vibe of Hitchkicker’s Guide to the Galaxy while having its own voice. Things in Mur work by their own rules and Mur is really its own character. A lesser writer might have made characters from different time periods tropes of that era, but instead readers get a feeling of how people are connected despite where (or when) they are from. If you are looking for something with a lot of style and heart look no further!
Culture’s Skeleton by Adam P. Knave – Rose Reviews
First thoughts about Culture’s Skeleton? What a perfectly small size! So few publishers print in this size, but it’s really great to see as the standard edition instead of having to wait years for a mass market paperback version to come out.
Culture’s Skeleton by Adam P. Knave get’s ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from us!
Culture’s Skeleton has the vibe of Hitchkicker’s Guide to the Galaxy while having its own voice. Things in Mur work by their own rules, and this city is really its own character. A lesser writer might have made characters from different time periods become tropes of that era. Instead readers get the feeling of how people are connected despite where (or when) they are from.
If you in the mood for something with a lot of style and heart look no further!
Looking for the rest of our book reviews? Check them out here!
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