You whisper, “You have loved enough,
Now let me be the lover.”You Have Loved Enough - Leonard Cohen
That looks like fresh-from-the-shower-hair.
*swoon*
Idris Elba reveals the story behind the name of his production company ‘Green Door’ [x]
Fuckin win.
Idris Elba you magnificent man, you.
(Source: oh-whiskers)
Via oh no reason just comics
This Is All Kinds Of Wrong of the Day: Earlier this month, a North Carolina pastor suggested rounding up gays and lesbians and starving them to death.
Just yesterday, an audio file of a Kansas pastor saying the government should kill gays made the rounds.
Now, we are confronted with perhaps the most egregious homophobic offense in recent weeks — a youngster at Apostolic Truth Tabernacle in Greensburg, Indiana,belted out “Ain’t No Homos Gonna Make It To Heaven,” and the congregation rewarded him with a standing ovation.
This is so disturbingly sad. These words coming from the mouth of a small child who doesn’t know any better than what he’s been told by those surrounding him. Sometimes I have hope for humanity, but this? This is disgusting. The mind of a child is like clay, ready to shape, and this child has had his mind taken away from him.
Via The Daily What
travellingbuttbuddiesnonpareil:
does imagine count bc if yes i’m my imagine character :’)
if not i’m kazuya
im my imagine character and i dont know what vitality is and im going to die
or im ephraim and i can only use lances ow :(
I’m… Luke fon Fabre.
Still not sure if want.
I am Ness.
OH NOES GIGYAS
Alucard.
Castlevania: SOTN.
I’ll survive.
At first I was afraid, I was petrified…
hifives bc i’m Simon
N. Gin. I am only semi competant and I have a missile sticking out of my head. Also i’m tempermental with mood swings and crossdressing sprees…
wait
I am N. Gin.
Its me.
I was playing Animal Crossing
life is goooooood
Heavy, with Christmas Strange Minigun, Family Business, Strange Fists, and the Football Helmet.
RUN COWARDS
I’m Tails. In a blue sphere stage.
I hate everything now >:(
oh.
i think i’m okay with this? wish i had seen this earlier since i’d rather be shen. ._.
Mokujin from Teken6…
YesI’m Kratos. Yeah I should be fine.
I’m Emil Castagnier… I should be good…
Anivia from League of Legends.
Im a Motherfucking ice bird.
Commander Shepard (Female). I’m fairly sure I’ll be fine. Hah!
DOVAHKIIN
FUS RO DAH!
I am The Incredible Hulk. I’m pretty much the least fucked I’ve ever been. In fact, I’m so unfucked, I’m like a virgin, touched for the very first time. Except, here, let Hulk touch you. Except you won’t like it when I’m angry. Puny god.
(Source: forthehive)
Kirkus Reviews: A Cautionary Tale.
Now, before I begin, I’d like to explicitly state that I’m not bagging on Kirkus Reviews. Not entirely. But what I’d like to present is, what I feel, a cautionary tale to up-and-coming, struggling, aspiring authors who want to take their game seriously.
Couple months back I read a few articles about some indie authors who had gotten their books reviewed by Kirkus via the Kirkus Indie department, and how it had helped them get some strong, high-profile exposure. I looked into it and saw that it came with a steep service price: $475, or $525 for a quicker turn-around time. Damn. Those are some hefty bones. That’s also a high dollar risk: what if you get a negative review out of that? Who wants to pay five c-notes for a bad review? Well, I took stock of my situation: I’d gotten multiple four-to-five star user reviews, and from the book blogs I’d requested reviews from, I’d received five star reviews. The chances of receiving a poor review seemed lower than receiving a decent review, so I plunked down five hundred bucks, and waited out the nine weeks it took to get the review back.
Burch’s debut sci-fi novel offers creepy atmosphere in a deep-space.
The crew of the Icarus, both scientists and military types, bring aboard a mysterious artifact that seems able to deflect the sun’s radiation. Right away, things go awry. Communications with their sister ship, Prometheus, go silent. Dr. Tybalt is obsessed with the artifact. Lovers, Kerrick and Straub, quarrel. Sgt. Laguardia starts carrying a gun at all times. Captain Udeh, who seemed to have his claustrophobia under control, suddenly requires more medication. Engines fail. Are these just normal fissures from the wear-and-tear of a solar dive, or is it something more ominous? The narrative follows at least six characters, which can get confusing since the characters are primarily addressed by their last names. The plot crawls as we meet the ensemble cast, but halfway through the book, as life aboard the ship unravels, things get interesting. Tension builds when the crew probes the artifact, discovering a mysterious “void” inside. They come to the horrible realization that the artifact is in fact a portal, and something alive lurks on the other side. The action-packed climax feels drawn-out after the long, powerful middle. Wordy constructions—“he was thinking” instead of “he thought,” or “the darkness was something that he had gotten used to” instead of “he was used to the darkness”—sometimes hobble the pace. A sharp edit to weed out passive voice, unnecessary backstory and too many protagonists could help better explore the interesting premise.
Despite an overcrowded cast, the competent dialogue and well-developed characters enhance this decent contribution to the genre.
I can take a critical review, and to be fair, there are some valid points in this review. Also, if you look at the Kirkus site, it does claim “The World’s Toughest Book Critics.” Okay. So what I got back isn’t entirely surprising, and neither is it really unfair. Can I be mad at a reviewer for giving their honest opinion after requesting feedback? Nope. I would have liked a little bit more detail in regards to that feedback, but that’s besides the point. Let me get to the point.
I paid $500 for that review. Ultimately, what I had hoped was an investment in a budding career turned out to be a gamble that blew up in my face. Am I disappointed? Sure am. I’m more disappointed in myself, however. Because no matter how many good reviews you as an author will receive, there’s always going to be someone somewhere who isn’t going to like what you do. And that’s fine. There’s no such thing as a perfect film, book, or album. There’s people who didn’t like The Avengers, which is weird, but okay. They didn’t like it, and this guy didn’t like my book. That’s fine. But the point is that I paid $500 for that review. And that, to me, seems a bit steep. Because yes, $500 as a price tag is meant to prevent Johnny Come Lately from submitting his slashfic ebook for a review; it’s meant to weed out the serious from the casual, and only the hardcore will submit at that price. But at the same time, damn, that’s a helluva costly review. And for a couple of slightly detailed paragraphs. I went over some of their other reviews, and while world’s toughest might be accurate, it’s difficult to tell when their reviews aren’t nearly as detailed as most. A couple of paragraphs, mostly detailing the story itself, along with some “review” material, and then there you go. Hardly worth the $500 price tag.
Again, I’m not bemoaning the critical review I ended up with. I like to think that every critical bit of feedback helps me walk away with something to think about for my next endeavor. That’s what critiques are for. But to have paid so much for what feels like so little in return…well, maybe I should have known better. So here’s your advice of the day, struggling writers: don’t pay more than a hundred bucks for a review. I paid fifty bucks for my Reader’s Favorite review, and walked away happy. Hell, I would have walked away happy with a negative review on that one; fifty bucks isn’t that big a loss in the long run. But five hundred? That’s a video game console. That’s a small TV. That’s a car payment. All I’m saying kids, is this: don’t pay big bucks for a review, no matter how high-profile it is. Work on that marketing, work on the writing, get your name out there, but don’t pay for it. Get paid for it.
About me
CK Burch is a novelist, poet, father of two, and assistant editor for ZED Presents...Publishing. Born in 1982 and floating somewhere between adulthood and immaturity, he writes science-fiction and horror, love letters to geekdom and his childhood spent growing up in the 80's. When not writing or composing, he's spending time with his little rugrats, who also walk a fine line between adorable and deportable. They take after their father. When he's not trying desperately to write in a few more chapters and ignore those lovable children who serve to remind him not to cuss so much, he's playing video games with the volume up real loud. It drowns out the sound of neighbors yelling at him to turn it down.
