“Vote”

chinese hanfu by 绛悠堂

Reminder that whatever you’re writing, you shouldn’t give up because no one else can put the puzzle together the same way you can. It’s unique to you, so stop comparing yourselves to others. That completely eliminates the whole purpose. 

This is an oversimplified description of the meaning of Duanwu Festival. 

In Ming dynasty the members of the inner court worn Duanwu buzi from the first till the thirteen of the fifth month. 

There are other festive assosories, such as wristband made from five colour threads, tiger hats and other hair ornaments.

New Sketch-a-Wish for October’s Patreon vote! Featuring Xingyin and the Venerable Four Dragons from Daughter Of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan!

This request ironically was an amalgamation of the two previous DOTMG fanarts I’ve done, so I decided to take it down a different route for styling (a mix of my illustration and papercraft design). I had a super fun time creating this piece, very chaotic and clean!

And perfect timing, since the sequel Heart of the Sun Warrior comes out next week!! I was able to get a beautiful arc of this several weeks back, but my eyes and hands have been abysmally scrapped for free time to make any progress in a small pile of arcs I’ve received this year. 😭 I’m pretty much waiting for the audiobook at this point, my ears are ready!! Only a few more days! I’m so excited to revisit this world!

And since people were doin Soul Jam Light designs I figured I'd do some for Common Beasts.

Duty, Reason, Civility, Productivity and Unity

Idk about everybody else, when I think ANCIENT EMBODYMENT OF AN IDEA my brain does go to Animals and stuff like that. I also attempted to do an alliteration thing (as seen with the Duty Dragon and the Reason Ram) but gave up.

Saltwater Hummingbird

— a rough wip by @sincaerity

Brooke studies his face, waits for his expression to falter at all and betray the validity of his words. But his lips stay tightly pursed - eyes alight with an emotion she can’t quite discern - and there’s no hint of a lie to his words. Where she should feel joy or relief or gratitude at such a revelation — Brooke is nothing short of terrified.

GENRE: fantasy, supernatural

POV: third person, Brooke-centric(?)

STATUS: planning / brainstorming

CHARACTERS: Brooke, Vienna, Eden, Harlow, Cyrus, Faith, Caderyn, Oscar (to be revised)

FEATURES:

LGBTQ+ cast

sapphic relationships

found family

healthy platonic / sibling dynamics

trying to slot back into your life while being a lot more jagged than the hole you left

a lot of messy emotions

the classic “character who comes back wrong and characters who know they’ve come back wrong” troupe

supernatural undertones

eldritch abominations

accidental (unwanted) ability acquisition

the ancient art of acting like everything is fine until you really can’t anymore

SYNOPSIS:

Some of Brooke’s earliest memories are of cautionary tales - stories of people disappearing, tucked into bed at dusk and gone without a trace. She’d heeded her mother’s thinly-veiled warnings since she was old enough to understand what they meant, but otherwise lived her life without much apprehension. That was until Vienna disappeared. Gentle, passionate, stubborn Vienna - Brooke’s best friend and first love, however fleeting - nowhere to be found. Life goes on, and though she never quite loses the newfound hole left in her heart, Brooke learns to live with it. Her friends make it easier. Eden makes it a lot easier, with her gentle hands and soft lips - and things slowly return to some semblance of normalcy. Though it’s not long before things shift, suddenly, and everyone is dragged right back to square one. Again.

Let's talk mobility aids!

Canes

Canes are for when you need to take a little bit of weight off of one side of your body, need a little help with balance, or need a little extra stability when you walk. It's an easy mobility aid to find and get, and it's pretty easy to figure out how to use. Have the cane sized so the handle sits at wrist level, then hold it on the opposite side to the one that hurts. Match your cane strikes to the steps on the hurt side. It will hurt your arm, elbow, and shoulder sometimes, but having a properly sized cane will help.

Rollators

Rollators are kind of the "next step up" in support. They come with more restrictions, you get limited to ramps and stuff, but they're also the least restrictive wheeled mobility aid because they're light and easy to pick up and toss around. They also have a seat a lot of times and a basket so you don't need to carry stuff. They're for when you need a place to rest, something to lean on when you walk, better balance assistance than a cane, and less weight bearing than a cane. I also found that it helped me with fatigue quite a bit. There's two main kinds, euro style like the first, and regular like the second. There are other fancier ones but I'm covering the basics here.

Rollators are my favorite mobility aid and I've used everything from canes to a fancy high grade power chair. They're just the perfect balance of help and freedom. They provide so much support for how far they go.

Crutches

Arm crutches are pretty neat! They're a lot more ergonomic than a cane. In fact, some people use a single arm crutch as a cane. They distribute the weight a little better, so it's not all on your wrists, and they support you better than a rollator can. The major cons I found are that they take two hands to use so you can't carry much and I had a really hard time trying to learn to walk with them. A lot of people who use forearm crutches have other mobility aids and use the forearm crutches when they want to or need to walk.

Manual Wheelchairs

These are for when walking becomes more difficult than pushing a wheelchair. There's no weight being put on your legs and feet and depending on your needs, you can get really specific with your adaptations if you have a custom wheelchair verses a standard wheelchair. My first custom chair looked like a monster truck because i took in the woods and gravel, my second custom chair after I got sicker has a head rest, a backrest that holds me up, and a little electric box that I can attach that helps me push. The difference between getting a standard and custom wheelchair is dependent on how much money the user has, what kind of needs they have, and what kind of medical access they have. (One is not more "real" than the other.) I highly recommend getting a cushion for under your butt if you have a standard chair without a cushion, I used a standard full time for 6 months and a cushion made a huge difference.

Mobility scooters

Mobility scooters are for people who can't walk long distances, but can still walk with the help of a cane or unassisted. If you can walk around your house, but not really much else, a mobility scooter might be the aid for you! There's a lot of different styles and battery life lengths and handling abilities so try a few different scooters out if you can.

Powerchairs

Powerchairs come in a couple different types or "groups" depending on your needs. Group 1 is the kind of chair you're probably most familiar with. It's basically for someone who needs a powerchair to get around their house, the doctors, office, and grocery store. You can't do any custom seat cushions or anything, but it's for people who don't need it. Think of like... someone who can walk pretty okay still, it just hurts to walk or they're off balance or a little weak feeling. A lot of times more elderly people will use these, if you're more active look into group 2

Group two chairs are little more durable, a little more stable, sometimes you can switch the captains seats out for custom seating... They're what a full time powerchair user would use if they don't need specialty functions like tilt or recline. They also often have 6 wheels rather than 4 like the group 1 chairs have.

Group 3 powerchairs are reserved for specific diagnoses like muscular dystrophy, ALS, and other severe neurological and neuromuscular illnesses. These are also called "rehab" chairs because they're for making sure severely disabled people have quality of life. The tilt function is for pressure relief, though you can also get things like elevation so you can raise and lower your chair, and some of them can recline flat. There are other avenues of moving grade 3 power chairs beyond the joystick as well in case someone can't use their hands or doesn't have them. (Head controls, torso controls, and straw controls called sip and puff are alternatives.) They can go on a little worse terrain than group 1 and two chairs and go a little farther, but if they get stuck they weigh 350 lbs and it's awful.

There's a few other types of mobility aid that I don't know enough about, like ankle foot orthotics and gait trainers, but these are the basic "mobility aid" most people will come across.

If you use another type of mobility aid and want to educate people, add it on!!

I could call what I wrote "commentary on the historical tension between male and female socialists" but sometimes u just gotta slap an "ENEMIES WITH BENEFITS!!" tag on ur book to get people interested 😩

Wifey’s MagnifiqueNoir was featured in this article as one of the top 10 Black science fiction/fantasy works Netflix should consider adapting! You can read it here!

I Am Black Sci-Fi

10 Black Science Fiction/ Fantasy Works That Need A Netflix Adaptation | I Am Black Sci-Fi

I Am Black Sci-Fi is a media organization founded in 1999 and focuses on celebrating the fandom and many contributions of Black people to sc

Happy book birthday to this week’s new releases! 📚