Selene Arkadia

77,500 and 460 pages now. The players are in their final act, and some fateful actions have been put into play.

There will be no turning back now.

Can't imagine an industry being destroyed by AI would resort to it as an automated rejection filter, but who knows. Had one madwoman reject me inside of an hour the other week. The point is this is a failed system, designed to hinder new voices & shove talent into impoverished hobbyist territory.

Wow, that was a first. A rejection inside of 15 minutes.

These people are unbelievable.

x.com/rant_zine/st...

Well...guess we'll see you next year, WNBA.

Cheating and bullying means it's going exactly as planned: Wilson vs. what's likely to be Thomas.

No thanks. Fire Englebert & all of these crooked refs, kudos to Collier for adding to the chorus of coaches and players for calling out all the corruption.

The Russian trolls & AI bots that consume social media to skew public opinion & toxify public discourse are not a conspiracy theory.

Just popped in to my legacy Twitter account, my 2K followers (& many accounts I followed!) have either left the app entirely or were fakes: I'm down to 250 or less!

73,784, 439 pages and we're definitely in the last act.

She's finally hit rock bottom, and there's nowhere to go but up from here.

@kghillwriter.bsky.social elbows up indeed! Tis the season, apparently...

70,100, 418 pages. Things are coming to a head, and the worst is yet to come.

68,875 and 410 pages now.

Our heroine just admitted she's in love with the guy...but not to him.

After he desperately needed her to, having made himself all too vulnerable.

And things are about to take a turn very much for the worse.

I saw it all my life, in the schoolyard. In the town. In jobs. In modern politics, from the jingoism of the Bush era to the outright psychopathy of MAGA. And now in the WNBA.

And you wonder why I'm ferally enraged.

I have literally stood up for others in the face of bullies MY ENTIRE LIFE.

The veneration of bullies. As if it's somehow okay to push others around just because you can get away with it through cronyism. To hurt others, to put them on the injured list, just to pat your own undeserving back.

And in case anyone's wondering, Ms. Snark was clearly of the Kiss the Ring Middle Manager sort, pulling the Van Halen M&M Rider bit just to prove you think she's "special."

No, I'm special. You're going to make $ off my work, in a mutually beneficial arrangement. No ring kissing is merited here.

Went to this seminar about landing an agent last year. Guy kept blathering on about being choosy about signing on to one, how "they're there to work for you, not vice versa."

Apparently nobody told THEM this little bit of homespun folksy wisdom...this process sucks and doesn't work. Period.

Aaaand three rejections inside of 24 hours, one with a large dose of pedantic snark appended.

Not impressed, lady. "Ms."

24 novels ready to publish, still unagented. Highly praised by all who read the queries, the sample chapters, experience the cold readings.

What's wrong with this picture?

Is anyone open? Do they have any interest in non-identikit authorship & concepts? Not religious, overly prudish or with some other weird exclusionary caveat? Best of all: are they not all from the same handful of agencies?

The only real downside to being a professional author? Querying for an agent.

I swear, I'd rather have my fingernails pulled than go through all this bullshit every time, to no avail.

Over 20 pages today, 64,530 and 382p.

Our hero has successfully run the gauntlet with both Sis and dear ol' Dad, but that mother of hers...

Well, at least he's got his bestie and his wife to regroup and strategize with...

354 pages and he's just run the gauntlet with dear ol' Dad.

Whatever our hero is doing, he's sure getting 'em on his side, here, huh?

337 pages now, and well...it looks like it's meet the parents time?

Hoo boy...

55,000, 325p and they've just made that kosher kitchen treif.

You know, raw shellfish, and all.

Cough.

295 pages and 50K now. After fun and frolics with free run of the house...things turn serious.

49,600. They've just had a bit of a primal scene. With a twist.

The moral of my YA novel.

276 pages, 47k and things are getting.. interesting.

Oh, and they've got the run of the family home, and are determined to christen every possible nook and cranny.

42,670, 250 pages now. Our two couples have made up after that perfectly horrid first meeting, and are out on a nice little double date.

Too bad our heroine just dropped a major league bomb on the assemblage...and after being so tight lipped about it, too!

And as a related PostScript, this year's Sparks have been the new GSV, who aside from last night's overlong frequently interrupted and typically one sided foul called game, have been our second go-to in an otherwise abominable season of misdoings. Glad Brinks is back, though.

If "imagination" for you equates with "the facts of the matter", then thanks for the compliment.

"the face of the league" should be.

And it ain't fucking Paige Beuchers, that's for damn sure. Unless you want an overrated flopper babied with her own special whistle, noted mainly 4 "midrange" stats that don't even approach those of Clark...who's been on the injured list for most of the season!