Very Meh Monday
Feb. 9th, 2026 11:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickIt was a cold, icky day today, and the PMS was really PMSing at points -- especially during work. Why? See below:
Work – Kind of a frustrating day at work today – mostly because there was yet more bullshit related to our credit card company and their inability to do anything right. Specifically:
A) While we fortunately only had one person call in today wanting to do a credit card gift, we couldn’t do said gift because every time we tried, we’d get an error message about an unspecified problem with processing the payment. An error message that our processors also got when they tried processing one particular credit card gift, according to the exceptions we received today. I e-mailed the company twice today, but didn’t get a response – which isn’t that surprising, as they do enjoy leaving me hanging.
B) And, during the end of the day wrap-up, I discovered yet more pledges missing their initial payment on their pledge because there seems to be a bug with importing them if they have a payment processed on the same day the pledge is made. So now I have to check a bunch of credit card pledges both we in the office and our main processing company have put on to see which ones are missing payments. *facepalm*
Yeah, that – that was irritating. Especially for someone on her period and thus already permanently irritated. >( The rest of the day went okay – I spent most of the morning doing the GL, as it was pretty big due to all the gifts posted Friday, and the majority of the afternoon going through some of the other exceptions in the bundle and working on overpayments and stuff like that. But it’s just – it NEVER STOPS with this company, I swear. I hate them so much, you don’t even know. Ugh. We’ll see what happens tomorrow, I suppose...
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with The Adventures Of Useless Steve as I started the final episode of his first series: “Fallout: New Vegas - The Worst Courier - Grand Finale - How Useless Steve 'Saved' The World!” The first half of the end of Useless Steve’s base game adventures included:
A) Useless Steve investigating the Omertas Family (the gang that runs Gomorrah, the casino and brothel with a secret drugs menu P. D. Shoot Remastered has frequented more than once) for the NCR as part of their final-act questline and solving their problem with the family in a rather – unique way. The quest is supposed to go “you find out that the Omertas are building a bomb to attack the Strip after allying with the Legion, and help their lieutenant Cachino take over Gomorrah and kill them” – but you see, Jon hates Cachino too, because he’s an asshole who abuses the prostitutes and apparently kidnaps the one he “likes” the most, Joanna, once he becomes the owner of Gomorrah (she straight-up disappears from the game when he ascends to the throne, and Jon thinks she ends up in his bedroom and isn’t allowed to leave again). So he didn’t particularly want to put Cachino in charge. So, instead, he had Useless Steve pickpocket Cachino’s personal diary off him, detailing all the ways he’s been screwing over the Omertas gang with his own small-time operations; turn it into the guy at the door to the private part of the club, who sent Steve up to talk to the two men in charge, Big Sal and Nero; give the journal to Nero, who called Cachino into his office for a private “chat” that ended in his death –
Then – having prepared for this earlier by using Fire Act Nectar (which boosts Agility a lot) and a Sneak skill magazine to raise his Sneak to the appropriate level to sneak more “holdout” weapons into the casino – murdered Big Sal with Pew Pew and made a run for it, because this stopped the Omertas from blowing up the Strip (since they were down a boss) without having to put another scumbag in charge of their territory! Yes, it technically failed the quest, and Steve came EXTREMELY close to dying during his escape from the casino even with his power armor thanks to all the guards shooting at him, but he made it out without being followed, and was able to report back to Colonel Moore and straight up lie to her that the Omertas were planning on targeting New Reno, and the NCR didn’t have to worry about them. XD Jon even dipped briefly into an alternate universe where Steve actually worked with Sal to help create the bomb to confirm that Steve would never learn exactly what the bomb was for and thus couldn’t say anything different to Moore if he killed Sal then. *nods* Good information to have for those of us who might feel a little iffy about changing one asshole for another!
B) Useless Steve then taking on the task to destroy the Brotherhood for Colonel Moore, and showing off how easy it was even for a low-to-no skills character like himself – because while the main computer to actually start the self destruct sequence was locked behind a level of hacking Useless Steve would never achieve, the computer that generated passwords to get into the self-destruct computer was NOT. All Steve had to do was pickpocket three keycards from the Head Scribe, Head Paladin, and Elder McNamara (which was easy for him to do because they had no weight and very little value, meaning with the help of a Stealth Boy, he was able to easily snag them all), use them on the password computer to generate the passwords needed to get into the self-destruct computer, then open up the self-destruct computer and trigger the self-destruct. And then run for the exit while the Brotherhood steadfastly refused to evacuate, taking a few hits along the way but getting out safely thanks to the Stealth Boy. The Brotherhood thus blew up, and Steve was able to tell Moore about another successful mission while vowing never to go near Veronica again because she might have, uh, opinions on what he just did.
C) Useless Steve then showing the easiest way to complete the mission to protect the NCR president when he visited the dam to bolster the morale of the troops – basically, trigger an assassination attempt as soon as possible so the president LEFT as soon as possible. XD ...but I’ll have to tell you about the rest of it tomorrow, because it is too late now and I need to go to bed.
2. Continue editing Chapter 6 of “Londerland Bloodlines”: Check – got another page’s worth of edits done today, featuring:
A) Alice dropping out of the ductwork into what she discovered wasn’t an office, but was instead a sort of combination server room and break room, with a couple of big server banks on two of the walls, and a table with a coffee maker and a microwave and a water cooler on the third (she was like “I wouldn’t put water anywhere near the expensive computer equipment, but then I’m not running the place”)
B) Alice searching the room for the key promised to her by the Insane Children’s scribbles...only to come up short; cue Cheshire appearing by the only door in or out of the room, advising her to look farther afield – but to beware that the field had eyes, and to avoid getting them trained on her, lest she ended up like a biscuit being devoured by a Bandersnatch (Alice: “I’ve never seen that, but I will trust you that it is messy and horrible”)
C) Alice taking a moment to listen through the door and hearing a guard inside – then peeking in and realizing it was the security camera room (lit like something out of a horror movie for some reason), being watched over by a man chowing down on a donut. A man who’d conveniently left a key on the console...but inconveniently left it next to him, meaning it was very hard for Alice to get it without being noticed. She was not pleased
D) Alice running down her options, realizing hitting the guy with some distracting Dementation was her best shot, and doing just that – fortunately for her conscience, the effect was to make him start giggling over a joke he’d wanted to tell his friend Caroline, and then get up and leave so he could let her know. Cue Alice happily grabbing the key, getting out of the room, and escaping back into the vents as fast as possible, thanking Victor for being more useful than she’d ever guessed he would be
E) And Alice examining the key and finding a big “B” on the fob – and then remembering that Victor had told her that the sarcophagus was most likely stored in the basement, meaning hopefully this was the exact key she needed to reach it.
*nods* Progress continues to be made, both for Alice and for myself! I left off with her realizing she now had to figure out where to go next – tomorrow, she returns to the T-junction in the ductwork and follows the other path to see where it leads...
3. Watch something on FreeTube: Check – managed to catch up on the final C. M. Alongi video in my subs for now: “BookTalk: Monstrous & Paperbacks - TikTok Compilation!” Another collection of skits of her various books/book series (Heart Of Iron, The Witch Who Trades With Death, Citadel, Blackwing, and Monstrous) talking to each other, featuring:
A) The group ringing in the new year, with Citadel noting it had been a crazy 2025 – only for Blackwing to ask, “Crazier than the year you and I came out?” and Citadel to agree that maybe things hadn’t been that wild. Monstrous was naturally curious as to what happened the year they came out – cue Citadel explaining that 2023 started with CM doing the “Accidentally Kidnapped” mini-series on TikTok, which spawned a rough draft of a book that got her a fan base on Patreon, followed by the start of CaFae Latte and the writing of Heart Of Iron, followed by the releases of the first two Blackwing novellas and Citadel, followed by CM leaving her food service job to do TikTok skits and writing full-time. Witch then pointed out that 2024 was the year of Heart of Iron’s Kickstarter, with Citadel adding that it also featured the release of the CaFae Latte cookbook, declaring it a “slow year.” Monstrous was incredulous and Heart Of Iron insulted, but Blackwing pointed out that the cookbook was more CM’s mom’s book than hers, and Witch added that most authors only aim for one book release a year to prevent things getting messy – the main reason she and Heart Of Iron being released in the same year worked was because she came out in March, and Heart Of Iron in October, meaning there was some breathing room between the two. Monstrous, now worried, asked if she was stepping on Heart Of Iron’s toes, but Heart was like “Nah, you’re only on Patreon right now, you’re not published” –
Then paused and confirmed, “You’re not published, right?” To which Monstrous replied, “No, but I am getting Kickstarted in February.” :P Blackwing was stunned (“Already?!”), Witch excited and congratulatory, and Citadel just “And the insanity begins anew.” XD
B) Blackwing going “so, another Kickstarter?” in response to the news at the end of the last skit – Heart Of Iron pointed out that theirs raised a hundred grand, so why not? Monstrous agreed, saying that she was going to be ready for “developmental edits” in the spring, and a February campaign would pay out in mid-March, so that was perfect timing – and a pleased Citadel pointed out that when Monstrous went off for edits, the edits on their sequel, Demon’s Nest, would be coming back, meaning CM could move seamlessly from the Monstrous project to theirs! Blackwing cheerfully added, “All while writing my sequel!” –
Prompting Citadel to ask if that was actually going to happen. Blackwing was like, “Yes, fuck you, she actually has the next TWO novellas in the series drafted out, she just was busy with Demon’s Nest, Monstrous, the holidays, and the book tour before.” (Monstrous: “Right, only those four things.” XD) This prompted Witch to ask if another book tour would be happening this year –
To which Heart replied “maaaaaybe?” and explained that all the travel costs were more than CM expected and that the whole process had been exhausting – especially since CM is an introvert. (Witch: “...that explains a lot about many of our characters.” XD) Citadel then pointed out that most authors do book tours around the time of book releases, so the next tour – if there was one – would probably accompany the release of either Demon’s Nest (determined by its publisher) or Monstrous (whenever CM thought it was ready). Monstrous, thinking ahead, was like “let’s just rent out a warehouse and grab some volunteers for that task” –
Only for Heart Of Iron to tell her “nooooo, that is NOWHERE near as easy as you think” and explain how all the costs associated with that (renting a warehouse, which could easily top $100 per hour; getting all the packing and shipping materials at once, and having to rent a truck to help transport all the orders at once) would be bad and drive up the price on the Monstrous orders (and they were probably already going to be fairly expensive, as CM could now use what she’d learned from Heart Of Iron’s Kickstarter to properly calculate shipping and packaging costs). Witch was stunned to hear how much renting a warehouse cost, while Citadel mockingly asked why small business were failing and everyone was working from home. *shakehead* Poor Monstrous then wondered if people would even want to fund her the way they did Heart of Iron, given she was just a Greek myth retelling and Heart was the CaFae Latte book –
And Heart Of Iron said, “Only one way to find out.” *pats Monstrous* I can guarantee at least one person has funded you over here already. :P
C) Monstrous being in a tizzy as she’d just learned about how many asshole authors scammed their readers on Kickstarter (some walking away with ridiculous amounts of money and then not even writing the book) – Heart Of Iron agreed it was bad stuff (“like looking at a Black Mirror episode”), while Blackwing wondered if the backers could sue. Unfortunately, Citadel explained that it was nearly impossible – Kickstarter’s contract ensured they couldn’t be held responsible for bad actors who used the platform, and it was accepted that backing something on that platform held a certain amount of risk, as you were explicitly funding a product that did not actually exist yet. After all, even someone who had fully intended to deliver the product could be waylaid by illness, or find themselves dealing with an – unfortunate political situation. Blackwing was disgusted by how the “legal mumbo-jumbo” prevented restitution to those scammed –
And poor Monstrous was worried, given such scammers gave other authors on the platform a bad name and made people more reluctant to fund things. Heart Of Iron reminded her that CM had built up a lot of trust and mentioned some of the hiccups their campaign had faced (including increased prices due to the surprise tariffs, the mess with getting the audiobook and the ebook released, and the last few orders being fulfilled after the official publication date thanks to CM working alone for the most part) before stating that CM made it all happen in the end. Meaning people would be more inclined to believe that the Monstrous Kickstarter would be successful and properly fulfilled when the time came. Monstrous allowed that, but admitted she was worried because – again – Heart was the official CaFae Latte retelling, while she was just another rewritten Greek myth. Blackwing tried to cheer her up by reminding her that she was at least an obscure myth – not another Odyssey or Hades and Persephone retelling – while Witch started going over all the cool stuff in Monstrous’s version of the myth – like Psyche being a witch, and having a one-eyed dog and a dragon-fighting dove, and encountering a snake-furred Cerberus – before being stopped by Heart because spoilers. Citadel then said logically that Kickstarter had some risks, and that some people would always be hesitant to fund hers, instead waiting until Monstrous hit shelves, but that CM had proven herself with a three-year track record of handling money and sales responsibly and effectively – not just on Kickstarter, but on her merch store too, always making sure to right whatever wrongs might pop up there (like broken or undelivered merchandise, ghost charges, or a misprinted The Witch Who Trades With Death). After all, it’s not how many mistakes you make, it’s how much you learn from them. Blackwing added that it didn’t matter if Monstrous wasn’t the big ticket item around there, she was still part of a good-sized fandom and that should get her off the ground –
And then, when Monstrous was still skeptical, Blackwing broke out the big guns – pointing out that CM was a Rick Riordan – aka the author of the Percy Jackson series – fan, and thus a good portion of her fanbase was too. In fact, as per Citadel, CM got her start on TikTok with Percy Jackson memes, and has stated that Rick’s commitment to inclusivity and diversity in his books inspired her to do the same for hers. And that Monstrous thus probably had a lot in common with the Percy Jackson books, apart from the sense of humor and setting. Monstrous took all of this in, and declared that she was no longer worried. XD
D) Heart Of Iron coming in asking what the fuck was with all the generative AI bullshit, complaining how more and more authors were using it not just to generate cover art, but also to “write” their books – Blackwing, disgusted, mentioned how they hated the future, and Monstrous agreed, citing that she had to deal with plague and famine and decades-long wars in Ancient Greece, but at least she was spared this bullshit. (Witch: “I’m worried about you.” XD) Citadel declared they’d have more respect for these “authors” if they at least admitted to using the slop, but no – usually they’re caught by leaving the AI prompt they used in their work, proving they didn’t even edit the manuscript. Blackwing agreed and said that those who use genAI should announce they use it, loudly, so they could be avoided –
Causing Heart Of Iron to tell them about a book she heard about where the author claimed she “co-wrote” the story with a genAI she named Jack, with the story itself being about a woman who has a relationship with a security AI. Blackwing was like “...self-insert much?” while Citadel said that, while they allowed their main character had a lot in common with CM, at least she had plenty of traits that still marked her as a different person. Monstrous commented that she just hoped nobody accused any of THEM of being made with AI –
Only for Heart to tell her that ship had sailed – people had accused their cover art of being genAI, despite there being no indication CM had gone that route. And Witch revealed her cover art had been accused of being AI as well, though she admitted that her book came out right at the start of the genAI explosion, so everyone was a little too eager to call book covers AI anyway. She’d rather them be too cautious than too lax! Citadel said that was a shame –
And then immediately followed that up with “they should be accusing Blackwing of having AI covers,” because Citadel IS a bit of a bitch. Blackwing angrily declared that their covers may be cheap stock-images-and-Photoshop combos, but they were still human made, and the company making them, GetCovers.com was very anti-genAI. And if they changed that stance, well, CM could now hire an independent artist to design new covers – would mean having to go back and redo the covers on the released books, but Blackwing was pretty sure their readers wouldn’t mind. Causing Witch to say that was good – and reveal that she had some new cover art herself, to Heart’s shock. Leading into –
E) Witch revealing the new cover art by excitedly telling everyone that her book had sold well enough that her publisher was now offering a paperback option with a slightly different cover (admittedly, it was mostly just the background color that was different, but still). Blackwing was puzzled, as they didn’t know that she didn’t have a paperback option before, but Witch explained that her publisher, Angry Robot, only does hardcovers for physical copies of a book until enough has sold – THEN the paperback comes out. Monstrous noted that the paperback had sprayed edges on the pages – Witch explained that it was just a plain green, nothing fancy, causing Heart Of Iron to boo and insisted sprayed edges should be saved for cool scenes or designs. Monstrous objected, saying that as long as the color went with the cover, any sprayed edge was cool, and Citadel said it was also a good indicator that Angry Robot had faith the paperback would be a good seller – otherwise, they wouldn’t be spending the money on such an extra. Blackwing interjected that they were still confused, because if paperbacks were easier and cheaper to produce than hardcovers (and Citadel and Heart both confirmed they were), why not release the paperbacks FIRST and make more money that way? Citadel explained that publishers actually made more money on hardcovers, as the more expensive materials used allowed them to jack up the price more and make a better profit. Plus, paperbacks only sold more if you had the fanbase to buy them, so for newer authors like CM, it just made sense to go hardcover first and grow the base with the higher-quality book. Blackwing admitted that made sense – and that they had been asked for hardcover versions of their books, and they should get on that. Heart Of Iron, meanwhile, said that they’d ORIGINALLY considered a hardcover option for the CaFae Latte Cookbook – but given it would have cost $20 for a book under 100 pages, it just didn’t seem fair. Citadel agreed, saying that it only made sense to use the better materials for a book with more meat on its bones, then asked Witch when the paperback came out – she happily declared “March 24th, but you can preorder it now.” So if you wanted the softcover version of that book…
Good stuff, as always – though damn, there was a lot covered in five shorts! *shakehead* CM, I love you, but you make very dense TikToks. (Yeah, I know, my wordiness is a me problem…)
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: No check – I’d WANTED to try and come up with some more Valentine’s-themed Not Incorrect Quotes for Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), but between work and the long write-ups, I just didn’t have the chance. :( Hopefully tomorrow!
And I have to go to bed, so I'll fix the spacing tomorrow too. *shakehead* Remember when I could get these entries done in a single sitting? Ugh...night all.
Work – Kind of a frustrating day at work today – mostly because there was yet more bullshit related to our credit card company and their inability to do anything right. Specifically:
A) While we fortunately only had one person call in today wanting to do a credit card gift, we couldn’t do said gift because every time we tried, we’d get an error message about an unspecified problem with processing the payment. An error message that our processors also got when they tried processing one particular credit card gift, according to the exceptions we received today. I e-mailed the company twice today, but didn’t get a response – which isn’t that surprising, as they do enjoy leaving me hanging.
B) And, during the end of the day wrap-up, I discovered yet more pledges missing their initial payment on their pledge because there seems to be a bug with importing them if they have a payment processed on the same day the pledge is made. So now I have to check a bunch of credit card pledges both we in the office and our main processing company have put on to see which ones are missing payments. *facepalm*
Yeah, that – that was irritating. Especially for someone on her period and thus already permanently irritated. >( The rest of the day went okay – I spent most of the morning doing the GL, as it was pretty big due to all the gifts posted Friday, and the majority of the afternoon going through some of the other exceptions in the bundle and working on overpayments and stuff like that. But it’s just – it NEVER STOPS with this company, I swear. I hate them so much, you don’t even know. Ugh. We’ll see what happens tomorrow, I suppose...
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with The Adventures Of Useless Steve as I started the final episode of his first series: “Fallout: New Vegas - The Worst Courier - Grand Finale - How Useless Steve 'Saved' The World!” The first half of the end of Useless Steve’s base game adventures included:
A) Useless Steve investigating the Omertas Family (the gang that runs Gomorrah, the casino and brothel with a secret drugs menu P. D. Shoot Remastered has frequented more than once) for the NCR as part of their final-act questline and solving their problem with the family in a rather – unique way. The quest is supposed to go “you find out that the Omertas are building a bomb to attack the Strip after allying with the Legion, and help their lieutenant Cachino take over Gomorrah and kill them” – but you see, Jon hates Cachino too, because he’s an asshole who abuses the prostitutes and apparently kidnaps the one he “likes” the most, Joanna, once he becomes the owner of Gomorrah (she straight-up disappears from the game when he ascends to the throne, and Jon thinks she ends up in his bedroom and isn’t allowed to leave again). So he didn’t particularly want to put Cachino in charge. So, instead, he had Useless Steve pickpocket Cachino’s personal diary off him, detailing all the ways he’s been screwing over the Omertas gang with his own small-time operations; turn it into the guy at the door to the private part of the club, who sent Steve up to talk to the two men in charge, Big Sal and Nero; give the journal to Nero, who called Cachino into his office for a private “chat” that ended in his death –
Then – having prepared for this earlier by using Fire Act Nectar (which boosts Agility a lot) and a Sneak skill magazine to raise his Sneak to the appropriate level to sneak more “holdout” weapons into the casino – murdered Big Sal with Pew Pew and made a run for it, because this stopped the Omertas from blowing up the Strip (since they were down a boss) without having to put another scumbag in charge of their territory! Yes, it technically failed the quest, and Steve came EXTREMELY close to dying during his escape from the casino even with his power armor thanks to all the guards shooting at him, but he made it out without being followed, and was able to report back to Colonel Moore and straight up lie to her that the Omertas were planning on targeting New Reno, and the NCR didn’t have to worry about them. XD Jon even dipped briefly into an alternate universe where Steve actually worked with Sal to help create the bomb to confirm that Steve would never learn exactly what the bomb was for and thus couldn’t say anything different to Moore if he killed Sal then. *nods* Good information to have for those of us who might feel a little iffy about changing one asshole for another!
B) Useless Steve then taking on the task to destroy the Brotherhood for Colonel Moore, and showing off how easy it was even for a low-to-no skills character like himself – because while the main computer to actually start the self destruct sequence was locked behind a level of hacking Useless Steve would never achieve, the computer that generated passwords to get into the self-destruct computer was NOT. All Steve had to do was pickpocket three keycards from the Head Scribe, Head Paladin, and Elder McNamara (which was easy for him to do because they had no weight and very little value, meaning with the help of a Stealth Boy, he was able to easily snag them all), use them on the password computer to generate the passwords needed to get into the self-destruct computer, then open up the self-destruct computer and trigger the self-destruct. And then run for the exit while the Brotherhood steadfastly refused to evacuate, taking a few hits along the way but getting out safely thanks to the Stealth Boy. The Brotherhood thus blew up, and Steve was able to tell Moore about another successful mission while vowing never to go near Veronica again because she might have, uh, opinions on what he just did.
C) Useless Steve then showing the easiest way to complete the mission to protect the NCR president when he visited the dam to bolster the morale of the troops – basically, trigger an assassination attempt as soon as possible so the president LEFT as soon as possible. XD ...but I’ll have to tell you about the rest of it tomorrow, because it is too late now and I need to go to bed.
2. Continue editing Chapter 6 of “Londerland Bloodlines”: Check – got another page’s worth of edits done today, featuring:
A) Alice dropping out of the ductwork into what she discovered wasn’t an office, but was instead a sort of combination server room and break room, with a couple of big server banks on two of the walls, and a table with a coffee maker and a microwave and a water cooler on the third (she was like “I wouldn’t put water anywhere near the expensive computer equipment, but then I’m not running the place”)
B) Alice searching the room for the key promised to her by the Insane Children’s scribbles...only to come up short; cue Cheshire appearing by the only door in or out of the room, advising her to look farther afield – but to beware that the field had eyes, and to avoid getting them trained on her, lest she ended up like a biscuit being devoured by a Bandersnatch (Alice: “I’ve never seen that, but I will trust you that it is messy and horrible”)
C) Alice taking a moment to listen through the door and hearing a guard inside – then peeking in and realizing it was the security camera room (lit like something out of a horror movie for some reason), being watched over by a man chowing down on a donut. A man who’d conveniently left a key on the console...but inconveniently left it next to him, meaning it was very hard for Alice to get it without being noticed. She was not pleased
D) Alice running down her options, realizing hitting the guy with some distracting Dementation was her best shot, and doing just that – fortunately for her conscience, the effect was to make him start giggling over a joke he’d wanted to tell his friend Caroline, and then get up and leave so he could let her know. Cue Alice happily grabbing the key, getting out of the room, and escaping back into the vents as fast as possible, thanking Victor for being more useful than she’d ever guessed he would be
E) And Alice examining the key and finding a big “B” on the fob – and then remembering that Victor had told her that the sarcophagus was most likely stored in the basement, meaning hopefully this was the exact key she needed to reach it.
*nods* Progress continues to be made, both for Alice and for myself! I left off with her realizing she now had to figure out where to go next – tomorrow, she returns to the T-junction in the ductwork and follows the other path to see where it leads...
3. Watch something on FreeTube: Check – managed to catch up on the final C. M. Alongi video in my subs for now: “BookTalk: Monstrous & Paperbacks - TikTok Compilation!” Another collection of skits of her various books/book series (Heart Of Iron, The Witch Who Trades With Death, Citadel, Blackwing, and Monstrous) talking to each other, featuring:
A) The group ringing in the new year, with Citadel noting it had been a crazy 2025 – only for Blackwing to ask, “Crazier than the year you and I came out?” and Citadel to agree that maybe things hadn’t been that wild. Monstrous was naturally curious as to what happened the year they came out – cue Citadel explaining that 2023 started with CM doing the “Accidentally Kidnapped” mini-series on TikTok, which spawned a rough draft of a book that got her a fan base on Patreon, followed by the start of CaFae Latte and the writing of Heart Of Iron, followed by the releases of the first two Blackwing novellas and Citadel, followed by CM leaving her food service job to do TikTok skits and writing full-time. Witch then pointed out that 2024 was the year of Heart of Iron’s Kickstarter, with Citadel adding that it also featured the release of the CaFae Latte cookbook, declaring it a “slow year.” Monstrous was incredulous and Heart Of Iron insulted, but Blackwing pointed out that the cookbook was more CM’s mom’s book than hers, and Witch added that most authors only aim for one book release a year to prevent things getting messy – the main reason she and Heart Of Iron being released in the same year worked was because she came out in March, and Heart Of Iron in October, meaning there was some breathing room between the two. Monstrous, now worried, asked if she was stepping on Heart Of Iron’s toes, but Heart was like “Nah, you’re only on Patreon right now, you’re not published” –
Then paused and confirmed, “You’re not published, right?” To which Monstrous replied, “No, but I am getting Kickstarted in February.” :P Blackwing was stunned (“Already?!”), Witch excited and congratulatory, and Citadel just “And the insanity begins anew.” XD
B) Blackwing going “so, another Kickstarter?” in response to the news at the end of the last skit – Heart Of Iron pointed out that theirs raised a hundred grand, so why not? Monstrous agreed, saying that she was going to be ready for “developmental edits” in the spring, and a February campaign would pay out in mid-March, so that was perfect timing – and a pleased Citadel pointed out that when Monstrous went off for edits, the edits on their sequel, Demon’s Nest, would be coming back, meaning CM could move seamlessly from the Monstrous project to theirs! Blackwing cheerfully added, “All while writing my sequel!” –
Prompting Citadel to ask if that was actually going to happen. Blackwing was like, “Yes, fuck you, she actually has the next TWO novellas in the series drafted out, she just was busy with Demon’s Nest, Monstrous, the holidays, and the book tour before.” (Monstrous: “Right, only those four things.” XD) This prompted Witch to ask if another book tour would be happening this year –
To which Heart replied “maaaaaybe?” and explained that all the travel costs were more than CM expected and that the whole process had been exhausting – especially since CM is an introvert. (Witch: “...that explains a lot about many of our characters.” XD) Citadel then pointed out that most authors do book tours around the time of book releases, so the next tour – if there was one – would probably accompany the release of either Demon’s Nest (determined by its publisher) or Monstrous (whenever CM thought it was ready). Monstrous, thinking ahead, was like “let’s just rent out a warehouse and grab some volunteers for that task” –
Only for Heart Of Iron to tell her “nooooo, that is NOWHERE near as easy as you think” and explain how all the costs associated with that (renting a warehouse, which could easily top $100 per hour; getting all the packing and shipping materials at once, and having to rent a truck to help transport all the orders at once) would be bad and drive up the price on the Monstrous orders (and they were probably already going to be fairly expensive, as CM could now use what she’d learned from Heart Of Iron’s Kickstarter to properly calculate shipping and packaging costs). Witch was stunned to hear how much renting a warehouse cost, while Citadel mockingly asked why small business were failing and everyone was working from home. *shakehead* Poor Monstrous then wondered if people would even want to fund her the way they did Heart of Iron, given she was just a Greek myth retelling and Heart was the CaFae Latte book –
And Heart Of Iron said, “Only one way to find out.” *pats Monstrous* I can guarantee at least one person has funded you over here already. :P
C) Monstrous being in a tizzy as she’d just learned about how many asshole authors scammed their readers on Kickstarter (some walking away with ridiculous amounts of money and then not even writing the book) – Heart Of Iron agreed it was bad stuff (“like looking at a Black Mirror episode”), while Blackwing wondered if the backers could sue. Unfortunately, Citadel explained that it was nearly impossible – Kickstarter’s contract ensured they couldn’t be held responsible for bad actors who used the platform, and it was accepted that backing something on that platform held a certain amount of risk, as you were explicitly funding a product that did not actually exist yet. After all, even someone who had fully intended to deliver the product could be waylaid by illness, or find themselves dealing with an – unfortunate political situation. Blackwing was disgusted by how the “legal mumbo-jumbo” prevented restitution to those scammed –
And poor Monstrous was worried, given such scammers gave other authors on the platform a bad name and made people more reluctant to fund things. Heart Of Iron reminded her that CM had built up a lot of trust and mentioned some of the hiccups their campaign had faced (including increased prices due to the surprise tariffs, the mess with getting the audiobook and the ebook released, and the last few orders being fulfilled after the official publication date thanks to CM working alone for the most part) before stating that CM made it all happen in the end. Meaning people would be more inclined to believe that the Monstrous Kickstarter would be successful and properly fulfilled when the time came. Monstrous allowed that, but admitted she was worried because – again – Heart was the official CaFae Latte retelling, while she was just another rewritten Greek myth. Blackwing tried to cheer her up by reminding her that she was at least an obscure myth – not another Odyssey or Hades and Persephone retelling – while Witch started going over all the cool stuff in Monstrous’s version of the myth – like Psyche being a witch, and having a one-eyed dog and a dragon-fighting dove, and encountering a snake-furred Cerberus – before being stopped by Heart because spoilers. Citadel then said logically that Kickstarter had some risks, and that some people would always be hesitant to fund hers, instead waiting until Monstrous hit shelves, but that CM had proven herself with a three-year track record of handling money and sales responsibly and effectively – not just on Kickstarter, but on her merch store too, always making sure to right whatever wrongs might pop up there (like broken or undelivered merchandise, ghost charges, or a misprinted The Witch Who Trades With Death). After all, it’s not how many mistakes you make, it’s how much you learn from them. Blackwing added that it didn’t matter if Monstrous wasn’t the big ticket item around there, she was still part of a good-sized fandom and that should get her off the ground –
And then, when Monstrous was still skeptical, Blackwing broke out the big guns – pointing out that CM was a Rick Riordan – aka the author of the Percy Jackson series – fan, and thus a good portion of her fanbase was too. In fact, as per Citadel, CM got her start on TikTok with Percy Jackson memes, and has stated that Rick’s commitment to inclusivity and diversity in his books inspired her to do the same for hers. And that Monstrous thus probably had a lot in common with the Percy Jackson books, apart from the sense of humor and setting. Monstrous took all of this in, and declared that she was no longer worried. XD
D) Heart Of Iron coming in asking what the fuck was with all the generative AI bullshit, complaining how more and more authors were using it not just to generate cover art, but also to “write” their books – Blackwing, disgusted, mentioned how they hated the future, and Monstrous agreed, citing that she had to deal with plague and famine and decades-long wars in Ancient Greece, but at least she was spared this bullshit. (Witch: “I’m worried about you.” XD) Citadel declared they’d have more respect for these “authors” if they at least admitted to using the slop, but no – usually they’re caught by leaving the AI prompt they used in their work, proving they didn’t even edit the manuscript. Blackwing agreed and said that those who use genAI should announce they use it, loudly, so they could be avoided –
Causing Heart Of Iron to tell them about a book she heard about where the author claimed she “co-wrote” the story with a genAI she named Jack, with the story itself being about a woman who has a relationship with a security AI. Blackwing was like “...self-insert much?” while Citadel said that, while they allowed their main character had a lot in common with CM, at least she had plenty of traits that still marked her as a different person. Monstrous commented that she just hoped nobody accused any of THEM of being made with AI –
Only for Heart to tell her that ship had sailed – people had accused their cover art of being genAI, despite there being no indication CM had gone that route. And Witch revealed her cover art had been accused of being AI as well, though she admitted that her book came out right at the start of the genAI explosion, so everyone was a little too eager to call book covers AI anyway. She’d rather them be too cautious than too lax! Citadel said that was a shame –
And then immediately followed that up with “they should be accusing Blackwing of having AI covers,” because Citadel IS a bit of a bitch. Blackwing angrily declared that their covers may be cheap stock-images-and-Photoshop combos, but they were still human made, and the company making them, GetCovers.com was very anti-genAI. And if they changed that stance, well, CM could now hire an independent artist to design new covers – would mean having to go back and redo the covers on the released books, but Blackwing was pretty sure their readers wouldn’t mind. Causing Witch to say that was good – and reveal that she had some new cover art herself, to Heart’s shock. Leading into –
E) Witch revealing the new cover art by excitedly telling everyone that her book had sold well enough that her publisher was now offering a paperback option with a slightly different cover (admittedly, it was mostly just the background color that was different, but still). Blackwing was puzzled, as they didn’t know that she didn’t have a paperback option before, but Witch explained that her publisher, Angry Robot, only does hardcovers for physical copies of a book until enough has sold – THEN the paperback comes out. Monstrous noted that the paperback had sprayed edges on the pages – Witch explained that it was just a plain green, nothing fancy, causing Heart Of Iron to boo and insisted sprayed edges should be saved for cool scenes or designs. Monstrous objected, saying that as long as the color went with the cover, any sprayed edge was cool, and Citadel said it was also a good indicator that Angry Robot had faith the paperback would be a good seller – otherwise, they wouldn’t be spending the money on such an extra. Blackwing interjected that they were still confused, because if paperbacks were easier and cheaper to produce than hardcovers (and Citadel and Heart both confirmed they were), why not release the paperbacks FIRST and make more money that way? Citadel explained that publishers actually made more money on hardcovers, as the more expensive materials used allowed them to jack up the price more and make a better profit. Plus, paperbacks only sold more if you had the fanbase to buy them, so for newer authors like CM, it just made sense to go hardcover first and grow the base with the higher-quality book. Blackwing admitted that made sense – and that they had been asked for hardcover versions of their books, and they should get on that. Heart Of Iron, meanwhile, said that they’d ORIGINALLY considered a hardcover option for the CaFae Latte Cookbook – but given it would have cost $20 for a book under 100 pages, it just didn’t seem fair. Citadel agreed, saying that it only made sense to use the better materials for a book with more meat on its bones, then asked Witch when the paperback came out – she happily declared “March 24th, but you can preorder it now.” So if you wanted the softcover version of that book…
Good stuff, as always – though damn, there was a lot covered in five shorts! *shakehead* CM, I love you, but you make very dense TikToks. (Yeah, I know, my wordiness is a me problem…)
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: No check – I’d WANTED to try and come up with some more Valentine’s-themed Not Incorrect Quotes for Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), but between work and the long write-ups, I just didn’t have the chance. :( Hopefully tomorrow!
And I have to go to bed, so I'll fix the spacing tomorrow too. *shakehead* Remember when I could get these entries done in a single sitting? Ugh...night all.
