Honor Thy Bookish Limits

Not every book is for everyone. The trick to being a happy reader is knowing and accepting your limits. In this episode Amy, EJ , and Stacy talk about navigating content warnings and personal limits as readers and content consumers in general.

Part of this was instigated by two well-written articles from Bookriot.com and Tor.com, which are linked below. It is a generally common issue though for a lot of the Internet community to not look after their needs and behave responsibly. That’s not okay. So let’s talk about it!

Stuff We Mention

• On Dead Dogs and Other Reading Dealbreakers by Molly Templeton (https://www.tor.com/2023/10/05/on-dead-dogs-and-other-reading-dealbreakers/)
• The Importance of Knowing And Sticking to Your Own Bookish Limits by P. N. Hinton (https://bookriot.com/knowing-your-bookish-limits/)
• The Orc Sworn Series (https://finleyfenn.com)
• Playground by Aron Beauregard (https://www.amazon.com/Playground-Aron-Beauregard-ebook/dp/B0BHKP1QKL?nodl=1&dplnkId=5861d7d7-05c8-4f24-b68c-52bee3a25e74)
• The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35068705)
• Claimed and Tamed Series by M. L. Marian (https://www.goodreads.com/series/333981-claimed-tamed)
• Steel Bones Motorcycle Club by Cate C. Wells (https://www.catecwells.com/steel-bones-motocycle-club)
• The Tyrant Alpha's Rejected Mate by Cate C. Wells (https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/59046399)
• Bob’s Burgers TV Show (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1561755/)
• The Kraken Series by Tiffany Roberts (https://www.goodreads.com/series/222835-the-kraken)
• Gabriel the Drag Queen (https://bio.site/justgabriel)

Music is called "Undead Bride" by Pagefire https://soundcloud.com/nerdymetalhead202/undead-bride 

Episode Transcript

EJ (00:01):
Welcome back, dear listeners.
This is another interestingepisode of Tales from the Orc
Den because we are we just goton a toot of listen, we got to
talk about the book world andthis is this is yet another one
talking about the book world.
So previous episode, we weretalking about book censorship.

(00:22):
If you seem to be.
Like, man, I'm hearing meows andbumps in the background of EJ's
mic.
That's because my cat won'tleave me alone.
And I've got a sweet, veryselfish, smooth brained orange
boy who is a baby.
He would like you to know he isbaby.

(00:43):
But anyway, once again Amy,Stacy, we talk about some pretty
racy stuff on this podcast,usually World of Monster Romance
I would say in the, in thecommercial literature world, we
also know dark stuff.
It's full of dark stuff.
Parts of it.
I'd say a decent chunk, as muchas I love fluff and as huge as

(01:04):
fluff sells, there is definitelya dark romance streak in the
monster romance world, and it'srelated paranormal sci fi
fantasy romance world.
Really the trick, I think, ofbeing a happy, satisfied reader
in this world is knowingyourself as a reader.

(01:26):
And that's really the core ofwhat we want to talk about
today.
Because this seems to be atricky concept for folks to know
and respect themselves.
I'm going to turn this over toAmy because Amy was the one

(01:50):
because she brings us suchawesome articles

Stacy (01:52):
so this is also really quick just to pop in really
quick.
This is also tangentiallyrelated.
To the book censorship, uh,episode that we did because it's
the same idea of learning tostay in your own fucking lane.

EJ (02:07):
Absolutely.
And there is nothing wrong withself censoring No, not at all.
In fact, actually, I would saywe were going to argue here.
You should.
Yes.
So consider this a tough loveepisode, everyone.
Very much, very

Stacy (02:24):
much tough love.
For sure.

Amy (02:26):
Okay the two articles that I shared with EJ and Stacey the
first one, at least I think itwas the first one came from Tor.
com, and it's an article byMolly Templeton called On Dead
Dogs and Other Reading DealBreakers.
Now, when I read this, I waslike, yep, I totally get that

(02:47):
because this is applicabletowards me when it comes to
visual media, particularlyfilms.
I cannot watch a film where ahelpless animal, usually a cat
or a dog, dies on screen or evenis implied as off screen.
It's very upsetting for me.

Stacy (03:06):
Same.
I'm the same way with when kidsdie on screen, too, or

EJ (03:11):
a kid in a movie.
It doesn't

Stacy (03:13):
seem to happen as often, thank goodness, Stacey,

Amy (03:15):
with kids.
It doesn't seem to happen asoften, but when it does, oh my
god, it hits you right in thefeels.
And it's just like, why?
Because you think they'reimmortal.
You think the kids are, they'renot immortal,

Stacy (03:27):
they're impenetrable.
They should be protected.
Yes.
This is a vulnerable population,and the fact that We're
witnessing something happen tothem in a fictional setting is,
even though the character isfictitious, it's still upsetting
because you know that's a memberof a, a vulnerable population,
like I said.
Correct.

Amy (03:48):
And basically what Molly goes into in this article is her
limits when it comes to herreading material.
She's a

Stacy (03:57):
wimp.
And it had to

Amy (04:01):
do with the dog.
And I know Stacey, it's,

Stacy (04:04):
it's just and I think I want to say too, I think she's a
self described wimp.
Like we're not calling her out.
Correct.
Correct.

Amy (04:10):
Yes.
Sorry.
This is what she says in thearticle herself that she's a
wimp.
And she says she has establishedthis in previous articles, she
has written for tor.
com.
But, of course, sometimes peoplelike to read outside their
comfort zone, as EJ pointed out.
Fluff is great.
We all love fluff, but sometimeswe want to get into something a

(04:31):
little different, perhaps alittle bit darker, a little

Stacy (04:33):
bit

Amy (04:33):
heavier, and that's okay.
It's nice to test the

Stacy (04:38):
waters.
anD sometimes you can read itand you can be like, yeah, I
tried it, it's not for me.
But other times you might belike, okay, I'm more into this
than I thought I would be.
Exactly.
You've

Amy (04:47):
actually expanded your bookish boundaries because you
found something that you likethat you hadn't been considering

EJ (04:52):
before.
I, Orcs Warren, the series thatbrought us all together
originally, great example of adark romance that I think is
great.
And I would recommend it toanyone, but I also recognize
that other people might not havesuch a good time with it, and

Stacy (05:07):
that's fine.
Exactly.

Amy (05:09):
We, but anyways, going into the bookish boundaries is
basically what Molly has goneinto in her article.
And she does recognize that Itcan change over time.
What maybe have been a dealbreaker in a younger age might
not be a deal breaker in anolder age and vice versa

Stacy (05:31):
as you get older, like

Amy (05:34):
this can apply to pretty much any content that you
consume.
I used to watch CSI, Miamicriminal mind all the time.
I can't anymore, because itfeels

Stacy (05:47):
far too

Amy (05:48):
real for

Stacy (05:49):
me.
Yes, I think a lot of people areexperiencing that in this in the
current climes.
It's

Amy (05:54):
That's on me, though.
I accept that other people canwatch it.
They are welcome to enjoy it.
I won't diss anyone's enjoymentfor what they consume.
Consume.
Just don't make me

Stacy (06:05):
watch it, because I don't want to.

Amy (06:07):
Let's see.
There was something that shesaid in here that made a lot of
sense.
Sometimes you don't actuallyrecognize that you have deal
breakers until you encounter itin a book that's true or a form
of media and you're like, Whoa,I, that just came out of
nowhere.
Like surprise penis

Stacy (06:27):
or something.

Amy (06:29):
Where was I?
Okay in the article Molly'stalking about deal breakers, and
originally, she liked to thinkthat there were no deal breakers
for her, that there was nothing, no happening, or plot
point, or character type, orinstance that might not be
somehow used wisely,interestingly, Powerfully.
And she said, I read books inwhich terrible, horrible things

(06:50):
happen.
I watched aggravating moviesthat filled my head with images
I would rather never have seen.
And then I read more, andwatched more, and read more
criticism and commentary, andsomewhere down the line, I
changed my tune.
People can write whatever theylike, but some of it, I just
can't spend time with anymore.
And that's understandable,because Absolutely.
She recognized that it's notcontent for her.

(07:14):
And I'm actually going to letthat lead me into the second
article.
This is an essay from Book Riotfrom P.
N.
Hinton.
I don't know if they're relatedto S.
J., goodness knows, who knows.
But anyways, The Importance ofKnowing and Sticking to Your Own
Bookish Limits.
And let's see.
Starts off with I enjoy almosteverything bookish.

(07:38):
It comes as no surprise that agood bit of my For You page on
TikTok is book related.
I get quite an eclectic mix ofgenres there.
Romance, fantasy, cozies of allkinds, and horror.
That last one is what inspiredme to write this piece.
There was a book that cameacross, um, Hinton's TikTok, and
they call it The Book, and it iscalled Playground by I'm going

(08:02):
to guess Aaron.
It could be Aaron.
It could be Aaron.
Beauregard.
And it's become a really popularhorror book.

Stacy (08:11):
Is that the splatterpunk that everybody was shitting
their pants over?
Yes.

Amy (08:15):
But Hinton fortunately did link the TikTok that sums up
what happened with some peoplewho picked this up without doing
proper research.
Basically, they either ignoredthe content warnings, which...
Beauregard included with thebook, because Splatterpunk is a
very niche genre,

Stacy (08:33):
It's so

Amy (08:33):
niche in horror, I can't even name the number of books
that can be, that, that is, thatare applicable towards that sub
genre.

Stacy (08:42):
There's a fair few, because I've read a lot of, I
wouldn't say a lot of them, butI've read a little cross section
of some of them and again it'sjust, They're fine but if you're
somebody who doesn't likeextreme horror, then this isn't
for you.
Exactly,

Amy (08:55):
but either these people that are pretty much dragging
Beauregard through the co overthe coals, um, because of oh

Stacy (09:03):
my god, I can't,

Amy (09:04):
it's just so disgusting, I couldn't finish it, blah, blah,
blah, and it's like The contentwarnings were there.
You chose to ignore them, or

Stacy (09:13):
you chose to think that they did not apply to you.
Yes, exactly.
And I think,

Amy (09:19):
I think that's where readers do a disservice to
authors who are actuallystarting to include content
warnings and trigger warningsfor their books.
Yeah.
There are, there have to belimits.
You have, I wouldn't say therehave to be, but there are limits
that some people can take inbooks.

(09:40):
Okay, I can't handle this.
I read The Poppy War by R.
F.
Kuang when it first came out in2018.
Great book.
It was one of my first examples.
At least overt examples ofgrimdark fantasy that I ever
read.
And the inspiration that Kwongdrew from was actually from

(10:01):
Asia's own history during WorldWar I in the Sino Japanese War.
And the horrors

Stacy (10:07):
of Sino.
Sino Japanese.
Sino Japanese, excuse me.
I'm just saying it because I'msure I wrote a paper or three on
it.
It's a

Amy (10:16):
part of world history that is totally talked over.
Trust me, Stacey.
I am very peeved that we didn'tget to see a lot more of.
World War I and the effect ithad on other parts of the world
aside from the West.

Stacy (10:31):
Right, 100%.

Amy (10:33):
Anyways, Pong did go into a lot of the horrors of war,
including biochemical

Stacy (10:38):
warfare.
Yeah, because that was the firstwar where we first really
started dabbling with chemicalwarfare.

Amy (10:46):
But it also dealt with rape, and the Rape of Nanking
was one of her biggestinspirations as well.
And I thought it was a greatbook.
I gave it four out of fivestars.
However, I could not continuethe trilogy because it was just
it was so much.
And so I'm like, while I canadmit that this is a great book,

(11:07):
I will admit that the trilogy ismost likely not for me.

Stacy (11:11):
Right.

Amy (11:13):
And granted, I don't believe Kuang included any
trigger warnings in her books.
I think they're definitelybecoming more prevalent
nowadays.

Stacy (11:21):
Remember, this would be...
fair, by, by, in 2018, I don'tthink, because that's when you
said it came out, right?
It was 2018?
Yes.
Yes.
Oh, yeah.
I don't think, I don't thinktrigger warnings had become as
popular.
I think people were juststarting to do it.

EJ (11:34):
And definitely not in Tribe Publishing.
I think Tribe Publishing is onlynow maybe getting the hint.
And they took it from IndiePublishing, where it's only now
really becoming a industrystandard.
Yeah.
And I will acknowledge a coupleepisodes back, when we started
talking about anthologiesVerbose.
Trigger warnings and authorsdoing their due diligence.

(11:57):
Awesome.
Love it.
Mwah! You be as verbose as youwant to, you gorgeous human
beings.
In the meantime, readers, forheaven's sakes, Ctrl F, search,
whatever.
Kindle's got so many cute littlethings for you to do.
Use it.
Don't be afraid to be like, youknow what?

(12:17):
I don't feel like dealing withchildhood abuse or something.
On page.
That's

Stacy (12:21):
Maybe I'm just not in the right mind space for this.
And you should honor that.
And I would also like to say, Ialso talked about this in the
anthology episode, if you're awriter, don't fucking say, look
at my writer's page or go to mypage for a complete list of
triggers.
I'm not going to, and likelywhat's going to happen is I'm
not going to read your fuckingbook.

Amy (12:41):
At least include the main trigger warnings

Stacy (12:43):
in the book itself.
So you could say Hey, the bigtrigger warnings include X, Y,
and Z.
If you want a more comprehensivelist, check out my webpage.
Yes.
I know Finley.
There's a streak of authors thatI've noticed who are like for
content warning, check mywebpage.
Okay.
Fuck you.
I'm not going to read your book.
Why, just

EJ (13:02):
please are you afraid of being uncool?
Like a And I think that'ssomething that I cannot ever
encourage people enough to be,don't be afraid to be uncool.
Embrace being uncool.
We're

Stacy (13:14):
adults.
I was never cool.
And I never planned to be cool.
Yeah.
Seriously seen here.

EJ (13:21):
It has never served me going

Amy (13:23):
into the rest of the article, though.
Like I said, this, there was.
A backlash against the authorthemself, fans of Splatterpunk,
and the horror community as awhole.
And it's you're not honoring theauthor in what they warned you
about.
And you're pretty much going me.

(13:44):
And uh, there, there seems

Stacy (13:46):
to be this You don't go to somebody else's house and
demand they make you a salamisandwich.
Precisely.

Amy (13:51):
Do not

EJ (13:51):
insult Right, and they're a vegetarian household.

Stacy (13:55):
Yes, do not insult the vegetarian

Amy (13:56):
household, or do not insult someone who is opening their
home to you, providing nicetreats, and you're like, Oh, I
can't eat that, or, Oh, do youhave anything else?

Stacy (14:08):
Do you have anything better?
Or, and even another example is,say you have a peanut allergy,
and you want to go to somebody'shouse, and that person says,
Okay, but my house is made outof peanuts.
And you ignore it and you goanyway, and then you bitch
because you have a peanutallergy.
Congratulations, you're a dick.

EJ (14:27):
I guess the point is it's just, don't go in being like,
this is not what I like, and Ihave put myself in a situation
where I'm not going to likesomething.
It's very confusing for yourselfand everyone else, and it just
comes off as rude.

Stacy (14:43):
Don't assume that just because something isn't to your
taste, that doesn't make it a

EJ (14:46):
bad book.
Oh, absolutely.
Even I cannot emphasize enoughwith my own reviewing work, my
reviews are my reviews.
They are the opinions, which arefull of bias and skewing, of
what I see and how I read it,and, if you are not me, which

(15:09):
last time I checked, no one elsewas.
Right.

Stacy (15:12):
You're probably not.

EJ (15:14):
You might disagree with me, and I might be like, that's
normal.
Yeah, that's okay.
That is totally okay.

Amy (15:22):
Oh my goodness, no reader ever reads the same book.

EJ (15:26):
No.
No.
No.
No.

Stacy (15:28):
An interesting way to track that, if you have
something like Kindle, is tolook at what people highlight.
Because sometimes you'll seesomething and you're like, yes,
I'm going to highlight this too.
And then other times you'relike, 64 people highlighted
that?
Why?
What the hell?

EJ (15:44):
You gotta wonder.
There are I'm telling you, thisis why I want there to be a
bookish app, because I feel likeKindle stopped too soon.
I want an opt in feature where Ican participate in book
discussions of Oh, youhighlighted that?
Why?
Tell me more.
No, you

Amy (16:03):
can leave notes.
Oh, you mean like digitalmarginalia?
Yeah.

Stacy (16:07):
I love that.
And you can leave notes.
On highlights in Kindle.
I, yeah.
But then I've done that withthere's a, I know you can share
that on good reads.
There's a dark, sexy Russianstill could engage in a
discussion though,

Amy (16:22):
because

Stacy (16:24):
it's not like That's fair.
Yeah.

Amy (16:25):
It's anonymous person can reach out to you or vice versa.
Yeah.

Stacy (16:29):
It's a closed, it's a closed loop, like yeah.
But I do that if, if saysomebody, I'm just saying, some
more, if someone, favessomething, did it again, faves
something or likes a quote orsomething like that, it is cool
to get to tap on it.
And if somebody is adding tothis, I noticed blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
But it's even helpful with,there's a book series I like

(16:52):
where the main male charactersare Russian and they, the author
did a lot of research intoRussian because it's not just
run through Google TranslatorRussian.
And so I will go and I will lookit up and then a lot of times I
will footnote it with thetranslation so I don't have to
constantly go back to to, to tryand translate it online.

EJ (17:10):
I tell you, if I had Nepo baby money, I would be building
such a bookish app like todaywith the digital marginalia.
My focus group would be likeadvanced reader copies.
That way I'm not, dealing with,I'm not dipping into Amazon's
pool.
It would be like all theparticular the really engaged

(17:32):
reader nerds.
Because they're the ones who aregoing to be talking about that
stuff the most.
Oh my God.
It would be cool.

Amy (17:39):
I just thought of something.
Can you imagine if..
If they could get physicalcopies of the arcs and then, of
course, mark them up like crazy.
It's like, why did you do this?
Or why, what happened here?
Blah, blah, blah.
Just, and then send it back to

Stacy (17:51):
the author.
Oh my god.
That's the thing though, likewhat EJ's talking about.
If you had an app like that, youcould.

EJ (17:58):
Yeah, pretty much and what I'm describing is like doing
that by, in a digital form withthe ebook.
Yeah.
Yeah.

Stacy (18:04):
But on the ebook instead of on the physical.
Yeah.
I did arc read for one of MLMarion, is that the writer's
name should have tamed claimednamed really good series on cozy
kidnapping.
Doesn't sound like it should goon.
Really?
Does go on.
Yeah.
Super hot.
Anyway she actually, I ARC readfor, I think it was claimed, but

(18:29):
don't quote me on that.
And she actually had a reallycool thing set up where you
didn't just get a digital book.
She released the chapters on, Idon't remember what the website
was.
But you could read the chapters,and then there were questions at
the end of each chapter.
And so instead of you gettingthe whole arc, I like that.
You would get the chapter, youwould, there was a space for,

(18:50):
what did you think about thischapter?
You're like, what are yourthoughts on this?
Did you notice anything wrong?
But then there would be specificquestions like, what did you
think when blah blah blah saidblah blah blah?
Did that make sense to you?
Do you feel like it wasoverstated?
Do you feel like it wasunderstated?
And so it was, it made it reallyeasy to help give really nuanced
feedback.
That is rather than really andrather than I like it.

(19:12):
I would have loved to have

Amy (19:13):
seen the compiled notes from

EJ (19:15):
that Stacy would be all right.
So I admit, I'm a mud.
I'm enough of an engaged artcreator to be like, I would want
to know what my fellow artcreators are also thinking,
because it would be like thisreally cool, like exclusive
asynchronous book club.
Essentially, yeah.

(19:35):
And I suppose like part of thattoo is I started thinking of
this, I admit, because all threeof us are, I think, rather
spoiled Finley Fenn's Arc Readercommunity is terribly engaged,
especially on Discord.
I got to admit, I startedthinking about this like when we
were Arc Reading for one of herOrc Swarm books, and I just

(19:56):
remember people like going backand forth.
Between the book and referencingstuff and being like, Oh, all
that.
And I was like, wouldn't it benice if I didn't have to
constantly go back and forthbetween the book and discord for
me to be like, Oh, crap.
Yeah, that part.
Oh, man, go back in for oncethat happens.

(20:17):
The tech professional in me waslike, this is the friction point
for the user.
So and that just starts a wholebunch of requirements and a
project product division.
And then I realized I have nomoney.
Yeah, so at least I don't havetech entrepreneur money.

(20:39):
To be fair, I've got, can cansupport a bunch of Patreon's
money, but not tech entrepreneurmoney.
I did

Amy (20:48):
want to clarify what marginalia is in case people are
not familiar with what the termis.
Basically, marginalia comes fromthe idea of composing notes.
In the margins, basically thegutter area of a book, and
basically it could be inreaction to something, or it
could be, highlighting a quoteand saying, Oh God, I love this

(21:10):
quote, or something to that

Stacy (21:11):
extent.
Yeah.
But all that is

Amy (21:14):
to say, with the article, The Importance of Knowing Your
Bookish Limits, I'm going to sumit up in one sentence, which
Hinton was kind enough to say.
Not every book is meant for you.

Stacy (21:28):
100 percent agree.
I think

Amy (21:30):
there are quite a few readers out there that cannot
accept this, though.
Yeah.
For whatever reason,

Stacy (21:37):
and I'm just like, why?
Or they take it as a challenge.

Amy (21:40):
There's no way that you can read all of the literature in
the world in a lifetime.
It's

Stacy (21:46):
just not possible.
And why would you want to?
Because there's so much of itare books like shit written by
George Orwell.

EJ (21:52):
And nobody needs that.
No.

Amy (21:54):
But the thing is that there is one thing I can highly
recommend that can be done nomatter what type of content
you're, you are consuming.
Whether it's a book, a fanfiction that you're reading.
A TV series that you've started,you can always close the book,

(22:14):
hit the back button, and move

Stacy (22:17):
on with your life.
Right.
I 100 percent agree.
So

Amy (22:25):
simple, and yet such a hard concept for

Stacy (22:28):
quite a few people.

EJ (22:30):
A lot of my follow up questions are going to be us
showing some practicing alongwith our preaching.
And so I'm going to go aroundthe virtual table and be like,
so what are your limits?
What are your immediate do notpick up?
Want me to go first?

(22:50):
Yeah, go for it, Amy.

Amy (22:52):
All right.
Non con, as in non consensual,is one of the biggest trigger
warnings that I look for in,especially my romance,
especially my

Stacy (23:03):
monster romance.
Oh.
Yeah, dark romance in particularcan really tread down that path.
I

Amy (23:09):
cannot, I can't, dubious con, as in dubious consent, that
has a bit more wiggle room, butnon con, that is something that
I am against because there needsto be consent between the two
adults.

(23:29):
In whatever it is that they aredoing, whether that's canoodling
on the couch or railing upagainst the wall.

EJ (23:37):
Right.

Amy (23:39):
Whatever.
I need consent.
If there's no consent, I'm not ahappy camper.
However, I'm not going to dissanyone who enjoys non con
because that's

Stacy (23:48):
me.
I like non and dubcon if it'sdone right.
See?
There you go.

EJ (23:51):
There we go.
Yeah.
I'm actually right there withyou, Amy.

Amy (23:55):
The other one that I think is eh, it's mostly a pass,
mostly because I don't reallycare for the real life
depiction, and that would be...
Any form of organized crimeromance, whether it's Mafia,
Yakuza, yadda, whatever, I'm

Stacy (24:09):
like, Pass.
Pass.
For the most part, I agree.
But there are a couple ofexceptions to that rule.
That's understandable, Stacey.
You found

Amy (24:20):
the ones that you actually appreciate.
Whereas you don't necessarilyneed to go into that.

Stacy (24:26):
Sub genre.
Exactly.
Yeah, my absolute, I'm gonnamiss this, is reverse harem.
I don't like I don't likemultiple partners, and my, and
again, I'm not, I love thatReverse Harem is fucking out
there, I love that Polyculebooks are out there, I love that
somewhere out there, I knowthere's a book.
Where it's ten mountain men andone chick, and I fucking love

(24:49):
that it exists, even though itmakes me tired thinking about
reading it.
My, my approach to that for whythat's not for me is because I
am a very jealous, possessiveperson, and I'm very open about
that.
What is mine, what is mine isnot yours, you don't touch
what's mine, and also if I cantake it from you, it's no longer
yours, it's mine, and you can'ttouch it.

(25:09):
And there's a reason why I thinkI sorted into Slytherin.
bUt, Reverse Harem is one ofthose, it's not so much a
trigger for me I'm not gonna belike, Oh dear God, it's Reverse
Harem.
But I did that one time, butthat's because there was no
fuckin warning by the stupidfuckin author.
I won't name names, but she ison the never read list, because

(25:29):
too many of her books have uh,Punched me in the ovaries and
not in a fun way.
I Really don't think I have manytriggers.
It's more like likes anddislikes.
Actually, a trigger for me wouldbe talking down.
Especially to the heroine.
Oh, yeah.
Any kind of that's actuallysomething I like going back and
revisiting some of the bodicerippers that I read as a kid.

(25:50):
But there are some I can'trevisit because the misogyny
just gallops.
And in a couple of them...
I have since found out that theywere actually written by men

EJ (26:00):
ghostwriting as women.
There we

Stacy (26:02):
go.
Interesting.
And that gives it just acollective, ugly, taste in the
back of my mouth, basically.
But any kind of talking downthere was a fucking rule for
fucking years in the 80s wherethe Man and the woman, because I
was reading historical romanceat that point, have to have a

(26:23):
disagreement, and she says, If Iwere a man, I'd punch you.
And he says, If you were a man,I wouldn't be doing this to you.
It was like every fucking bookwas required by law to have some
variation of that.
Stupid, non funny, smug phrasein it, and the fact that we
don't anymore is proof that wehave advanced as a society.

EJ (26:44):
I appreciate that as you were describing that, both Amy
and I's eyebrows just shot up atthe same time.
And we both did a sidewaysglance of that's disgusting.
Bullshit,

Stacy (26:58):
yeah it's so gross.
It's gross on a level thatdefies description.
And the other thing I can'thandle is, so like I said, it's
not, again, it's not that Ican't handle it, it's that I
won't read it.
Is so like we were talking aboutfor the most part, I Bratva.
whatever series either.
Because again, like Amy said,the reality of it is something

(27:21):
extremely ugly.
And, but for me, the dealbreaker, like the ones that I
won't even put a toe in, isanything that has to do with
cartels.
Because cartels scare the shitout of me, and cartels in real
life are terrifying.
Yeah.
And so the fact that some peopleare now turning to that as like

(27:42):
the next, Oh we've done Mafia,we've done Bratva, and it's just
one of those things where it'sNo, I'm not even for pretend.
I'm not going to do

EJ (27:49):
that.
Oh, damn.
That's actually a reallyinteresting point.
I do admit with Mafia and, thevarious, it depends.
It's not an immediate won't pickup.
It's a let, let me explore thisa little bit.
Where are we going with this?
esPecially I feel veryprivileged to be in the monster
romance space because it can getheavy into fantasy where it is

(28:11):
so pulled apart from the realityof the situation.
I am.
I'm cool with it.
Cause I'm like, we're infantasy.
I can suspend a shit ton ofbelief.
None of this is even resemblinganything but the barest

Stacy (28:28):
of like, how the mafia works.
The work is tragically veryunlikely to rail me up against a
tree.
And I would also like to justtake a moment and preemptively.
Cover my ass by saying I'm notsaying anything negative about
the cartels.
I'm just saying that they scareme

EJ (28:42):
Oh, yeah, and I think that's the thing like they are to me
the true mafia actual gangculture.
Yes cartel These are verypowerful dangerous
Organizations.

Stacy (28:55):
Yes, they're not romantic yeah, and that's none of them.
Yeah, which is why, by andlarge, I can't hang with them.

EJ (29:03):
Also, a motorcycle club stories are weird to me.
Yeah.
Because I grew up amongst whitetrash, I actually knew people in
motorcycle clubs.
And I was like, ah, same.

Stacy (29:16):
I have family members who were in motorcycle clubs.
My goodness.
It's so hard to tell right

EJ (29:21):
there they're, they're a lot less rugged and handsome and a
lot more of your belly, y'all.

Stacy (29:26):
It's a lot more lost your teeth because of meth versus the
normal alcohol.

EJ (29:32):
Yeah, there's a lot of meth in

Stacy (29:34):
motorcycle law.
Yes, there is.
There is a lot of math.
And yeah, so all of that is onthe same board.
But like the only MotorcycleClub series that I can read is
Casey Wells.
And she's the exception, not therule.

EJ (29:49):
And that is actually a good thing to note just because
something is a, a do not pickup, doesn't mean it is a never
pick up.
Yeah, for sure.
We don't live in a world ofabsolutes.

Stacy (29:59):
But it's the same thing with the Mafia stories.
The only, I think, true Mafiastory.
I have, that I enjoy, is also byKasey Wells, because she's one
of those I don't know what it isabout that woman, I think she's
a witch, but she is able to takea story concept that should be
like an automatic, no, I'm notreading that.

(30:20):
And suddenly you're like, I haveread every drop and I must
consume more.
So like a big, like personaltrigger for me is cheating.
Which I think a lot of peoplewould have a similar trigger.
Yeah.
She wrote a hard one for me toread, but she wrote a book where
the husband cheated on the wife.
And the context behind it andthe whole story is so fucking

(30:42):
heartbreaking.
And he spends, it is grovel pornof the finest caliber.
She writes really good grovelporn.
She's the one who wrote the TheAlpha Tyrant's Rejected Mate.
Have you ever read that one?
With Una and Killian.
Oh, read it.
Again, if you like grovel porn,we're basically the mate she
realizes the Alpha's her mateand he humiliates her in front

(31:04):
of the entire pack.
Oh.
And then realizes after she'sessentially had the Pack Witch
rip out their connection.
He realizes that she is hismaid.
And she's just fuck you, fuckyour mother, I don't want
anything to do with you.
And watching him chase after heris pretty fucking awesome.

(31:24):
But she wrote, in fact, it's oneof the Motorcycle Club books,
it's called Wall.
And it's the context of why hedid it, and again nobody's
excusing it.
But it happened, and it's arealistic, in a fictitious world
where...
Bikers are huge, hot, and not atall problematic.
And, but she wrote just thisbeautiful story about a couple

(31:45):
who loved each other who gotlost, basically, and turned from
each other and did horriblethings.
And then it's them four yearslater trying to re navigate this
relationship, basically.

EJ (31:57):
If you could write me a story like that I would enjoy, I
would call that woman a witch,too.

Stacy (32:02):
Seriously, read Wall.
I really recommend it.
Like, But only in romance novelsis a motorcycle club sexy.
This is absolutely true.
Again, real life, lot of meth.
I just like that episode ofBob's Burgers with the one eyed
snakes.
Yes! What'd you get that patchfor?
For not being a member of theAryan Brotherhood.
Oh, what's that one for?

(32:23):
For tickling a cop! It's all ofthat.
I think that's closer to thereality of what a motorcycle
club is.

EJ (32:33):
I don't know if I'd call them triggers.
They feel a little silly to betriggers, but there are some
little things too that make mebe like, you know what?
I'm not in the right head spacefor this right now.
Yeah.

Stacy (32:43):
Even.
And even when it's a writer youlike,

EJ (32:45):
right?
Yes.
Or a story that you picked upand you're like, this is ticking
off all my boxes.
Yeah.
Like I, I very recently, I dnf.
For now, a book in the monsterromance genre, I do admit, it
ticked off so many boxes, but inthe middle of it, the heroine
is, Breaks the Fever of a Babyby Tyene a onion slice to the

(33:11):
baby's foot and assures themother that this is going to
break the fever because it'lldraw out the fever through the
foot.
She's I don't know how thisworks, but it works.

Stacy (33:22):
It doesn't work.
Yeah.
And we had a lot of kids in TRLwho, when they would have a
cold, would either Want to putVIX on their feet or put an
onion in their sock.
Yeah.
Yeah.
'cause that's what their motheror their grandmother did.
Exactly.
I've never heard of this thing.

EJ (33:39):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Be thankful.
Be thankful.
This is I immediately DNF'causeI was like no.
And I am I, this is a very like.
This is popular amongst nontraditional medicine groups.
And I admit, I have a It's folkmedicine.
It's folk medicine that has nobasis in anything.

Stacy (34:01):
But it's, yeah, it's folk medicine that doesn't work.
That's the thing.
Most folk medicine is likewillow bark tea where nobody can
figure out why.
But willowbark tea would lower afever and it's because it has
the same properties as aspirin.

EJ (34:13):
Yeah, it's, so it's that's And there is, there's a
delineation in folk medicine.
I want to be, I'll be up front.
There are things like I,whenever I have a sore throat, I
do drink herbal licorice teabecause it coats my throat and
it feels good, damn it.
And it tastes good.
Or

Stacy (34:31):
If you don't.
No, it doesn't.
Licorice is terrible and youguys

EJ (34:34):
should both be ashamed of yourself.
Oh, yeah.
I also like Jaeger, so there.

Amy (34:39):
I don't know about that.
But I do love throat coat, whichdoes include licorice roots, so
I

EJ (34:44):
can hang with.
Yeah, that herbal remedy stuff,throat coat, fantastic.
But the frickin onion doesnothing.
Nothing.
Yeah, so anyway, so it's a veryspecific, weird trigger for me
and I get, I do admit part of itwas like aggravated by COVID
because this was, that was atime where I saw a lot of people

(35:05):
that I was acquainted with whowent with a lot of COVID
conspiracies and, went down.
Like a really stupid

Stacy (35:12):
that was galloping and still is galloping

EJ (35:14):
on the internet.
They went down a really stupidroute.
So when I come across stuff likethat, it is triggering for me
because I think I happen to bein an area where a lot of people
died, frankly, from COVID.
And part of it was this verylike blinded thinking.
That is in the same school oftyin onion to their foot, and I

(35:35):
just was like nope.
Immediately thinking of deadpeople.
Nope.

Stacy (35:39):
Yeah and the thing is, now that you say that, that is
something that pisses me offwhen I read something.
That I know isn't true and thatthey could have proven or
disproven with 30 seconds on the

EJ (35:49):
internet.
It's I

Stacy (35:50):
fucking hate that I my triggers tend to be more like
rage triggers.
My rage quit is anytime a hero,especially a hero or heroine,
especially if they're touted asbeing very intelligent.
And they do something that's sogoddamn stupid, that it's I
refuse to believe that you canwalk and breathe at the same
time.

(36:12):
I read a book like thisrecently, and I believe I summed
it up as, cause of death,stupidity.
Or no, I'm sorry, time of deathnow, cause of death, forgot how
to breathe again.
I was reading a book, and I hadto rage quit it, and it was
supposed to be this, like, superduper, educated human who's, Who

(36:33):
knows at all, she, she knows allthis stuff about alien life
forms, and they capture aKraken, basically same build as
the Tiffany Roberts Kraken, soit's a humanoid torso with hands
and a head, and then tentacles,and the entire time, even though
it has a fucking humanoid face,she keeps going.

(36:54):
It's almost like it's capable ofintelligent thought and it's if
she had all of the educationthat she supposedly had, she
would know that there's afucking reason why humanoids
like humans, our heads areshaped the way that they are,
and our jaws are shaped the waythat they are, and our throat is
shaped the way that it is, andit's because we're capable of
speech.

EJ (37:15):
I also feel the need to point out, none of us are naming
names, nor do we have anyinterest in

Stacy (37:20):
naming names.
No, I'm not gonna name a name ifthe author happens to...
To listen to this, she knowswhat she did.
Anyway and then the other thing,too, is it's like, they have,
this thing, he has five fingersand an opposable thumb.
If it looks like a humanoid, andwalks like a humanoid, and we've
already made contact withhumanoid aliens and they're
intelligent, it's probably...

(37:42):
I don't know, an intelligenthumanoid, you fucking knuckle
dragging mouth breather.

EJ (37:47):
I don't know what I'm laughing about, Harter.
Stacey's rant, or the fact thatAmy and I both wiggled both of
our thumbs at the screen at thesame time while you were doing
that.

Stacy (37:58):
Good.
Let's remind ourselves that...
Intelligent fucking beings havefucking opposable fucking
thumbs.
But it was it was just like, therest of the book could have been
this incredibly moving tributeto, sentient life overcoming
barriers and finding true loveand I don't care because I'm not

(38:21):
going to read it because it wasso fucking stupid.
That I feel like I lost twobrain cells and I want them
back.
I'm trying not to cry here.
Oh, it was I was just ugh, rage.
Oh my goodness.
Oh goodness.
It's been

Amy (38:37):
a while since you've had rage quit a book.
I can't remember the last

Stacy (38:41):
time I rage quit a book.
It's been a while since I hadrage quit a book before that,
but, she reset the fuckingcounter to zero.
There's a drag queen that Ifollow on Instagram and I think
it's just Gabriel the drag queenis their handle and you should
follow them because they dosnark in such a beautiful, like
concise way.

(39:02):
And it's hilarious.
Because he had pulled togetherthis beautiful look where it was
all in red.
And he shaves his head and has abeard and then works that into
the look.
And so he had these huge,beautiful lashes on and this red
headdress.
And he was putting thisbeautiful red lip gloss on and
the clip had started with, youknow how much but by some

(39:24):
fucking piece of shit dude brogoing, you know how much the
average American woman weighs?
And then it was spliced in.
It's Gabriel the Drag Queen, andhe's putting on this beautiful
red lipstick.
And he takes a minute and heputs it on and he rubs his lips
together and he puts theapplicator back into the liquid
lipstick and he goes, somewhereout there is a tree making the

(39:47):
oxygen that you just took.
Go apologize to it.
And that's the end of the entirething.
And that's how I feel about thatfucking book.

EJ (39:59):
Go apologize to it.
Oh my goodness.
Somewhere a tree sacrificeditself to make you feel bad.

Stacy (40:08):
Oxygen Thief.
Oxygen Thief.

EJ (40:11):
Yes.
Oh my goodness.
No, that's fantastic.
If I had the energy for suchrage I would create a whole
genre of of a book blog being sosnarky, but

Stacy (40:23):
I, maybe I should start a book blog and it'll just be like
the angry

EJ (40:26):
reader.
I'm over here like too much fullof fricking sunshine and
rainbows.
I've said before, I'll say itagain, like I, I don't review
stuff that I don't like.
I

Stacy (40:38):
don't finish it.

Amy (40:39):
If I don't, if I didn't care for it I, if

Stacy (40:41):
I'm just not

Amy (40:42):
liking it, I'm not gonna

Stacy (40:43):
finish it.
Exactly the same, unless

EJ (40:44):
if I'm over, like at most I can give you is three starts at
this point in my reading career,especially for reviewing, I just
DN, F man and I don't make a twoabout it.
I just like quietly you knowwhat?
Especially life's too short

Stacy (40:58):
for this shit.
Especially e,

EJ (40:59):
especially you guys like one Life's too short.
Two, I'm over here.
Like I don't think there'sanything terribly useful that I
can say on this Also.
What am I adding to theconversation by being like, I
don't like

Stacy (41:13):
this.
You'll see I don't, thedifference between us is that I
have a, an endless well of rage.
And if I don't clear the pipesevery once in a while, there
will be an explosion.
Oh yeah.
And I try to never get to thatpoint, I

EJ (41:26):
will

Amy (41:27):
say, there was one book that I

EJ (41:28):
did finish, and I think I've probably talked to you guys
about this beforehand, but it'sI

Amy (41:33):
finished it because one, it was very

Stacy (41:34):
short,

EJ (41:36):
and I was just like, okay,

Amy (41:39):
and two, I'm not, oh, I checked it out from, Um, one of
the library system's overdriveLibby, so I'm like, I'm not
paying, I'm not paying for it,so I might as well, it's it's so
short,

Stacy (41:52):
so whatever.
Sometimes I'll finish a book outof sheer morbid curiosity.
And I did

Amy (41:55):
finish it, and I'm like, and we, did we really need a
sequel?

Stacy (42:00):
No.
We didn't need the first one,let alone the second one.
I'm like, I gave it two stars.
And two stars

Amy (42:07):
is it was okay.
I don't think I've given, Idon't think I've given anything
that I've ever read lower

Stacy (42:13):
than two stars.
There is one book that I onestarred on

EJ (42:19):
Amazon.
Ooh, what was the one you onestarred?

Stacy (42:22):
It was a, it wasn't romance, it was a horror, it was
horror.
And it was a really good, thething that was, part of why I
one starred it is because Thewriter has a lot of talent and
he is from Louisiana and he wasrevisiting some, he took some
events that happened in hischildhood and fictionalized

(42:43):
them, but he basically drewfrom.
His childhood experiences.
And he put so much fuckinghomophobia and casual racism
into this fucking book, that itwas like, no, motherfuckers, no.
This is the 21st fuckingcentury.
I don't give a flying fuck whatyou and your little hooligan
friends used to do in the 80s,but dog will not fucking hunt,

(43:05):
mon seigneur.
And so I he did one where...
We were jumping up and down andpardon the use of F words in a
dildo factory, and it was justlike, that's hilarious, because
gay people don't like to readhorror, right?
They'll never see this.
Or the other one was, they weretalking about, there was some
dumpster company that it waslike, BFH or something like that

(43:27):
and it's cool because blackfamilies live here for her and
it was just like fuck you Oh, Iwas so fucking angry.
I was so I've read the book.

EJ (43:37):
Okay, I admit.
That's a one star review.
That deserves the one star.
Part

Stacy (43:44):
of what made it so fucking, made me so angry was I
found it because the author wasinterviewed on a horror podcast
that I listened to.
And I really liked that podcast.
And so they really talked him upand they were like, oh, it's so
good.
It was great.
It was so creepy.
And I fucking, I not only onestarred him, but I unsubscribed
from that podcast.

(44:06):
Dear lord.
It's like the fact that you guysare a okay with this casual
bullshit.
What

EJ (44:10):
else are you okay with?
Exactly.
What other dark shit's going on?
It's not the fun dark shit.
I know, fun dark shit.
Seriously.

Stacy (44:21):
Hey.
Exactly.
And it was just, I was just sofucking angry.
That I went in and I not onlyone starred it, but I put the
motherfucker on blast andbasically called out, like, all
of the shit like that he put init.
I put direct quotes in there andhilariously, here's the best
part of that, they initiallyrefused my review because I did

(44:44):
a direct quote and I did, Ispelled out F A G O T S.
Because it was a, I literallycopied and pasted it from the
fucking book.
And they refused it because Itwas too offensive.
Which, I agree, it was toooffensive, but at the same time,
but if you're okay And yet itwas published! Exactly! Exactly!

(45:04):
And so I just went in andasterisked it so people could,
figure out what the hell I wassaying.
But it was just like, oh, yousmug little bastard.
I do not fucking think so, youasshat.
That is

Amy (45:16):
what I would call

EJ (45:18):
obscene.
That is obscene.
But I, okay.
So I guess that's anothertrigger for me there.
Racism and egregious racism andhomophobia.
Egregious racism and homophobia,

Stacy (45:29):
yes.
If you use it as, and again,granted, I have never read a
book where somebody was racistor homophobic in the book.
But! I have seen it where peopleare like xenophobic, like an
alien romance kind of thing.
If you use that as like a plotdevice to help the character
grow, I can understand that.
We're like, oh, I thought alienswere X, Y, and Z, and I was
wrong, and I've expanded, andI'm a better person for it.

(45:51):
I can understand that.
Here is

EJ (45:53):
the very start of my redemption arc.

Stacy (45:56):
Exactly.

Amy (45:57):
Would that be part of, would that be the application
towards Orcsworn, or would thatstill be racism rather than
xenophobia?

Stacy (46:05):
tHat's a good question.
That is a good question.
That's a really good question.
I think technically it would beno, because Orcs are part human.
Yeah, so maybe it would beracism.
Racism, yeah.

EJ (46:17):
This is a very random thing.
I would be very interested onFinley's take on.
Yes,

Stacy (46:23):
I'm curious.
Sorry, Finley, we always seem tobring you in to know that.
I know.
She's been dragging that poorwoman in.
Why did I get pulled into aconversation about racism and
xenophobia?
Thanks, guys.
Fuck you, too.
What the hell are you threetalking about?

Amy (46:39):
Guys, that's because her books have merit.
Because she discusses so manyThings that are actually very
important,

Stacy (46:46):
in addition to putting delicious smut in it.
There we go.
Yep.
Smutty smut.
Rail me, baby.
Should we go on to another

EJ (46:53):
question?

Stacy (46:54):
EJ, what are some more of your triggers, EJ?
Because we've only touched onone or two of yours.

EJ (47:00):
Actually, this became more of a thing after I had a kid.
Children are more of a sensitivetopic for me.
I actually, and I.
The, I have to be veryparticular, even with Finley's
books I have to watch myself onokay, we're about to talk about

(47:22):
childhood abuse.
Is this on page?
Is that off page?
I just have to look aftermyself.
on that.
This is not me being like, youbetter watch out, Finley, Ben,
or otherwise.

Stacy (47:33):
You're not trying to police her, you're trying to do
yourself.

EJ (47:36):
Yeah.
I am looking after myself.
Yes, especially

Stacy (47:39):
Which is a responsible thing to do.

EJ (47:42):
Yes.
And so actually great example ofa healthier way to go about oh,
this is a trigger for me.
Look after yourself.
Oh, and actually I got to tellyou with the whole like
childhood abuse.
This isn't exactly childhood,childhood abuse, but it's like
kids in danger.
Probably the most hilarioussituation I have.

(48:02):
This is actually funny becauseit was a movie and it was a
Disney movie.
It was.
It's not the Peter Butterfew, isit?
Yeah, it was Encanto.
So I was watching Encantoshortly after I gave birth.
Keep in mind, I, this is thefirst time I ever watched that
movie.
I am hyped up.
This is three weeks after I gavebirth.

(48:24):
I am still...

Stacy (48:26):
I'm still pumped full of hormones

EJ (48:30):
and that beginning scene when they are running away and
they find refuge in the Akkad.

Stacy (48:36):
Abuela is escaping with the triplets.

EJ (48:38):
Yeah, when Abuela is escaping with the triplets, I
was just holding my newborndaughter and I, my heart and
head was in Abuela during thattime.
Oh yeah.
turned to my husband and yellcried at him, hug me now.

Stacy (48:57):
And he was like, Oh, shit.
Are you okay?
I'm like, don't you dare die.
Yeah.
And that scene is soheartbreaking too.
He goes back to trying to talksense into people.
And instead he's killed right infront of her.

EJ (49:10):
So Yeah, spoiler.
so That whole part was like, Iwas just like, a sobbing mess.
I'm like, I will get throughthis

Stacy (49:18):
because there's a really good soundtrack There is.

EJ (49:23):
And I was right.
And it was a wonderful ending.
And I needed that whole story topick up the broken

Stacy (49:30):
pieces of my heart.
Also, can we just say like, whenthere's a flashback to when
Mirabelle is little, was shejust The most adorable thing you
ever saw?
Yes.
I wanted to hug

Amy (49:43):
her.

EJ (49:44):
And now I love that movie.
It's now one of my favoriteDisney movies ever.
But yeah triggers can be a funnything.
I'm over here I'm

Stacy (49:55):
trying to think of it.
That's true, man.
You never know how they're goingto land.

EJ (49:58):
And, funny I'm looking through all of my backup
questions.
We covered so much of that, whatI was trying to get at, really,
and more.
I'm over here really trying tothink, dang, what's some good
closing remarks we can saybesides I

Stacy (50:12):
would just I just really want to reiterate the fact that
stop treating authors like theyowe you something.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You bought okay, yeah.
You bought the book.
You supported that.
They deeply appreciate that.
But you got a book out of it,dumbass.
This

Amy (50:24):
is something that I actually wrote a Tumblr post
about.
Basically, um, it boiled down toYou don't always have to have
the same level of interest in afandom that you had before.
Your

Stacy (50:40):
interests are going to fluctuate.
You're going to You're allowedto outgrow a

Amy (50:44):
fandom.
You are allowed to outgrow afandom if you're not Content
with what said creator isproducing.
You don't have to keep readingtheir stuff.
You can move on.
You

Stacy (50:55):
don't need to confront them anonymously.
It's always anonymously too.
Or it's a, I'm like, please

Amy (51:02):
do not disrespect this creator.
Who is creating something for

Stacy (51:06):
free for you

Amy (51:08):
to read for free.
I'm sorry.
This is something that appliestowards mostly fan fiction and
tumblr stories and whatnot.
I'm just like I

Stacy (51:15):
think, I think you could still apply that to authors.
Like one thing that I know, alot of authors did.
I know Ruby Dixon did it.
I know Aaron Regan did it.
Aaron, please come back andstart writing again.
Please.
Same thing for you, Amanda Milo,please.
But I know those two, and I knowthere were others, but I just
can't think of any off the topof my head.
They did, during the pandemic,they did serials.

(51:36):
And so there would be, like, achapter a day.
And it was on their Facebookpage, so it was for free.
aNd just the level ofentitlement that I saw from some
people in some comments was justlike, it was, it's a toddler,
and say you do the disappearingthumb trick to a toddler, you

(51:56):
know what I'm talking about,where it looks like you pull
your thumb off?
And they just stand there forfive hours telling you to do it
again.
Some of these people, it waslike I need another chapter.
And it's whoop dee shit for you,come back tomorrow.
I will

Amy (52:09):
say, one of the worst, one of the worst things you can put
in a comment...
whEther on a Facebook serialchapter or on a chapter on AO3
or fanfiction.
net,

EJ (52:20):
wherever.
Or webtoons, because I think Iknow what you're about to say.

Stacy (52:24):
It's like, when is the next chapter coming?

EJ (52:27):
Oh, the other worst one is, that was so short.
Or that was too short.
Yes! Oh

Stacy (52:32):
god.

EJ (52:34):
I, I'm a fellow reader and I'm over here dear fuck.
Yeah, that's cringey

Stacy (52:39):
as fuck.
Just don't.

Amy (52:40):
It's like, when's the next chapter coming?
It's oh, that was a greatchapter.
When's the next one?
Or what happens next?
Let me do that.
I'm like,

Stacy (52:47):
please.
Or even what, even, it doesn'teven have to be on things that
are serials.
I know I've seen a webcomicgoing around that authors have
used, where it's, authorreleases brand new book, reader,
oh my god, it's so good.
When's the next one coming out?
Yeah, seriously.
And then it's author response,points gun at head, yes.
Yeah.

EJ (53:05):
I admit, I

Amy (53:07):
was guilty of this.
Back when, back in my blogging

Stacy (53:10):
days, which was I think we've all been guilty of it at
some point in time or another.
Many years ago.
But it's like I would make jokeswhen I would respond to books or
serials or something where I'dbe like, rub story on gums,
when's the next one coming out?
I'm tweaking basically.
And usually that would get alaugh.
It was a way for me to expressenjoyment, but I'm not actually

(53:31):
no, seriously, when's the nextone coming out?
It's no.
We're in their space.
They're nice enough to share itwith us.
Yep.

EJ (53:41):
I would say if you find yourself getting really pissed
off about this I could be moresorry about it.
And all I can say is this is,you're not alone.
Use this as an opportunity tojust, join us in...

Stacy (53:55):
Yeah, and if you're somebody who's been doing this
there's no time like the presentto change your behavior.

EJ (54:00):
Yeah and we we we seriously just, confess we will, we can
easily regress and may just dothat under the proper
circumstances.
Yep,

Stacy (54:10):
100%.
Because we are human.
Yes, exactly.
And we recognize

Amy (54:16):
it.
And then

Stacy (54:17):
we have room for improving again.

EJ (54:20):
cause we are human.

Stacy (54:21):
Exactly.
Exactly.
Unless you're the character inthat stupid book I was talking
about.

EJ (54:27):
I don't think she was human.
Then you'll die to be human.

Stacy (54:31):
You'll die.
You'll die of the dumb

EJ (54:35):
I'm over here actually thinking next episodes.
We're we are going to be talkingabout proper books coming up.
Yeah, we've got winter reads.
We've got the fall of the Orc totalk about.
I need

Stacy (54:47):
to finish it guys.
Yeah, I need to start it.
I'm so dreading this book.
Oh, thank goodness.
Oh, yeah.
I'm so dreading it.
Like I love Lily, I know I'mgonna love, I know.
It is

Amy (54:58):
gonna hurt

Stacy (54:59):
so bad, but then

EJ (55:00):
it's gonna feel so good.

Stacy (55:01):
I don't know man, reading Kef's book, I cried from one eye
into my other eye.
Yep.
I know, and it's just Stacey,trust.
It's just You have to trust.
I do, but at the same time, it'sI'm like a cat that's had a shoe
thrown at it, even if it was onaccident, I'm still gonna think
twice before I approach himagain.
That's fair.