Top Reviews of the Sweet Beauty Bakery, Home of Extraordinary Gender Reveal Cakes: a story by Jo Miles

To celebrate the Worlds of Possibility Kickstarter reaching 75% of its funding goal, here's a story no one has seen before, not even paid subscribers to Worlds of Possibility! It's going to be in the June 2023 issue, but everyone gets it now as a special treat.

For complete show notes, including the full text of the story and the art that accompanies it, visit: https://www.juliarios.com/top-reviews-of-the-sweet-beauty-bakery-home-of-extraordinary-gender-reveal-cakes-a-story-by-jo-miles/

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to the OMG Julia Podcast,where we talk about creative lives and processes.
I'm your host, Julia Rios,and today I have for you an
extra special treats. It's a storythat hasn't come out yet. No one
has seen it, not my paidsubscribers, not anyone. It's coming up

(00:22):
in the June twenty twenty three issueof Worlds of Possibility, and it's also
going to be included in the anthologythat I'm running the kickstarter for. I'm
releasing it now as a celebration ofhitting seventy five percent of our funding goal,
and I wanted to tell you alittle bit about it. So the

(00:42):
story is called Top Reviews of theSweet Beauty Bakery, Home of Extraordinary Gender
Reveal Cakes by Joe Miles. Iwanted to release this story now so that
I could reveal one of the firststretch goal perks. You'll hear more about
stretch goals once we hit the initialfunding goal, but here's a teaser for

(01:04):
you for anyone backing at the stickerreward level or choosing a sticker add on.
I'll be making stickers of the artfor this story if we hit our
first stretch goal, and since ifyou back at that level, every design
I make is automatically included, youwill receive one of those stickers if we

(01:26):
hit that stretch goal. That'll bein addition to the rocket bike cat and
the stack of spell books by JuliaKim. If you want to take a
look at it, you can hopon over to Julia Rios dot com follow
the link in the show notes andit'll take you right there and you can
see it. It's a picture offour different colorful cakes on top of a
wooden slab. They're cupcakes, andthey have different colors, and one of

(01:49):
them has a label that says SweetBeauty Bakery in a scripted font. If
you're looking at it on the website, you'll see that it doesn't have an
artist credit, and that's because it'san image I made personally by combining several
different stock art elements, and thenI also added the text. I didn't
claim credit as the artist because Ididn't draw the items in the picture,

(02:12):
but the picture itself wouldn't exist asa whole without my choices to design it
by combining things the way I did. In the anthology, there are going
to be several different places where Iuse stock art elements, sometimes alone like
in the ornamental scene breaks for JenniferHoodact's story that got up the last post,
and sometimes in combination, like inthis one. In every case,

(02:35):
there won't be an artist credited,because my credit is on the copyright page
where it says the anterior design ofthe anthology is by me, and that
includes all of the stock art choices, whether I've combined them or just used
pieces individually. The great thing aboutstock art is that it already exists,
and it was created exactly for useslike this one. My using stock means

(02:59):
the original creators get a small amountof compensation, just like they do when
anyone else uses it. It's notquite as special as getting to commission original
art, which is something I reallyenjoy doing, but it makes it possible
for me, someone who doesn't havedrawing or painting skills, to give a
little extra ooth to things, evenwhen I haven't got the budget to pay

(03:21):
for new art. Also, it'sa fun creative outlet for me. Like
editing, it involves a degree ofdiscernment and curation, and then also often
some tweaking to make it feel rightfor the project. For this particular piece.
I chose the four different cakes,I put them together in the order
that I put them together. Imoved them around so they looked like they

(03:42):
were in front or behind each other. I added shadow to the bottom so
they wouldn't just look like they weren'thaving any weight. I chose the slab
to put under there, and thenI positioned them all and I did lots
of different layers to achieve the effectthat I got In the end, I
really like it, and I thinkit's fun, and I think it sort
of captures the whimsical spirit of thisstory, which I hope you will enjoy

(04:05):
as much as I did. Thesecond I read it, I knew it
was one that I was going tohave to accept, and it's going to
be in the June issue, whichis going to have as one of its
themes Pride, because June's Pride Month. So let's get into that story,
shall we. Top reviews of theSweet Beauty Bakery Home of Extraordinary Gender Reveal

(04:30):
Cakes by Joe Miles Dylan t twostars made our gender reveal party a disaster.
I don't like writing bad reviews,but they absolutely ruined our baby's gender
reveal. I should have realized somethingwas off when the owner, Robin set
aside the sealed up letter with thegender from our doctor, made my pregnant

(04:54):
wife come all the way in fromthe car and use this old polaroid and
snapped a photo of her baby bebump. So that was bizarre. But
the cake looked fine when we pickedit up on party day. Honestly,
it was beautiful with blue and pink, fond and bows like we asked for.
But when we cut it open infront of everyone, it was purple,

(05:15):
sparkly and purple. My mom wasawfully confused, and my dad in
fil started a shouting fight over whetherit was bluish purple or pinkish purple.
Grandma, weirdly enough, just satthere serving pieces to the kids. For
what it's worth, she said itwas delicious, but my wife and I
were too upset to try it.Worst of all, the bakery owner refused

(05:36):
to give us a refund and claimshe quote lost our doctor's letter, so
we still don't know the gender ofour baby. Total waste. Owner's response,
Dylan, I'm sorry you misunderstood ourslogan of the most effective gender revealed
cakes around. I did explain ourunique approach to you and your wife when

(06:00):
you ordered the cake and again whenyou called after the party. Unlike nearly
all expectant parents, you do haveinsight into your baby's actual gender or will
if you look up mouv with sparkleson the flavor guide on our website.
If you insist on knowing about yourbaby's genitals for some reason, talk to
your doctor, but please don't confusegenitals with gender. I also explained our

(06:24):
refund policy. If by your child'seighth birthday they don't feel this cake adequately
expresses their gender, you're welcome toa refund or a coupon for thirty percent
off your next cake. This offerexpires by their twelfth birthday, however,
as we can't guarantee their gender won'tcontinue to evolve through puberty and beyond.

(06:46):
Charlie's Mama twenty two one star.What the bleep sort of gender reveal is
this? I'm with Dylan Tee.This place is a joke, and not
a funny one. Considering how muchwe paid for the cake, how bad
can it be? You ask?Our cake was chocolate, dark brown chocolate,
ridiculous? Whoever heard of a chocolategender revealed cake. If there is

(07:11):
any pink or blue dye, wecouldn't tell. How are we supposed to
decorate the baby's room now or buyhim or her clothes? Save your money,
insanity, stay away from this bakeryowner's response. Please refer to our
cake flavor guide, and I hopeyou'll see how lucky you are. Many
of my customers would be thrilled tohave a child with as strong a sense

(07:31):
of self as dark chocolate. Ourstandard refund policy applies. Additionally, we'd
be happy to refer you to atherapist where parents having difficulty understanding their child's
gender, or when a time comesa child therapist experienced in helping kids with
difficult parents. PS. Please don'tdecorate your baby's room in blue or pink.

(07:54):
There's a whole rainbow of colors availableto you. But if you'd like
to affirm your child's try some blackJamie s five stars. I never knew
I needed this cake. If Icould give Sweet Beauty Bakery more than five
stars, I would. I camein to order a cake from my daughter's

(08:16):
baby shower, not looking for myselfat all, and was a bit annoyed
when Robin, the owner told meshe need to meet my daughter to bake
a cake for her. I couldn'tstop eyeing this display case of cupcakes.
Though they were stunning and all justa little different from each other. I
wasn't hungry, but it seemed ashamedto leave empty handed. Robin caught me

(08:39):
looking, gave me this knowing smile, and told me to pick out my
favorite. So I did, shewarned me before ringing me up. Thank
goodness, she explained exactly how hercakes work, so I don't know why
these other reviewers say they didn't knowwhat they were getting. I took a
cupcake home, still kind of skepticaluntil I bit into it and anside was
this glory is vibrant orange that tastedlike sunshine. And suddenly I knew.

(09:05):
So many things came clear to me, things about myself that I'd ignored or
denied or never had the words forin all my fifty eight years, and
I started crying, happy tears.I'm still figuring out the words, because
a color isn't everything, but knowingthat color makes the rest less scary.

(09:26):
So thank you, Robin. Pleaseignore the haters and keep doing your magic.
I've already promised my teenage niece oneof your cakes for her birthday.
Owner's response, Thank you, Jamie. People like you are the reason I
keep doing this. If you everfeel like you've changed or need some fresh
insight, the cakes are always herefor you. That was Top reviews of

(09:52):
the Sweet Beauty Bakery, Home ofExtraordinary gender reveal Cakes by Joe Miles.
Joe Miles is a non binary authorof science fiction and fantasy and has stories
in fantasy and science fiction, StrangeHorizons, Light Speed, and more.
Joe lives in Maryland, where theyhelp nonprofits use the Internet to save the

(10:16):
world, but mostly serve the whimsof their two cats. You can find
them online at www dot Joemiles dotcom. If you want to read the
text of this story, you cango on over to Julia Rios dot com
by following the link in the shownotes, and you will see the full
text. You'll also see the artthat I talked about earlier, and it

(10:39):
will also have links to Joe's websiteand to the kickstarter. Normally, at
this point, I'd say, ifyou love Worlds of Possibility, consider supporting
it by subscribing, But right nowthe best way to support is by pledging
to the kickstarter or sharing that kickstarterwith others if you've already pledged or can't
afford to pledge, sharing it onsocial media. We're sending it directly to

(11:01):
people you think might be interested goesa long way to help. And I
really want to make this anthology asawesome as it can be, so definitely
get those pledges in or share itwith other people who you think might like
to pledge. This story went outbecause we reached seventy five percent and I
revealed to you the first stretch goal, which is the sticker of the art
for it. My next post isgoing to drop when we hit one hundred

(11:24):
percent of that initial funding goal.At that point, I'll reveal more stretch
goals, and I'll also reveal thenumbers that we're trying to hit, and
we might all get some extra goodies, even people who didn't back at the
art reward level. So keep youreye out it's coming. I'm looking forward
to sharing more surprises with you asthe month goes on. Thank you so

(11:46):
much for listening, and until nexttime,