Holes (novel) Puns

Hello,

I’m ten drafts deep in my novel and will be publishing in an independent capacity within the next 4 months (hopefully). In the most recent and final draft, I spent about 30 minutes examining each paragraph in the book and feel that there shouldn’t be any errors. However, I’ve seen it 20 times and understand that my eyes could be tricking me, so I’d like to read/proofread someone else’s work in exchange for mine to be looked at.

I would prefer someone aged 30-50, because that is my target audience. Though fiction, the book is raw and realistic with dark undertones of addiction. The genre is psychological romance.

If you feel that this interests you, and you have a work that you’d like looked at, then just shoot me and email at jordanviolina@gmail.com or message me on IG @jordanviolina and we can see if it’s right for us.

Thank you, Jordan

Phil

https://preview.redd.it/rfsvrfd04k071.jpg?width=1400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b8871d21f821991d1e444cbb5c636dc52bca023e

This is an 88 page-long graphic novel written and drawn by Patabot (who previously handled issue 4 of Oni Press's original Aggretsuko series). It's set to release in October 2021 (either the 19th or the 20th; Amazon and PreviewsWorld conflict on exactly which date is correct). Here's the official summary:

>Aggretsuko stars in this fairy tale tinged story about work, life, and the need for balance!
>
>When Retsuko attempts to go on vacation with Gori and Washimi, she's pulled into a terrible world where she's forced to work for her freedom. Featuring all of the fan favorite characters from the office in twisted versions of themselves, Aggretsuko must navigate the twists and turns of a world gone mad!

Amazon also has the first five pages of the comic as a preview:

https://preview.redd.it/hu1y0u1g4k071.jpg?width=1400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c62c17d0d700e3e869a0d7a7412c9aa85390ff41

https://preview.redd.it/00fd5v1h4k071.jpg?width=1400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9f2de68b2a4e7ec207a27fb546ca2956b76e46f8

https://preview.redd.it/w1jhbckh4k071.jpg?width=1400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=63818ce48ccf376869de76d4e234d827acaa1d0e

https://preview.redd.it/5vtsfx3i4k071.jpg?width=1400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9bbefc433e44161bbe03c4c8373fe6ef4358aa51

https://preview.redd.it/yqfm7ili4k071.jpg?width=1400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cbf365aa102bb2f5cac3c2fef7e03185cf041045

Is it supposed to be so confusing at the start? I ask this because I just finished the first part and felt like maybe a lot of what happened flew through my head as it was reaching it's conclusion. I kind of get the general gist of what possibly had happened and what they talked about with the whole external vs internal world dynamic.

I don't want to get into too much speculation at the moment just in case I spoil it for someone(might make another post describing my thoughts on this)I just want to ask if everything I've seen so far from part one will eventually explain itself as I progress in the story? Or is this a visual novel which I have to put work into understanding what they're saying and then put it together myself?

I never read a visual novel this poetic and symbolic before and felt that they made a lot of references towards other works, which indicates to me that this visual novel might want the reader to have read them before going into this. Hence why I ask you guys about it because I feel that if I continue a story that I can't get a grasp on at some point, then I might burn out lol.

This episode had some changes that I don't agree with The first change was the fact that Kumoko defeated the puppet spider. That did not happen until later in the arc and by this point Kumoko should still be weaker then it in other words she should not have the necessary skills to beat it. Secondly the method in which Kumoko defeated it is especially confusing. Kumoko defeated it by simply teleporting enough water to cover a clearly open cavern and drowned the puppet. Even if we ignore the fact that it was an open cavern(which would lead to diffusion and would thus make drowning it impossible)it still does not make sense. Firstly Kumoko should not be capable of teleporting that much water but even if we ignore that by saying that in the anime canon she can teleport that much water it still does not make sense. Kumoko made the excuse that she can float but that floating excuse applies to literally every member of their species since all Taratects can float and even the puppet taratect can float. Ok lets say that in the anime canon only Kumoko can float but then why is she the only one who can float. Also the puppet Taratect is an S+ rank monster it does not make sense that it would be defeated by simply drowning. Even Fei who could not swim was still able to move around in the water thanks to her high stats. The puppet taratect has even higher stats and should be able to move around(and in the original it could literally float)

The second big change is the demon lord. In the original the demon lord first tried to talk with Kumoko but Kumoko did not understand and accidentally made some body movements that indicated hostile intentions and that was why she attacked.

For both of these events it is almost as if the anime looked at how they happened in the light novel, skimmed it and did not properly understand it and due to time restraints adapted it in a rushed way. Yes Kumoko did defeat the puppet Taratects by using water but their were major differences

1. Kumoko prepared by luring them into a close cavern she herself closed off earlier using her earth magic and trapped them by collapsing the exit

2. Kumoko used her storage magic that she prepared specifically for fighting the puppet

3, The Puppet taratects did float but since they floated to the small surface they could not attack her

4. Kumoko had the swim skill so she did not flat alongside them

5. As the surface decreased the Puppet Taratects started to drown while Kumoko used stored air

I've been in sort of a reading lull lately trying to find books that made me want to read as bad as this series did. I loved really everything about these books, the dark tone. The deep characters. And Joe Nesbo's ability to keep you on your edge of your seat for 300-400 pages the entire time. Basically I'm looking for some good detective novels. They don't have to take place in a foreign country or be about murder. I'm open to try anything y'all suggest. Thank you.

I know he means well.

Edit: Wow. Thanks for the awards, kind Reddit strangers!

I'm a big fan of Peter F Hamilton, and I'm about two thirds of the way through A Hole in the Sky....and man, it just does not seem like the usual PFH experience. It seems really superficial compared to, eg, Commonwealth series, Salvation sequence, etc, the characters and dialogue are uncompelling, it's almost reads like a YA novel.

Anyone else have a similar experience? What the heck?

Something bad is gonna happen, I can feel it.

1. In the anime we can see ~"Flugel was here" marked on "Flugel's" tree. This is why the tree is known by that name in the first place, but it is written in Japanese... So... Only Isekai'd people are able to read it so... Hmm

Imgur.com/r5jvlyy

2. Priscilla's ability(?) makes everything occur in her favor(?). However, during arc3 Subaru really pisses her off (foot scene). This is quite a negligible bit... But... Is Subaru immune to Priscilla's ability?

Let me know what you think

Cameron on his approach to Jurassic Park: “But when I saw the film, I realised that I was not the right person to make the film, he was. Because he made a dinosaur movie for kids, and mine would have been aliens with dinosaurs, and that wouldn't have been fair."Dinosaurs are for 8-year-olds. We can all enjoy it, too, but kids get dinosaurs and they should not have been excluded for that. His sensibility was right for that film, I'd have gone further, nastier, much nastier."

Source: https://m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/09/07/titanic-director-james-cameron-jurassic-park-steven-spielberg_n_1864996.html

What other movies would be totally different or would you liked to have seen with a new director?

"Sorry about her. Her specialty is also roofing."

Blank stares. My talents are so wasted without kids.

Hi, the title says it all. Over the past few months I've been getting more and more interested is Visual Novels. I've first kidnapped girl (don't worry its half way normal), a free, short steam VN, then Trick and treat, a free 2 hour long, steam VN, then katawa shoujo (mean "disability girls"), and now Everlasting Summer (Soviet made Visual Novel) that is also free and on steam. Also seeing the beginning of Everlasting Summer gave me the biggest moment of Deja Vu because I've seen that fuzzy screen with that gate before but can't remember where (just like the MC).

Now that my story is over, I'd be thankful if you could recommend me some VNs to play.

Also, is the Toradora VN worth playing?

So the two spells I'd like to talk about are Ul Minya and Ul Shamak.

Ul Minya: I always heard people say that Beako uses Ul Minya against Reid in Arc 6, but when I got to that moment, I was confused. We see Beako use Ul Minya in Arc 5 against Ley. The spell creates a violet ring of light around the opponent and squeezes and envelops them, and afterwards, a ray of violet light comes down from above them. While in Arc 6, the spell Beako uses is nothing like this. Rather, she creates a bunch of crystal arrows which surround Reid. This sounds like a basic Minya or El Minya. On WCT, it says she uses Ul Minya but the spell described is clearly El Minya, so I'm guessing that this is a mistranslation or maybe Tappei got his spells mixed up.

Ul Shamak: We see Beako use Ul Shamak in Arc 4, I believe against Elsa. Ul Shamak is basically a much more powerful Shamak, only, it gets rid of all senses including touch. In Arc 6, Beako creates a black hole against Reid and on WCT this spell is labelled as Ul Shamak. Again, it's clear that this is either a translation mistake or Tappei getting his spells mixed up. The interesting thing is, I have no idea what the black hole spell is actually called, since we've never seen Beako use it anywhere else and the only time we have seen it used, it's labelled wrong.

If anyone reading this knows Japanese, I'd be very grateful if you could check the original Japanese WNs or LNs to see what the Arc 6 black hole spell and Minya spell is called.

Update: Solved. I believe the story I read was one of Richard Shaver’s Mystery stories. I haven’t found the exact one yet (there are quite a few) but from reading a couple I am sure of the match in style. Thank you u/Microscopic-cat

I remember reading this book sometime before 1975 (date given to exclude newer books only). Here are the only details I recall:

A man who is either a old west cowboy or a soldier (civil war era) becomes lost during a battle. He stumbles into a hidden cave or falls into a hole of some kind, not sure which. The upshot: he is rescued by some folks living underground, completely I know and separate from the rest of the world. I can’t recall how which group he encounters first but he discovers a society living entirely below ground. The ruling class are these frail scientists, in wheelchairs and what not, who have some moderately advanced tech. The other class are the workers who are “normal” but not scientifically advanced and are essentially enslaved by the scientist rulers. He is a man out of time and place. Of course there is a damsel who falls for him. He eventually sides with the enslaved, damsel included, to help them overthrow the scientists. At the end he finds a way back up/out.

I could have misremembered some elements but those are the basics. Any help identifying this book would be most welcome and appreciated. Thank you for your time and consideration.

I just skim-read Rock Bottom Girl by Lucy Score and while I didn't hate it, there was something that bothered me, that sort of ate away at my mind the whole time I was reading this book. I don't want to offend anyone: and I'm in no way hating/shaming the book, I just wanted a place to talk about how I felt, and see if anyone else felt the same way. ALSO some? spoilers ahead?

Now for some context, I am South Asian. I have lived in the United States in a predominantly white city and have been discriminated against as a child (called things like monkey ears, suspended from kindergarten for wearing mehndi and "spreading my religion", not to mention the mispronunciations and microaggressions) and as an adult (called exotic, followed around by men who have yelled at me to go back to my country - though I am American - fetishised by people who ask where I'm from (no really) and if my skin colour is like this naturally).

Our first introductions to Zinnia are through the following lines:

"When Zinnia got married, they’d repurposed her bedroom and left mine alone. I had a feeling it was because they knew Zinnia would never return home with a suitcase and a sob story.”

“I’d spent my entire life wishing I could be either the all-American girl next door like Mom or the exotic beauty like my adopted older sister. Zinnia was born in Calcutta and had grown into someone who could have easily enjoyed a modelling career had she not been so busy winning grants for worthy causes and changing lives”

We can see the main character: Marley, has an older sister named Zinnia. She is South Asian (from Calcutta - which has not been the official name for the city since 2001 and is actually referred to as Kolkata) and adopted: or at least, she is of South Asian descent. I want to first note the usage of the word exotic beauty. This book was written/published in 2019. The author has no excuse for characterising a minor South Asian woman (albeit, sister of the main character) as exotic. In fact, papers written before the 2010s have called attention to the fact the South Asian women (and in a broader sense, Asian women in general) have been continually fetishised by western media and these stereotypes negatively affect WOC in the workplace (pay discrepancies, the bamboo glass ceiling etc).

Moving over to her personality, Zinnia is the successful sister, and

I read the rest of the trial in the light novel cause I couldn’t wait (it was amazing) but there’s one thing that doesn’t make sense to me. A few episodes ago in Emilias fragmented memories, when Emilia was crying, walking through the snow, fortuna ran after her and started apologizing for everyone’s “kind lie”. Given what happens... this shouldn’t be possible. For a variety of reasons. Not to mention that the “kind lie”... what even is it? That she wouldn’t be alone?? It really doesn’t add up.

I'm not sure if the title is a spoiler or not, but I can't think of a better title so I'll just go with it for now.

During the timeskip between Arcs 4 and 5, Subaru and Beako came up with 3 original Yin spells. Two of those spells have been revealed as EMM (a spell that makes Subaru invincible, similar to Regulas' authority) and EMT (a spell that creates a large anti-magic barrier around Subaru). The third spell has been mentioned to be incomplete.

I thought that since EMM and EMT were both support/defensive spells, the third spell would also be support based. But then I read Arc 6 Chapter 89, in this chapter; Subaru tries to come up with ways to defeat Shaula. Firstly he thinks about Julius suddenly unlocking a powerup and finishing off Shaula, but of course that was unlikely. Then he thinks about using his final, incomplete spell to take down Shaula; hopefully in one fell swoop, but then he thinks he'd probably be unable to pull it off since it's incomplete and it would be dangerous if it failed.

What I find interesting is that going off of what Subaru says, the spell sounds like it's an offensive spell since he was hoping to take down Shaula with it. And not only that, since he was hoping to take down Shaula with it, that would mean that it's probably pretty busted. I'd imagine if it was busted, it would probably have a massive drawback tho. And since the other two spells were related to space manipulation, I'd assume it would be the same for the final spell which I'll call EMK for now.

The question is, what does EMK actually do? Maybe it could be a mini version of Al Shamak. Maybe it could be similar to Pain's All Mighty Push from Naruto. Maybe Subaru took inspiration from >!Clind's authority of Melancholy which he used in a Side Story,!< so some sort of gravity pancake attack. There's a lot you could do with space manipulation.

So any thoughts? Is everything I've mentioned from Arc 6 Chapter 89 mostly accurate? And do you guys have any ideas what the EMK could be?

How did you guys get into novels? I just want to make sure of something.

For example for me:

Anime > Manga > Manhwa/Manhua > Light/Web Novels

Good morning, writingprompts!

I can’t fully describe how excited I am to finally make this post. Over a year ago, I responded to this prompt:

After you have died, you meet The Great One who says that you have been wronged in your previous life and, as a result, will be reincarnated with unimaginable powers. You accept the offer and you find yourself reincarnated in a fantasy world full of magic as...a slave?

The short response grew into a 44-part serial over the next several months. Once the serial was complete, I started editing it offline—the result of which is an 84k word published novel! This is my first, and I owe so much of it to this community. It’s been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember to have a book on my shelf with my name on the spine—and now, that dream is a reality.

The book is titled Divinus: Echoes of the Past, and it’s available on amazon in both ebook and paperback formats, as well as part of Kindle Unlimited. Here’s the blurb from the back of the cover:

> Death is only the beginning.

>Alexander has spent his entire life as a slave. But now, something has changed. He woke one morning with a strange mark on his arm, accompanied by fragmented memories of a previous life. The vast desert now feels somehow unfamiliar, his life foreign. As he struggles to remember who he is--and who he was--he must fight to survive and discover the truth behind his apparent reincarnation. With the help of a strange new power, he aims to free his people and discover the truth.

>His future depends on the secrets of the past--if only he can remember.

And here are the links where you can purchase it!

US UK DE FR ES IT NL JP BR CA MX AU IN

You can also check out other stories I’ve written on my personal subreddit, r/Ford9863!

And finally, here’s a brief excerpt from the beginning of the book:

*I thi

I'm a massive fan of Junji Ito and I'm trying to find some more horror books that I'd enjoy similarly. Not manga, though, just regular novels. I've read some Lovecraft and I enjoyed it, but found his writing style a little bit archaic. So that kind of surreal, cosmic horror but maybe more modern than Lovecraft? Thank you so much!

It's just a ruff draught for now.

After watching the trailers of Bad Buddy and Enchante, I was curious about the stories and had to read the novels. I finished Behind the Scenes, the source material of Bad Buddy, some months ago and just finished the Enchante novel last night. Here's what I think about them (some spoilers ahead).

Behind the Scenes - the story

This novel surprised me in a few ways. The first half of the story superficially resembles those Thai university BLs. You know, those with the top as the alpha-male super-confident class-president/university-moon/gang-leader engineering student pursuing that smol, cute, clueless, helpless bottom boy who has no clues why guys are chasing him.

Behind the Scenes somewhat utlizes this trope to lure us to expect a typical BL story only to find out that it is not. While the rivalry and violence between engineering and architecture students seem exaggerated, the relationship of Pat and Pran feels very real, way more real than the fantasied male-male romance typical of many Thai BL novels.

The hard copy of Behind the Scenes novel. I read the online one though.

The writers make use of the common hetero-normativity in BLs (the roles of "husband" and "wife") but in the end do not go that far. While Pat calls Pran his wife, Pran simply responds with something like "how do you know it is not you who is my wife". Pat is indeed a character with so much testosterone, but he on several occasions openly admits he's gay and isn't into the "I'm not gay, I only like you" thing.

Then the real melodrama comes in the second half of the story, which focuses on trouble from the family. The pressure from the parents and how the two boys choose to respond to it make the story very heavy with a bit of Lakorn vibe, but yet it's captivating I couldn't stop reading it. If you watched Dew The Movie, you got the idea.

Behind the Scenes - My opinion

In the end, I feel that Behind the Scenes is more than a BL as it explores some other issues not common in Thai BL novels, such as coming out, family relationship, coming of age, how one chooses to live a life, gay rights, and so on. And I want to commend the authors for doing this.

This novel is miles ahead of other Thai BL novels. But in my opinion, Thai BL novels are still developing so the standards aren't high and Behind the Scenes is far from

It's boring.

One of my favorite books is “ The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down.” I also really liked Educated. For some reason I have trouble getting into fiction, but I like non fiction with a really strong narrative. I like books that explore people, sociological concepts, subcultures, marginalized experiences, or just something interesting that you hadn’t really thought about before.

It sounds really stew-pit but it's real.

Hi All!

I'm looking to start another space opera science fiction series after finishing the four novels in the Cantos, but was wondering whether I should go with Ilium/Olympos or if those aren't quite in the same universe as the Cantos novels? I've also finished the first book in the Expanse series and am thinking about continuing that, but I'm a completionist and don't like multitasking between two different series if I can help it. Any thoughts you can provide would be very much appreciated!

but I quit because it was boring.....

I know he means well

Phil.