optimistic autosuggestion

Creators4Comics

a #bgsd two-fer

I'm participating in #bgsd (Bitches Get Shit Done), a daily inspiration, affirmation, or creative writing prompt sent via text from the comics writer Kelly Sue DeConnick. True to form, I'm already a day behind, so I'll collapse the last two #bgsd prompts into a single post.

Thursday, April 16, Gratitude List

small thing: I'm grateful for my Lamy fountain pen, one of the best writing utensils I've ever owned, even if I wish the nib were smaller. I'm also a big fan of Staedtler's pastel highlighters.

big thing: I'm grateful for everyone participating in the #Creators4Comics auctions, playing out on Twitter as I write this. For the creators offering one-of-a-kind incentives such as original art and movie props, for the folks with the means to bid on them. All of the proceeds benefit struggling comics and book retailers around the world. We readers understand the vital role these shops, these Third Places, play in our communities. Our cities, our cultures, our inner and social lives would be much poorer without them.

Long before the pandemic hit, Amazon proved itself hostile to community-serving retailers, or merchants that have motives other than profit in mind (you would have to possess such motives given the tight margins of bookselling). The retail giant's behavior has been predictably terrible under the Great Corona Closure, all the more reason to ensure that indie shops survive the shutdown.

an experience or memory: The Yak Babies ask, “Was anyone into novelizations of movies? Where did they all go?” I'd forgotten until reading this tweet that I did an oral book report on John Gardner's GoldenEye in the 7th grade. Naturally, I opened with some kind of assassination scenario (did you play my victim, Aaron?) before blowing smoke from my fingertip and speaking The Line. I probably thought this was terribly cool.

Friday, April 17

photograph something beautiful

Voila

“Write about what that beauty feels like as a sensation.”

Holding this arrangement kindles the warmth of nostalgia, its soft glow and radiance, without nostalgia's edge of loss or regret.