Posted on by truecrimelibrarian

Urgent Fans Make Me Type Faster: I’m Live on Patreon!

7 October 2018

Hello, dear readers!

Over the last two years, you have helped this blog go from an erratically produced collection of book reviews to a somewhat-less-erratically-produced labor of love.

You have helped me put my fiction out in public for the first time. Well, excepting the middle school literary magazine…but let’s not think about that.

*shudders at the thought of her middle school writing*

You have stuck with me through the dry spells, the shameless introduction of ads, my verse of questionable meter.

Because of your unwavering support, I have decided to devote more time to this blog, making sure to get work out to you on a weekly basis.

(For real, this time, I swear)

To help support my work, I have launched a page on Patreon!

Screenshot (1)

For those of you unfamiliar with Patreon, it is an online platform that allows fans to become patrons of their favorite creators. (I hope I might be one of yours, dear reader)

In exchange for their monthly pledge, patrons get access to rewards, in addition to extreme bragging credit. You are following the footsteps of the Venetian Doges and the Medicis by supporting the arts!

With less murder, of course.

Please do not blame your murders on this blog. Lorenzo the Magnificent. Wikimedia Commons.

For just $1 a month, patrons will receive a mention in a special edition of this blog every month they are a patron. If you are interested in your business or organization taking the credit, reach out to me by DM on Patreon.

$5 a month gets you access to a weekly patron newsletter and plenty of behind-the-scenes looks into my creative process: drafts, inspiration sources, angst. It’s more of the writing you know and love, even before your patronage helps me produce even more of the writing you know and love.

There’s a virtuous cycle here, you see.

Patreon is going to be especially important for me so I can put together a real, physical “To-Review Queue” have the resources to buy all the books, etc. It will also keep me accountable to a schedule and order for reviews.

Because when you owe people money, you type faster.

Benozzo_Gozzoli,_lorenzo_il_magnifico,_cappella_dei_Magi

Much faster.

Thank you for supporting me on Patreon. You can follow this link to my profile.

Posted on by truecrimelibrarian

You Know You’re a Grad Student When…Vol. 1

You know you’re a grad student when….

…you can’t stand to write a book review for your blog because that’s what you do all day and you love it but it’s also consuming your soul for all the class to see.

…you write for your blog as a “break” from school, because you need that little, wilting bit of joy in your day.

…yet you still like to complain about how school leaves no time for your blog, despite the blog eating up what your good, rational, ex-valedictorian side knows is supposed to be school time.

You know you’re a grad student when…

….you envy the undergrads for their ability to do decent work past midnight.

….you begin to realize one one-thousandth the pain your sleep-deprived parents must have felt about your screaming, crying baby self as you scream and cry over your baby: your thesis.

…you, the mature adult, finally reject the sleep-study binary and turn in early because your work would be poop, anyhow.

And, finally, you know you’re a grad student when…

…you reach for your apartment key when unlocking the department office door.

…you then begin using the department key when trying to unlock your apartment.

…you might as well just move into the department because you live there anyhow and the rent would be free.

 

Posted on by truecrimelibrarian · 3 Comments

Sitka

 

Grizzlybear55.jpg
Grizzly bear. Public Domain. Sourced from Wikipedia.

Sitka
A Short Story
By Allison R. Shely

Newton, Massachusetts

The strip mall is an unassuming place, by Newton standards: glossy glass storefronts, a herd of Lexus SUVs parked outside the Whole Foods, the shrieks of dying human desperation breaking through the gentle Muzak.

The periodic screams come from the end unit of the center, Cheryl Smith’s boutique gym “Survival of the Fittest.”
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