One of the most fun things about writing my novel The Scottish Boy was making it as historically accurate as possible. Those who know my other work probably know that I’m a complete research hog – nothing makes me happier than burying myself in a pile of nonfiction books. So you’re not getting some weird, sanitized, make-believe 14th Century in The Scottish Boy – you’re getting real historical characters, actual battles, tournaments that really took place where and when they were said to in the book, actual food, social history, culture. You’re not getting buttons: they weren’t really a thing yet! You’re also not getting the minute, because it wasn’t used as a unit of time until the 1500s. (You ARE getting canonical hours). Other things you’re not getting: coffee, tea, potatoes, hay in bales, any sense of actual privacy, glass in your windows (unless it was a church – those velvet curtains on beds make a lot more sense now, huh, if you only had shutters to close your windows with in winter).
An offshoot of my passion for history and ALL THE RESEARCH is I started occasionally getting tipsy and posting Drunk History threads on Twitter. So if you want to know a little more about the time period in a way that involves swearing, typos and gifs, I present the Greatest Hits of #AlexDrunkHistory:
If you can’t pledge, pleasetell a friend or three about The Scottish Boy, or share it on your social media, my anxiety and I would really appreciate it. We have until the end of the year to fund this thing, but my anxiety begs you to help me get it done much faster than that.
I’ll post another excerpt on the Unbound page tomorrow – there are some side characters you should meet. Every so often as you write a story, you have some characters who should just be throwaways in a short little scene but they elbow in and take over. The three aged heraldry clerks in the jousting scenes were very much those sorts of characters. Also, @trungles is hard at work on the next illustration for the book!
Help me, fancy porcelain side of tumblr! I’m trying to identify this bone china that belonged to my mom, which belongs under the heading of “hand-painted Japanese gold chrysanthemum pattern” or some such ??? She was way into this pattern and saved up for each precious piece. I have four of them and don’t know what to do with them; donate to a museum? Give to…I don’t know, The Society for Preservation of Incredibly Fancy Things I Would Break If I Kept Them ARound???! HALP
I know nothing. I signal boost and tag @ogtumble who knows many obscure things and knows others who might know more.
Tiny wanderers, there are 12 HOURS LEFT to back WANDERLUST! We have 24% more funding to go, and we need YOUR HELP!
WANDERLUST is an anthology of comics, illustrations, and short stories focused on reimagined myths, legends, and folklore. Our book is proud to celebrate many diverse voices; our myths come from all over the world, and many of our creators have focused on LGBTQ2 characters and their stories.
This book has been created with tons of enthusiasm and dedication, and we would like to give our contributors a chance to see their hard work pay off in the form of a book they can hold in their own hands. We want to make this book because we believe that we’ve created a book that our contributors will love.
Please help us reach our goal! We have a ways to go, but we know we can do it!
***Reminder that there is a chance to win a free copy of WANDERLUST right here!
Hello, Tumblr! Over the last few months I’ve been working on a project that brings keyword blacklisting to mobile devices, and it’s finally ready for the public. If you’re not familiar, Tumblr Savior is a browser extension that allows users to hide posts containing certain keywords or tags. It works great for desktops, but it can’t be used on phones or tablets, and the official Tumblr apps don’t offer any alternatives.
That’s where Washboard steps in: just sign in with Tumblr, import your blacklist from Tumblr Savior, and start browsing! Washboard also features infinite scrolling, a “Safe Mode" toggle that hides images, and a few other features that make mobile browsing as painless as possible.
Any questions or suggestions? Send me an ask or tag a post #washboard.ws and I’ll look at it as soon as possible!
SCREAMS IN HAPPINESS
YESSSSSSSSSSSSS
reblog to save a life
If it’s a mobile app where all the pictures aren’t gray squares, sign me up. That’s already better than the official app.
Hey @butterynutjob this might help you and that issue! Or anyone who wants blacklisting on your mobile devices.
Don’t forget Charlie Sheen. He’s been arrested for domestic violence at least six times and shot a woman. With a gun. And he’s still got a career.
Sean Penn tied Madonna to a chair and beat her. Fuck him. Fuck all of them.
Michael Fassbender
Matthew Fox
John Lennon
Paul McCartney
Ringo too I’m pretty sure
Phil Spector, although he’s now in jail for killing a lady he beat on Ronnie Spector for years and still got into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Axl Rose
Vince Neil
Sean Penn
Charlie Sheen
Jim Morrison tried to set fire to his girlfriend
Stephen Segal
Tommy Lee
Ozzy Osbourne
Mickey Rourke
Bill Murray
Gary Busey
Tom Sizemore
Christian Slater
James Caan
Josh Brolin
Edward Furlong
I could go on.
The point isn’t that the men on the left don’t deserve everything bad they have coming to them. The point is where the fuck is all the outrage when the men on the right do it. So many of our pop culture heroes are abusers and nobody seems to care.
Like, even if we’re gonna stick to the NFL, Ben Roethlisberger patiently sat out his six game suspension for rape and continued on with his career with little outrage.
If we’re really going to care now about ostracizing perpetrators of domestic violence, we got a lotta slack to pick up.
Adding more to the list:
Gary Oldman – hit ex-wife Donya Fiorentino repeatedly about the face with a telephone receiver in front of their two children.
Sean Connery – thinks an openhanded slap is justified if a woman is a “bitch, or hysterical, or bloody-minded.”
Josh Brolin – was arrested for abusing Diane Lane in 2004.
Glen Campbell – beat Tanya Tucker and on one occasion knocked her teeth out. Glen actually received a tribute at the 2012 Grammy Awards—the same year that Chris Brown received so much vitriol for performing.
Jonathan Rhys Meyers – was arrested in 2005 after he was accused of beating up his teenage girlfriend and throwing a cellphone at her. The 27-year-old actor later made a counter allegation that the 18-year-old girlfriend had assaulted him. The warring couple were both questioned at a London police station before being released on bail. He was also verbally abusive and threatening to a woman who tried to help him up off the floor during one of his drunken airport episodes. “Don’t you know who I am?” Yes dear, you’re the King of fucking England.
Harry Morgan – best known for his role as Col. Sherman Potter in the television series “MASH,” was accused in July 1996 of beating his wife.
Sean Bean – has been arrested for harassing an ex girlfriend and has been reported for domestic assault.
Tommy Lee –pleaded no contest in April 1998 to a felony charge of spousal battery against his wife, former “Baywatch” star Pamela Anderson. Lee received a three-year suspended prison sentence, was required to spend 180 days in jail and ordered to pay a total of $6,200 to a shelter for battered women. Anderson, who filed for divorce shortly after the incident, reportedly had hoped her husband would be spared jail time.
Roman Polanski – raped of a 13-year-old girl before fleeing the country.
Eminem – Wrote the song “Kim” about abusing his wife.
Here’s the lyrics:
Kim: “Baby you’re so precious/Daddy’s so proud of you/Sit down bitch/If you move again I’ll beat the shit out of you”
Kim: “There’s a four year old boy lyin’ dead with a slit throat/In your living room, ha-ha/What you think I’m kiddin’ you?/You loved him didn’t you?”
Kim: “[sound of his wife choking] NOW BLEED! BITCH BLEED!/BLEED! BITCH BLEED! BLEED!”
Wrote a song, “‘97 Bonnie and Clyde,” about murdering his wife and disposing of his body in the presence of his child
‘97 Bonnie and Clyde: “Oh where’s mama? She’s takin a little nap in the trunk/Oh that smell (whew!) da-da musta runned over a skunk”
‘97 Bonnie and Clyde: “And mama said she wants to show how far she can float/And don’t worry about that little boo-boo on her throat/It’s just a little scratch – it don’t hurt, her was eatin/dinner while you were sweepin and spilled ketchup on her shirt”
‘97 Bonnie and Clyde: “Here, you wanna help da-da tie a rope around this rock? (yeah!)/We’ll tie it to her footsie then we’ll roll her off the dock”
Made fun of Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson’s domestic abuse case in “The Real Slim Shady”
Elvis Presley – According to “Elvis Presley. The Man. The Life. The Legend.” written by Pamela Keogh. Elvis was immensely abusive towards Priscilla. He was stationed overseas during WWII where they met. He often lied to her parents to get her to spend the night. He would have sex with her, and would give her amphetamines. (The amphetamines were distributed by the Army to help him sleep, and he gave them to everybody.) When the war ended and he went home, he forced her to come with him. She was expected to sit at home while he had affairs. He didn’t even want to marry her, it was simply a publicity stunt. Elvis was immensely controlling. He made Priscilla dress the way he wanted (and would yell at and insult her when she wore something that he didn’t approve of), do her hair the way he wanted, and wear as much make up as he wanted her to.
Mel Gibson – assaulted, struck with his fist and choked, his ex girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva while she was still holding her baby. He then went on towards the pool, screaming and yelling and then told Oksana to get the ‘fuck’ out, and went to get his gun.
Signal boosting this shit, because all of these women beating pieces of shit should be put on full blast! No mercy for this kind of behavior!
I can’t believe I didn’t know any this! All this shit swept under, signal boosting so we can air out the damn rug!
@MariaWNorris is a PhD candidate who is compiling posts to publish the week of January 19 on http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/humanrights/, a blog from the Centre for the Study of Human Rights at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She says,
Tumblr Exodus 