Notices by Shaula Evans (shaulaevans@zirk.us)

Saying, "Don't worry, it will all be okay" to someone who is intelligent, informed, and at risk is not comforting.

It's actually offensive and alienating.

If you wan to keep your relationships intact, and if you want to be a comfort to your friends, learn to sit with their concerns and distress without reflexively smothering them in toxic positivity.

It's a habit worth cultivating. We're all going to need it.

If you are an informed, intelligent, compassionate, in-any-way-science-literate person, how are you coping with living through these times? What's helping?

No snark, please. I'm interested in sincere, practical answers.

Edit to clarify: This is a check in. I'm not asking for advice, I'm asking how *you* are coping.

God help me, I'm going to try asking a question on Mastodon. I only need answers to this specific question, no advice, no lectures, no what ifs, no mansplaining, please.

I'm medically vulnerable & live in pandemic isolation. I'm also short & have high ceilings. I need to change smoke detector batteries, I can't reach them (even on a ladder).

Can anyone recommend a tool for removing/reattaching smoke detectors on high ceilings? Ideally something you've used yourself.

Thank you.

Some people seem confused in my replies. The missing piece here, at least one, is "kyriarchy", or relative and overlapping hierarchies of social power: people with relative situational social privilege generally have no idea what the online safety issues are for more or differently marginalized people.

If you don't understand the choices someone else is making in regards to their online safety, don't mess with those choices. It's easy.

2/2

Hey folks: don't snitch tag.

If I want to hashtag my own posts, I know how hashtags work, I'll do that on my own.

If I have conspicuously not added hashtags to a post, it's because I do not want the trouble, hassle and trolling that comes with certain tags.

Do not put hashtags in your comments on my posts (or ideally anyone's, but I only speak for myself).

Hashtags drive discoverability. Leave other people in charge of their own visibility. It's a safety issue. 1/2

To celebrate #PrideMonth, I'm giving away free review copies of my polyam romance audiobook, The Trouble With Angels. 👿😇😈

It's a hot, funny, big-hearted romantic comedy about a woman starting over who's taken in by two best friend Daddy Doms — & who falls in love with them both!

If you'd like to write a (brief!) Audible review, reply or DM. 💙❤️🖤

#Romance #Polyamory #Romancelandia @bookstodon @audiobooks @romancelandia @polyamory

Thinking about the time one of my legs seized up. Various people suggested different stretches but nothing helped.

A doc finally told me I was super anemic: that's what I needed to fix first. The leg finally started to improve.

- The easy or obvious solution isn't always right. Nor is the solution that aligns with the speaker's area of expertise.
- Identifying root causes is critical to solving problems.
- Good diagnosticians are better than part swappers or facile solutionizers.

A new trend in the pandemic: friends who have taken pandemic safety very seriously because they are medically vulnerable or at high risk for various reasons are reporting that their family & other people around them are "tired" of keeping them safe, are pressuring them to take more risks, & are actively endangering them.

More & more of my most fragile friends are getting sick now.

It's terrifying. It's also a moral horror.

It's almost the end of another month, which means it's a GREAT time to support the indie artists you love!

Buy our art / books / audiobooks (!), subscribe to our newsletters, leave a tip, etc.

Your support keeps the lights on & lets us keep making art for you. Thank you! 🙏❤️

#Creativity #Art #Artists #Freelancers #Patronage #Fans #Fandom #Audiobook #Audiobooks #Audiobookstodon #Bookstodon
#WritingCommunity
@audiobooks @bookstodon

As an audiobook narrator, I just received an email from Audible announcing that they are reducing prices on all audiobooks. Good news for listeners, devastating for authors & for narrators (like me) whose minuscule royalty payments per book just got smaller. *sigh*

Audible assures us that they will make up the price reduction (/royalty payment reduction) with increased sales.

Meaning we all need to sell more, somehow, to make as much as we did last month or last year.

#Audiobooks @audiobooks

If you've ever wanted to buy one of my audiobooks, now is a *great* time. 🙏❤

https://adaraastin.ck.page/223e08bb72

If you have questions about any of the audiobooks I've narrated, please ask! I'd love to help you find a book you'd enjoy.

#SelfPromo #Audiobook #Audiobooks #Bookstodon #Romance #Romancelandia @romancelandia

With the new changes at Audible, reviews matter more than ever.

If you'd like a free review copy of any of my audiobooks in exchange for a rating and (brief!) review, let me know. I would be absolutely thrilled to set you up.

Take a look at my catalogue here & let me know what you'd like to review + if you need an Audible US or Audible UK code. 🙏❤

https://adaraastin.ck.page/223e08bb72

#SelfPromo #Audiobook #Audiobooks #Bookstodon #Romance #Romancelandia

PS The big factor that boosts audiobook sales, just like any other kind of book, is still word of mouth.

If you love a book, recommend it to your friends. Shout it out on social media. Let people know about it!

That does more to boost sales -- and keep your favourite authors & narrators in business -- than anything else I know of.

#Bookstodon #Audiobook #Audiobooks @audiobooks @bookstodon

Genuine inside tip: Audiobooks do not sell themselves any more than books do.

Authors, if you want your audiobooks to sell, plan to promote them with just as much commitment as you promote the original versions.

#WritingCommunity #Bookstodon #Audiobooks

I saw someone on Mastodon say in the course of the conversation about Apple's synthetic voice narration that it would probably be good for "dry, dusty academic books" (or a similar sentiment). I beg to differ!

When I narrate a complex non-fiction text, I draw on my training as a Shakespearean actress & as a translator to elucidate the sense of the the text & the relationship between syntactical units.

I'd rather listen to a *good* human narrator of non-fiction than AI any day.

#Audiobooks

If you'd like to help me get the new year off to a good start, buy yourself some audiobooks & connect with me on Mastodon, Pinterest, my newsletter or elsewhere. 🙏❤

Details at the link:

http://bit.ly/ShaulaRomance

PS If you'd like a free US or UK review copy to write a (short!) audiobook review on Audible, let me know! Reviews boost sales & help not just me but my lovely authors, too.

#SelfPromo #Audiobook #Audiobooks #Bookstodon #Romance #Romancelandia @audiobooks @bookstodon
@romancelandia

I just got my official November audiobook sales statement. Thanks to the chaos at Twitter, my sales tanked.

It's not just me — it's every writer, artist, freelancer & small business that relied on Twitter to connect with customers & fans.

Please step up & support the indie creators in your life while we rebuild & reconnect with our people. It's hard, we're tired & we're hurting.

Buy, review, tip, recommend, connect elsewhere. Keep us going if you want us to keep going. 🙏❤

#Writer #Artist

#Introduction I'm an #AudiobookNarrator & #VoiceActor with a stage / screen / VO / improv / directing background, as well as a #writer / #editor / #ScriptDoc / #filmmaker, and a lot of other things besides.

I tend to talk about #audiobooks, #writing, #language, #etymology, #filmmaking, #creativity & #art.

Check out my bio for links to my newsletter, audiobooks & tip jar.

I look forward to connecting with friends old & new. xo

“Extremists have shown what
frightens them most: a girl with a book.”

Malala Yousafzai