- Summer anime is winding down, and I’ve already got my eyes on what’s coming up this fall. Since I’m a sports anime fan, I definitely want to check out Long Riders!, a girls’ cycling anime, and rugby anime All Out!! (Side note, what’s with exclamation points in anime these days? Neither of these hold a candle to the upcoming Keijo!!!!!!!!)
- It feels like I post a new Colette Bennett fandom article every week, but I can’t help it. Her latest, What’s it like to be a trans Lolita, is an emphatic look at the intersection of fandom and gender identity.
- Love Live! isn’t exactly the deepest anime, but it’s been my guilty pleasure for years. Finally, Nick Creamer has written an explainer article I can show people about why I can’t quit Love Live‘s goofy bubblegum appeal.
- How do you make money as a novelist? Some Quora real talk from one of my first favorite fantasy authors, Mercedes Lackey. “Of all of the members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, only about 10% make a living from writing.” Oof.
- I just finished Back Off, I’m A Ninja, the third book in Natalie Whipple’s YA triology. I rarely read YA but this self-published series ignores mainstream trends in exchange for a compelling story that somehow manages to touch on pretty much everything I like, from Japanese myths to Dungeons and Dragons.
- Did we kill hobbies by monetizing them? To celebrate the end of Japanese 301, some of my classmates and I went out for a drink, and I mentioned I review anime. “So do you still enjoy watching anime?” was the first question I got. I do! But for some people, getting paid to do something fun can absolutely kill the leisure aspect of it.
- On the same topic: Why Flexible Working Makes Me 100% Happier. I work my “day job” even less than Emma does—four half days a week—but I still struggle to get everything done. I know that if I had a full time job there’s no way I’d be able to accomplish all the stuff that’s important to me.
Photo via Daily Dot