MultiMind's Blog, page 11

Booksigning went well, Thank you Amalgam!

Thanks to Amalgam bookstore for hosting me and my book signing for Dreamer and Kinetics. Since it also doubled as a Live on Instagram, thanks to everyone who showed up and asked questions! There are still signed copies of Dreamer and Kinetics at Amalgam. Also, every copy of Dreamer at Amalgam comes with a free copy of the audiobook in the back of the book.

[Update] Amalgam Bookstore event is 2 to 4 PM EST today

I made a mistake on the time, it will be 2 PM to 4 PM EST today. I originally said 12-2. Sorry!

The book signing will still be broadcasted live on Instagram at MultiMindPublishing so please do attend, be it in person or virtually

Also, for in-person goers, this is a mask mandatory event. And please ask anyone at the front for a post-it note to write your name if you want me to inscribe your book. Thank you!

Kinetics, Out Now!

Kinetics is now out and available everywhere in print and ebook form. The audiobook is still being worked on but expect that in October/early November. I wanted to have it done before the book signing but had a lot of things that needed my attention almost all at once this summer, health included. It happens.

Tomorrow at Amalgam will be the book signing! Be there – or virtual! The book-signing will be live on my Instagram at MultiMindPublishing from 12 – 2 PM EST. There will be copies of Dreamer and Kinetics available at the store. I also am willing to sign copies of In Search of Amika. I have zero problems signing any version of my work, be it new, old, ex-library or previous title.

Get a copy of Kinetics now!

First Ever Book Signing at Amalgam in Philly this Saturday! Kinetics out Friday!

Woo, upcoming event and book release! Kinetics is out on Friday and Amalgam is on Saturday.

Please show up – or watch here on Instagram at MultiMindPublishing during 12 – 2 PM EST for the livestream. Get Dreamer and Kinetics now! (Or buy directly from Amalgam)

The audiobook for Kinetics is still underway! Currently it is fully recorded by now but now comes the edits and such.

First Event Ever! – MultiMind Book signing at Amalgam in Philly, PA on Sept 17!

My first author event! I haz excite! This is a book signing event for both Dreamer and Kinetics but it is also a book launch event for Kinetics, which comes out on September 16! You can either pre-order here or at Amalgam. Read up on the upcoming YA Paranormal Horror novella, Kinetics, here. (Also, the audiobook narrating is currently underway with the same narrator as for Dreamer, Soraya Butler.) This is all very exciting!

The event at Amalgam will be on September 17th, from 12-2 PM. Since this will be an in-person event but we’re all still in a pandemic, there will be a mandatory mask requirement. That means: no mask equal no service. Amalgam has this policy already in place and I super support it. Should you not be able to attend (because we’re still in a pandemic), I will do the best I can to livestream the event on my instagram, @MultiMindPublishing.

Amalgam is very important to me because it’s one of the first Black woman owned comic stores on the east coast, and one of the few in the nation as a whole. I have personal memories of visiting there several times. Yes, I am aware of its closing in Oct but I still want to be there out of importance – and because the store asked me when I paid a random visit. I am always stoked when I see my book in physical bookstores, it was a bit of a surprise for me that they still had a copy of Dreamer there. Also, I have signed that remaining copy they also have a signed version.

Me knowing myself, I am probably going to be at the bookstore all day so if you visit on September 17th you will definitely see me. I most likely will have a blue galaxy, 3D printed mask (that frankly makes me look like I have an iron on my face, it’s a work in progress) or my ice blue 3D printed mask with fuchsia dual filters. I 3d print my own masks, therefore I will basically be the one “with the weird looking mask”.

Remember!:

Sept 17, 2022

12 – 2 PM EST

Amalgam (Philadelphia, PA)

Masks are Mandatory

Livestream on Instagram: @MultiMindPublishing

Trigger Warnings/Content Warnings in Books

Woo, revisiting the topic, especially now that I have a book out, and more coming out, that will feature trigger warnings.

I already wrote about this but I don’t mind writing again about it. It’s a good topic.

Since I’m an indie publisher/writer, I designed my own content warning page.

I try to keep it short and sweet

I have this in here because I have two trauma disorders – in other words, I’m part of the very population these warnings serve. I personally don’t see them any different than if my box of candy says it contains nuts. I personally don’t have a nut allergy but I do know people who do. I’m not going to demand Reese Pieces take the warning off just because I personally don’t need it and “people should know there’s peanuts in there”. It also doesn’t bug me when a movie is ranked either PG or R. (I do know there are some issues with the rating system but I personally see it as it comes from the people doing the rating – not the rating system itself. Being told that there’s drugs and violence isn’t problematic. Being told “this movie should be rated R because two queer teenagers are just having a plain relationship, no sex whatsoever but that movie where there’s hetero sexual violence should be rated PG-13 because ‘it’s for laughs’” is a big problem.) A rating system, to me, doesn’t subtract from the product itself. Just help people make informed choices.

As I’ve said prior, I feel like my content warning page allows me to be as graphic and holy-sh*t-what-the-f*ck as I want to be in my works. Hey, I warned you. My works get dark and bloody, I know it. I don’t need that to be a gut-punch surprise for anyone who sincerely doesn’t need it. If someone doesn’t want to read my “What is wrong with you?” books, they at least know in advance and could make a choice that they did or didn’t want to see that. Which I’m 100% okay with.

I have found some pretty decent sites about trigger warnings. I try to err on the side of “keep it short and simple” so not to overwhelm people. I don’t say “[method of death] happens”. I try to lump in the general themes that would help, such as “Severe Blood/Violence”. Two or three words, simple. “Reference to Sexual Violence” or “Brief reference to sexual violence”. “Brief mention of racism”. Something short, sweet and descriptive. I know I may not cover everything but as someone who has two trauma disorders stacked on top of each other, I think I have a good idea how to cover the major ones. Triggers can be very varied but the usual ones are around sex, death, violence and vices (drugs, alcohol, etc). Cover those and you’re fairly golden.

I have zipped through books, barely reading them, just so I can “early trigger” (really bad idea, don’t do it. It’s like testing the hardness of a wall by slamming your face against it. Repeatedly.) and figure out if I need to quickly return the book before I’m stuck with it. That janks up an author’s royalty sheet, as well as my day. I have ducked getting books because I have to worry if my trigger is going to pop up and in full, decorated force. I can handle sex, I can handle violence, I can even handle sexual violence but I have triggers that I have to be cautious looking out for. I rather a nice, hopefully short list (they can be made short, it’s a trigger list, not the DSM-V itself) that I can look over and go, “Oh, it has that. I’ll skip” or “today is not a good day for me to be consuming this, I’ll do it tomorrow or when my head stops making Serj Tankian noises.”

Storygraph allows people – including the author – to add content warnings. I personally have contacted Storygraph about Dreamer, which has content warnings, so that the book’s content warnings are correctly depicted. Due to that, it says “From the author”. If someone adds something that isn’t there, (such as “animal death”, that never happens in Dreamer once), I can contact Storygraph and get that sorted and have it taken off.

The sample version of every book I have made so far shows the content warning page if there is one. I rather let people know what they’re about to get into. I guess it’s so if they fuss about it later, I can reply, “Yeap, I warned you at the front of the book.” I’m not going to remove any facet of what I write because someone might have a problem with it. It’s literature, there’s going to be a lot of problematic things – But! That’s also part of why I rather have a content warning at the front. Will there be books that I may slap a Content Warning on that I personally may think is a bit much? Yeah, I don’t think an upcoming fantasy book, Butterfly, should have a content warning because, in comparison to my other books, just about nothing awful happens. Note: In comparison to. I’m a horror writer, if no one is being actively murdered or mangled, it’s a love song, so to speak. Jury is still out on that, the character simply cuts her arm but there’s a lot of blood (but a reasonable amount for someone who cuts their arm).

If there isn’t a lot of the thing occurring, such as violence, blood, etc, then, yeah I will forgo the content warning. Someone bopping their head on the bottom of the shelf is not the same as someone getting a “.45 Surprise”. A character getting a paper cut is not going to warrant a “blood” content warning from me. However, even if it is a droplet of a vice, that should be included. Blood is natural and fine, even a kid can scrape their knee. The vices are not, to me. If someone is doing drugs, say so. If someone is getting murdered, say so.

I think I also might have a better understanding about triggers and what is “overboard” and what isn’t because I’m part of actual trauma communities. As in, we talk. Yes, someone might want a content warning over someone cutting their finger or bopping their head on a low shelf but in general, the trauma community tends to want the basics covered, bare minimum. It’s understood knowledge that triggers can vary person to person. For example, one person I met, their trigger were eggs because they were forced to make eggs for the person who viciously harmed them so their brain now associates “eggs” as an “avoid at all cost”. But they, like lots in the trauma community, don’t expect that you’ll point out eggs, since that’s pretty intricate. But they would love it if you pointed out sexual violence, which is where their egg trigger came from … and is not intricate.

People in the trauma community generally knows what they can and can’t take, on average (loose average but an average all the same). All we ask is for other people to do is, at minimum, do the bare minimum. If someone is going to be extremely harmed in the book, a reasonable person can see that and note that. If a person is going to experience massive prejudice in the book, a reasonable person can see that and note that. Few in the trauma community are going to expect a trauma warning like “the word ‘pink’ will be used” just because it’s some random’s person trigger, but the birthplace of the trauma is moreso expected, such as “family abuse, non-physical”.

As I said in the previous post I talked about content warning, I look at sordid stuff, such as mass shootings. I’m a bit used to seeing pictures and videos of people being actively murdered … but I’m pretty sure most people would want me to frontload that that is what they’re about to see before I share it with them. That’s what a “content warning” is. A warning about the content. Just because I can stomach it doesn’t mean others can. But also, there’s the difference between showing mass shooting footage and footage of someone surprising a group of people with a water gun bazooka and everyone laughing about it. Massive difference.

That’s why I know, for my works, what is likeliest to work for my works. I’m most likely going to miss something but that’s why I try to at least ping on the basics/expected. A person with trauma disorders is going to know that something is going to “happen in the universe of” of whatever is their trauma. For example, if you warn that there’s going to be severe blood and violence, they’re fairly certain that if death happens in the book, it wasn’t exactly outside of the realm of likelihood. It’s a temperature grade, in a way. At least knowing that ahead of time helps people better gauge if they want to experience the book.

I think part of the fuss is that people who don’t live with trauma disorders don’t exactly know where the “stopping point” is for what to include in a content warning … and don’t bother to ask the trauma disorder community or look it up because “too hard/too complicated”. It’s not that tough, just make a general call on general topics. Folks in the trauma community are keen on pointing out “Hey, there’s blood in here, like … a lot, a lot. If you’re sensitive to blood, don’t watch it” or “oh, there’s not a lot of blood, someone cuts their finger and that’s it”. That’s why I include “severe/minor/etc” if I feel it is needed. That way folks can better gauge what happens in the work.

In other words, content warnings are for broader topics to help affected readers know what they’re getting into. It won’t harm the story, at all.

Now, there’s a difference between “being wary of triggers” and “coddling”. A White person doesn’t want to read a work about racism? Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww, that’s too bad … if only that hesitance stopped the average White person from engaging in such behavior. I would personally love being around people with a trauma-level avoidance of wanting to harm my life in any way, shape, or form as a Black person. Ditto with anything that includes a historically marginalized experience. A trans-person not wanting to read a book about transphobia will not have the same reasons as a cis-person who does not want to read a book about transphobia. The trans-person has most likely been traumatized by actual transphobia, the cis-person is just a coddled wimp that doesn’t want to think, they just want to go “ewwwwww, I don’t want to learn about what trans-people go through, I just want to be babied into thinking I’m a good person without ever examining my own biases.” If you have privilege in the subject that’s being warned about (racism, sexism, transphobia, queerphobia, etc), then, no, it isn’t a trigger topic – you’re just a whiner. “Trigger” means “subject that an affected – and traumatized – person would avoid at all costs”, not “subject that a person engages in but hates being told they’re engaging in it – especially by the affected person”.

In other words: if you have privilege as it pertains to the book’s subject (White privilege, cis privilege, male privilege, etc), then grow a spine. If avoiding the subject doesn’t stop you from engaging in those genuinely harmful behaviors (read: don’t want to read about racism because “ewwy topic” but you have zero qualms in engaging in racist behaviors, big or miniscule – except when told that’s how you’re acting, be it nice or mean) then it isn’t a trauma/trigger for you, end of story. You’re just a coddled jerk.

Even in the trauma community I’ve learned to spell out “if you have privilege in that life area, then you’re not triggered/traumatized by instances of oppression in that life area.” For example, I’m a cis person. There is literally zero way I could be triggered by transphobia. I’m not a trans-person, people who harm and harass trans people are going to leave me alone because I’m cis. I don’t always like looking at violent media so, no, I do not want to watch a trans-person be beaten to death. But! Remember what I said above, I don’t mind looking at mass shootings. That means, for me, violence is not a trigger. And even if it were, it’s violence that is a trigger, not transphobia. So, me sitting through media where a trans-person is harmed is not going to be the same experience as a trans-person sitting through media where a trans-person is harmed. I’m not watching myself, so to speak, on the page or on the screen be brutalized, they – the trans-person – are.

The worst that will happen to me is I’ll walk away with a “wow, that really sucks what happened to that trans-person by the hands of that transphobic person – wait … do I act in any way like the transphobic person? Ugh, if so, I need to try to not act like that. That person was super horrid.” The trans-person, on the other hand, may be reminded of a personal encounter that was very similar or the media they saw was just another terrible blare of “No one likes you for literally existing, trans-person” that media likes to do … as if trans-people don’t deserve positive representation or something (they do) – a trauma event, basically.

If I was informing a trans-person about said media, I would say “hey, there looks like there’s some transphobia, just to let you know.” To a cis-person, I would probably say literally nothing at all about transphobia, except for maybe “It looks like transphobic trash but you should be fine” – because the cis-person will be fine. Nothing wrong with tipping off a person with privilege in that life arena “this is what prejudice actually looks like” but that’s not the same as “I don’t want to psychologically harm you in the mode of entertainment”.

Triggers are different for different people. When used well, they’re super helpful to those who need it. The traumatized have a tendency to know what they can and can’t take, on a general scale. It isn’t going to make the book dull or anything like that.

Black BookTubers, Bookstagrammers and more!

I talk about how I actively look for BIPoC reviewers. I wanted to share some info dump pages that showcases at least two hundred Black Booktubers, Bookstagramers and more.

Through these lists, I also have found Melanin Library, an online library resource that shows countless books written by Black authors. They’re listed by genre also!

Belinda’s Book Nook’s list of Black Booktubers.

Another list of Black Booktubers by booktuber Myonna Reads.

Riveted Lit (affiliated with Simon Teen) shows a payload of Black Booktubers, Bookstagrammers, and Booktok.

“Kinetics” Sample is Now Available, “Dreamer” review!

Everyone can now read the first 37 pages of Kinetics, the new YA Paranormal Horror novella that is due out on Sept 16, 2022. Available on the Published Works page (which is now the front page of this site). You can also preorder Kinetics there – or here! The audiobook will be narrated by Soraya Butler, who previously narrated Dreamer.

Also, Dreamer has recently received a very positive review from Life of a Female Bibliophile on her blog:

While the novel starts out calm midway through it escalates into thrills and chills as Vera must figure out how to overcome a deadly nightmare. It’s a thing of mind against matter and Vera has to summon up the courage to face her fears head-on. This book has elements of a thriller, horror, and sci-fi thrown in. This blend of genres made the book an immersive reading experience. I was on the edge of my seat in the entire second half of the story. I enjoyed this book and its concept so much!

Dreamer is also still available to purchase in e–book, print or audiobook!

CIP, Cataloging-In-Publication, LCCN, Library of Congress – I worked there, let me tell you how things work”

I always think it’s a little weird for me to send in my works to the LCCN/CIP department at the Library of Congress. LCCN stands for “Library of Congress Control Number”. CIP stands for “Cataloging in Publication”.

What it is (pulled from the website):

“The Cataloging in Publication (CIP) Program creates bibliographic records for forthcoming books most likely to be widely acquired by U.S. libraries.”

Meaning, if you want your book in libraries (you do), this helps you get there. They come in two forms: Cataloging In Publication and LCCN. Both are on the copyright page of every book but CIP is a big block of data and LCCN is just a line of numbers.

CIP Data (The lower half of the page) LCCN (The single line of numbers near the bottom)

This is different from Copyright. For one, you pay for copyright registration but LCCNs/CIPs are free. LCCNs are for indie and small presses. If you’re selling multiple titles under a single publishing house (like Random House), then it is CIP data. In other words, just focus on LCCN.

I won’t slow walk how to do the online bit, just the part that I worked on.

Let’s start!

One of my work areas

All books going to the CIP Division (CIP & LCCN) basically goes to the Acquisition division (woo, land of cold floors and snack dishes). My job was to open the literal thousands of packages and process them after they went through security. Literally every book in the world landed on my desk, basically. None of the books you will send will directly head to the Library of Congress, no way. It heads to security first, an offsite location. There, it’s put into a machine called “The Microwave”, which is a machine meant to check if you are sending things you have zero business sending to the Library of Congress (such as ricin, anthrax or plain ol’ bombs). I learned that if I have candy apples shipped to the Library of Congress, they will be most likely eaten by Security as “Safety Check”. They’re thorough.

Not all books survive The Microwave. Some books come out – and I’m talking floppy softbacks – stiff as a block of wood, not even the cover can be opened. We chuck those out (we don’t chuck the data, we just tick a “the book is here and it is real but we can’t use it, the Microwave wrecked it” box on the paper and call it a day) and move on to the next book.

Here’s all the bins of books, we see this every day. They’re here so that we can process them in and go “yup, that book exists. Hey, Copyright, that book very much exists”. If we notice problems, that can keep a book from going into libraries or – super worst case scenario – hold up the royalties because Copyright has to get involved (you really don’t want that, Copyright moves glacially and if they have to do extra work, they are going to be as thorough and quick as someone who hates you for giving them extra work to do.) Rule of Thumb: Copyright division kinda hates everyone, don’t bother them if you don’t have to.

Bin o’ Books!

From big name books to indies, we get all of them. This meant I got to see books sometimes before they even existed in the public mindset. For major important big sellers, like Harry Potter, there are special protocols. Such as the book must have the last 20% of the book removed, and random bits of the book removed. I believe multiple copies have to be sent (about 2 or so) and they have to be missing different sections of the book so no one checking the book can scan it and put it out or sneak it out the library or read all of it and pull the wind out of the story’s sails. Oh, and those special books have to be done in a special room, where you have to be checked going in and out. As in, searched. For everyone else (99.9% of all the books), it all winds up on a big wooden table that has that one odd gray stool that I like because it’s knobbly in all the right ways.

We get it, slap an LoC barcode sticker on it, and a peach LCCN slip if it has an LCCN number. Your book needs to have your LCCN number in it by the time it gets here. If not, we still will take it but we will also gently hate you and put it on the bottom of the “if you are literally bored to the point you’re even starting to wonder if you can actually die from ennui, here’s something to do” pile, where it will sit and sit until it has to be done. Because we have to look up the title data and such, also known as “extra work”. If I have to choose between your LCCN-lacking book and that snack dish that is three floors up in the Israeli division, complete with nice water, colorful walls and breezy rooms that looked like Hogwarts – if it were designed by the US Government and they said “aht aht! Budget!” every five minutes – I’m picking the Israeli snack dish. Yes, I probably will get shooed out because I viciously pick out the good candy and snacks and I try my hand at being social (I’m bad at it and so are many people at the Library of Congress) … but at least I’m not staring at a book that’s extra work.

Please include your LCCN on the book itself. Some will include an extra note with the LCCN on it. Which is fine … until it gets lost. We process thousands of books a day. I’ve gotten books from all over the world, it’s hard to keep what note is to what book. I personally collected the super nice notes – written on nice paper, with nice stationary – but others sometimes blindly chucked them. Well, not too blindly, we also have to make sure the note doesn’t say something along the lines of “I wanna kill the president”. I have seen several letters that are in that neighborhood. We’re the Library of Congress, not the House of Congress, one, go whine to them. Two, we’re still part of the US government, please don’t send death threats to the president (I worked at the LoC during Obama) at the Library of Congress, we will send them to FBI members visiting to eat at the Madison Café (we also have a Chilli Cook Off and ice cream social, they show up to those, also). We will say, “Ey, Ricky! Got some lunch time reading for you” and call it a day. America has a lot of nutters, but the books still gotta get processed. That book won’t – or it’ll just be very delayed – but the other books have to get done. Three, your note is sometimes afternoon fodder. If the note is heart-felt, we will read it, aww over it, wonder why you wrote it and maybe someone will keep it or toss it. (Maybe send a card with a cat on it, cute stuff does get collected).

Put your LCCN in the book itself, please. Even if you write it (legibly) on the copyright page, just have it there.

The books will go to several places but they all go somewhere to be processed. CIP books are separated from the LCCN books (because they have different data sets) and they’re all wheeled to different cage bays.

A bay!

There are about 23 in total, all housed in the Surplus Division. All books are process with their importance status: Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze. Platinum is the most important, such as the founding documents of this nation. (The movie National Treasure would have been about 45 minutes and very bloody at the end if it were in real life, there were a lot of inaccuracies. No one can watch the movie with me because of this reason, I’m insufferable with my million “Ok, so that wouldn’t happen because …”) Bronze is most of the books we have. Even my books are declared “bronze”. Gold is the comic book collection the Library of Congress has. Gene Luen Yang’s “American Born Chinese” is considered Gold status because of the cultural importance it has and thus goes into the Vault.

How I sum up the four ranks:

Platinum – The alphabet soup (FBI, CIA, NSA, etc) will be paying you a visit. Or hunting you down. Your choice. Instead of watching Enemy of the State, you get to be it. It will not be fun.

Gold – The alphabet soup is going to be looking for you quite diligently. Very. There will be punishments.

Silver – If it goes missing, it will be noticed. People will look for it, they will be librarians. They will find you. There will be punishments.

Bronze – Meh. Sh*t happens. Definitely we don’t try to lose the book, every book is important, but you’re going to get moody LoC librarians who, depending on their moodiness, will drag the FBI into it because “That’s your job, go get the book.” I have seen “Give us back our book or be very worried” letters from the LoC that goes out to people who borrow books from the LoC. We usually get them back. I learned joking “We could just forward your name to the IRS or FBI and hold bets who nabs you first, library work gets boring sometimes” really gets the books returned fast when I’m asked outside of the LoC “I got a book from the Library of Congress, what happens if I decide to keep it forever?” Bronze is still important – it’s the Library of Congress, everything is important >_> – but it isn’t Platinum.

Some of the books wind up in the Surplus Division, where members of congress and libraries across America and the world can come and pick up these books for their libraries. (If your library, big or small, is not using the LoC’s Surplus division, why not? The books get thrown away, definitely use the Surplus program).  

How long does it take for a work to go through the process? About a week, which is what we aim for. This is the US Government so sometimes it takes months. Your LCCN is fine, libraries will find you and all that good stuff but the CIP division takes a minute. That’s also why we tell everyone to send it around the time it comes out, so that we’ll have it by the time it needs to be around. You already filled out the paperwork and got the number itself, the book checking is simply the last part to make sure “yup, no chicanery happening here”.

The books go to all sorts of places, but a lot get thrown away because the LoC simply doesn’t have the space – and because most books suck. Traditional and independent. Terrible covers, typos everywhere, etc. The most memorable books I have seen, I usually take a picture of them. I also take a picture of awful books, funny books or interesting books. I loved books that came from China that were like puzzles to open, they were folded with wood or other intricate features. (Unless they were “Human Rights Abuses in China” books, those were huge and not pretty. They were not like puzzles to open, they flopped open. Open to all the horrors. All of them.) There’s also a big globe outside of the CIP department.

It actually glows sometimes, the oceans have a interesting glow to them to show the sea floor depths

CIP shares a floor with the Maps division (who stared baffled at me on my first day when I was in their office looking for directions because I got lost. They’re the Maps and Geography division!). They hate when you ask them for directions. Bring up Waldo and Carmen Sandiego and they may direct you to where you can shove those jokes.

We share a floor with the Copyright division – well several floors share a floor with Copyright, they’re in the center of the Madison building and are several stories tall. And they’re locked down like Fort Knox.

One of the many doors of Copyright. Definitely locked, definitely has tech on the other side of the lock. Some there sorta hate everybody & all there won’t let you touch their snack pile (I’ve tried). Has a jukebox.

Fun LoC tidbits:

The unofficial motto of the Library of Congress: “:defeated sigh: Nothing Beats a Failure But a Try” (You have to do the “Why won’t God help us?” sigh, it’s part of the motto)

The tunnel into the Adams building is sloped in a way that’s obvious that no one cared about physics and people. Drop your water bottle and it will move at a velocity only NIST cares about. And may take out people. You will not be able to chase after it, do not bother trying

There are mice in the Library of Congress. There is a theory that the mice have been there during Jefferson’s time, thus they are considered unofficially a historical part of the LoC

Some of the rooms do not make sense, physics-wise. The hallway in The Matrix with all the doors and the Keymaster is the only thing I can really compare it to

Some books are haunted, no one cares. If you ask why some of the books are haunted, they will stare at you irately and ask if you’re new … and why you’re lumped with them.

One of the elevators like to kidnap people and direct them outside, I call this elevator “The Kidnapping Elevator”. There’s a lot of things that need to be fixed at the LoC so it seems as long as it doesn’t nab the president, All Is Fine and This Shall Be Ignored

The Occult book section is dark, as in, the lights do not work and every time they’re fixed, they go out again. Oh, and the floor glows. It’s a thing.

The stairs at Hogwarts make more sense than the stairs at the Library of Congress. I learned that the “hand on wall” labyrinth trick does not work at the LoC. The map of the Library of Congress might as well be the Trololololo face.

The CALM division has a very nice person who is deaf. He always answers the door, despite sitting closer to the back of the room – and is deaf. Everyone else who sits closer to the door will sit there and say “Oh I didn’t hear the door.” BRUH. Meanies – except for the deaf person, he’s nice.

Want to start a micro international war? Fiddle with the temperature. The LoC sometimes thinks it’s great to lump librarians from opposite climates together and give them a thermostat. I think whoever can broker that disagreement gets forwarded to Camp David or something.

They have water cooler clubs, where you have to be on a list to use the water jug in the department. There are no cups so no one else can use it. I was super thirsty and didn’t really know so I just took a piece of paper and turned it into a cup (yay, origami!). I got fussed at, it was a trash experience, possibly racialized experience (the lady, who was White, was really focused on the fact that I was able to craft a paper cup and treated the experience like I was nabbing the Magna Carta). I then always used origami cups to drink their water on the sneak tip to spite them.

There’s a rave in the basement of the Library of Congress. Complete with strobe lights and a dj and a person with a list. It’s in a soundproof room so no one knows until the door is open – which has a special knock. I’ve never been able to get in. I stumbled upon one around Halloween, everyone had on costumes and one dude in a skeleton costume was really dancing his life away while Eurotrash was playing. Some joked that it was President Obama, I have zero clue.

George Clinton performed at the Library of Congress on Halloween. It was fun dancing to “One Nation Under a Groove”

Independence Day at the Library of Congress is always decked out. I’m surprised they don’t have a bald eagle posted up somewhere with a little Uncle Sam top hat.

They turn the lights off in a lot of the places at the LoC Friday to Sunday, to conserve energy. If you can’t see, that’s technically a “you problem”.

There are secret doors everywhere. Secret stairs everywhere. In the regular stairwells, there’s always some librarian sitting in it with a guitar doing riffs or playing their lunch break away. Or several librarians.

The Architects of the Capitol (or “L’Architects du Capitol”, as I liked to call them) have different departments (machine shop, masonry, carpentry) and around the holidays, they would have their own decorated wreaths.

Machine Shop, Masonry and Carpentry

There’s a little stair with a dibit in it that’s been there for 200 years in the Jefferson building. It takes out at least five people a year. No one can fix it because the preservationists will throw a fit if so.

Different places on Capitol Hill has their “own” pizzeria, the pizzeria that is closest to them. The Library of Congress’ pizzeria is “We, The Pizza”. I love the name.

Librarians will sneak pets in. They will let you see them (and pet them!) if you keep your mouth shut. It’s Capitol Hill, there are worse things that are happening so slipping in a kitten goes “unnoticed”. They will barter pets for silence (“You can pet the cat for a solid minute if you keep quiet. Say anything and [cat name] goes back home.”)

It’s the Library of Congress. If you wanna scare a member of congress really badly, pretend you have Robert Muller or some other investigator on the phone and that he’s/they are coming down the hall. Or someone from the New York Times. Then say to the congressional person “I’ll be with you in a minute, just stand right there, please”. Or say it like the person is behind them.

It’s pretty certain that if you accidentally summon anything and run to the Smithsonian, they will sigh and ask, “You summoned something, didn’t you? Look, you still have to fill out a form. If they are possessing you, they have to fill out a form – in modern English, no one is interested in reading ancient Greek or Chinese or Possessed Handwriting – as fully as possible. We can’t just hand over stuff.” The LoC doesn’t care about weird stuff because a ) weird stuff happens all the time and b ) it’s the government, you still have to fill out a form.

Weird stuff happens a lot at the Library of Congress. If it isn’t part of someone’s job description to care, they won’t. Even if it is part of someone’s job to care, they sometimes won’t – it can be unnecessarily stressful to work at the Library of Congress at times.

Very few can out-hoity-toity the Library of Congress. Pretentious is an artform here. They are also derpy but wow does the LoC know how to crank up the “My presence is a present” when need be. If you want to make a NIST librarian gag, bring up the “class and refinery” of the Library of Congress.

New Work coming out September 16, 2022: Kinetics! Cover Reveal on Bookish Brews

Bookish Brews is doing a reveal of the cover of my next book, Kinetics! I even did a small interview there. Go check it out!

Coming out on September 16, 2022! Kinetics is a YA paranormal horror novella.

Ava and Tyrone always shared everything. As twins, they were always two parts of a whole. But one day, Ava discovers that she is part of a much bigger whole. And Tyrone wants nothing more than for Ava to take part … or take her apart instead.

Now Ava faces a decision: either be by Tyrone’s side or become another one of his victims. 

Doesn’t matter to Tyrone, as long as he has her abilities – one way or another.

Pre-orders are available now.

If you’re possibly wondering “didn’t you already put out a book this year?” Yep! Dreamer was supposed to be out in 2021 but that didn’t happen so 2022 is a twofer. It will be 1 book a year usually – 2, if my brain can take it. If I miss a year, that’s fine, but right now, this is how things are done. The Published Works page will also be soon updated to reflect the new work.