Experience
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Experience
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Hello beloved listeners, readers, etc.
I'm sure you all have notice the lack of content for a while. I am sorry to announce that Hobbies Include: Writing is going to continue an official indefinite hiatus. I have been fairly open about my mental health on this podcast, and I will be open again to say that it is a factor in this hiatus announcement. Blood That Binds is an extremely personal story for me, and cuts close to many of the wounds I am still healing from in my own life. I wrote the first half of that story when I was in a very dark place. As I couldn't get out of that place at the time, this story was one of my few outlets. Writing it, and looking forward to sharing it with all of you, kept me going through some very necessary shadow work. However, even the darkest of nights will end. I am not in that dark place now, and I am learning more and more that there are phases to healing. The phase I am in at the moment includes learning to relax and to enjoy the good and loving things and people around me. Taking joy in my life is, for me, a glorious and rebellious act of self-love that I have been denied far too much. While I love creating, and creating this show specifically, my recent attempts to finish writing Blood That Binds at this time threaten to pull me back into that dark place. Though I do not think I am done with shadow work in my life, now is a time to take a healthy break from it. I do intend to finish Blood That Binds, and to share the end of that story with you. For now, I am going to take some much needed time away, and work on other projects - perhaps ones that celebrate the hard-one joy that I am learning. In the meantime, I encourage you to continue to support creators. There are many of us out there, little creators giving our passions and opening up our hearts. Find those that inspire you, and earn your attention.
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I am joined by Tell Me About Your D&D Character host Jeremy, as well as his Of Dice & DMs co-hosts Ben and Tory. We discuss vampires, fairy tales and RPGs as collaborative storytelling.
LINKS & CREDITS Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/hobbiesinclude_writing?fan_landing=true Facebook.com/hobbiesincludewriting Twitter: @HIWPodcast Black Ice Comics: https://www.blackicecomics.com/ Music edited from: Chill Wave by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3498-chill-wave License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Of Dice & DMs: https://soundcloud.com/ofdiceanddms Website https://melbournedungeonmaster.com/dicendms Tell Me About Your D&D Character: https://soundcloud.com/tellmeaboutyourdnd Blood In Woodhaven can be purchased at: https://www.thequestsuppliers.com.au/ Earlier this week, I received some very helpful constructive criticism from a fan who has been gracious enough to allow me to share both her first name and her email to me.
Although this episode summarizes her email and my response to her, I wanted to share them verbatim here as well: "Hi, I discovered your podcast last week and I'm already more than halfway through the current episodes. I really appreciate you showing different genders and sexualities, and ethnicity. However, I feel you haven't been fully inclusive as you have no disabled or chronically ill characters (sorry if they are coming and I'm jumping the gun - obviously ignore this comment if that's the case). Of course any of your characters could have an invisible disability, and are only mildly affected so it's not noticeable to anyone,but the group is so close to one another I feel they would have mentioned it at some point (and if not I think that says a lot about how our society perceives disability, rather than the character to be blamed). Personally I'm hoping for someone who uses mobility aids, though not necessarily all the time (as many of us are ambulatory wheelchair users), either due to disability or chronic illness - if you aren't sure about this then please email me. I think it bothers me more than usual because you've made such an effort to be inclusive,and yet the 20% of us who do live with some form of disability are still out of sight/ out of mind. However I don't want you to feel guilty for forgetting us (as a white cis woman I understand how our privilege can make us forget or be unaware of certain things), but simply to be mindful of this in the future. Thank you for certain such a great story in this incredible format of being able to talk to you with the knowledge you are open to constructive feedback, I'm definitely looking forward to following your work and seeing where it goes." Here is my initial response to Tamara's feedback: "Tamara, First of all, I want to thank you very much both for listening to the podcast, and for your important and thoughtful feedback. Inclusivity is a very wide and complex topic, and one that I am always interested in addressing through my creative endeavors. I want to be clear that nothing about this response to your feedback is an attempt to excuse my failure to better represent and include a variety of identities. I do feel I have a duty to address your constructive criticism, and that is what I will try to do here. I have not included chronically ill or physically disabled characters in Blood that Binds. This was not because I have forgotten the existence of people with disabilities, nor have I made a decision not to include characters with disabilities in my writing. The honest reason there are no characters with physical disabilities in this particular story is that when I do include those characters, I want very much to do my due diligence and represent that experience accurately and without stereotypes. In Blood That Binds, as you said, I have included a wide variety of identities, sexualities, ethnicities, and mental health conditions. Even though most of them are not identical to my own experience as a person, they are communities I am either part of or have spent a great deal of time with. The hardships they face are ones I have a greater understanding of and am more confident I can represent accurately. Even with that being the case, starting my podcast and writing this first story with that intention has been a lot to tackle. I do not say that as an excuse, or as a claim that not including physically disabled characters was an acceptable thing for me to do with this story. I only want to say from the bottom of my heart that I have not forgotten disabled people, and that representation of their experiences is important. When not including disabled characters in this particular story, it was because I felt it was better not to misrepresent a community that I am not part of, since I did not have the mental resources to do the amount of research necessary for proper representation at that time. As Blood That Binds season one is currently released, I do not know if I can promise introducing a mobility-related physical disability to any of the existing characters at this late point in the story. I will, however, research and consider a different type of physical disability and see if there is an existing character that it would be appropriate to write that into. I will not be introducing new major characters at this stage in the story, and do not want to fall into the trap of including a "token" minor character whose major trait is their disability. I will promise that in future stories I will strive to be more inclusive of people with disabilities. I apologize for my failure as a creator to do so thus far. And that is the best I can offer at this point: a sincere apology, an explanation of the thought process which led to my error, and a promise to do better in the future. I would like to address your feedback both on the podcast and on the blog on the website. If you would like me to mention your name and share your email, I am happy to do that. If not I will respect your anonymity and simply say I received a letter from a listener regarding this topic. Thank you again for listening, and for writing in with such grace towards my mistake. Mariah Powell Writer and Creator Hobbies Include: Writing the creative fiction podcast" Links & Credits
.Hello & Welcome to Hobbies Include Writing, the Creative Fiction Podcast. I’m host, writer & creator Mariah Powell.
Thanks to our patrons, Jacqueline Lydic and Ivie Montgomery for supporting the show. Our patrons at the $15 tier and above have access to listen live to these Q&A recordings. Head on over to the Patreon to check out those and other benefits. Thanks also to our business partner in cross promotion, Black Ice Comics. Check them out in-store in Houghton, Michigan or go to BlackIceComics.com. Hobbies Include: Writing is now part of Project Entertainment Network, a podcast empire. I will be featuring some spots moving forward to help you get familiar with some of the other amazing shows in the network. To check out all of the shows, go to ProjectEntertainmentNetwork.com. As part of that network, I have a special treat for you! This episode includes a conversation between myself and Chrissy Garrison, host of the Alien Beer podcast. Chrissy and I talk writing, podcasting, and creating queer content. Thank you so much to everyone who sent in questions for this episode. Enjoy the discussion with Chrissy Garrison as well. That will be simul-released on her podcast, Alien Beer. Be sure to check it out, especially if you are into sci-fi. You can enjoy this episode via download by clicking the "Listen" button at the top, or find it on your platform of choice using the links on this page. No sneak peeks this week, but here are all our links! Links & Credits Patreon: www.patreon.com/hobbiesinclude_writing?fan_landing=true Twitter: @HIWPodcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HobbiesIncludeWriting Black Ice Comics: https://www.blackicecomics.com/ Music edited from Chill Wave by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3498-chill-wave License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Hello, and welcome to the first ever Q&A episode of Hobbies Include: Writing, the creative fiction podcast.
This episode is officially sponsored by our patrons! Thank you so much to Ivie Montgomery and Jacqueline Lydic for becoming our first Founding Fans. There are still 8 slots and a few days left to join them as a Founding Fan and gain access to lifetime top-tier benefits for any monthly donation of $5 or above. See the Support HI:W tab for more! HI:W also has a business partnership sponsor. Thanks to Black Ice Comics in Houghton, Michigan for partnering with the show for cross-promotion. Their physical store is not open at the moment but they are open virtually at blackicecomics.com. Black Ice Comics is a full-service comics shop and there is a wonderful community of amazing people. This episode was originally recorded live for our patrons, who were able to interact with me during the recording through the Discord. Unfortunately, due to some technical issues the recorded audio was distorted and had to be re-recorded. The audio you will hear still has somewhat of an echo. I apologize for the microphone issues, and promise I am taking steps to fix them as soon as possible. Several of listeners also submitted questions ahead of time for this episode. Instead of a PDF for those who prefer reading to listening, here is the google doc with the questions and my notes. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F9l_mgx9HdiRabHYmh8NMLkLRVp_J3937O-qKGz6fvM/edit?usp=sharing No sneak peeks this week, but here are all our links! Links & Credits Patreon: www.patreon.com/hobbiesinclude_writing?fan_landing=true Twitter: @HIWPodcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HobbiesIncludeWriting Black Ice Comics: https://www.blackicecomics.com/ Music edited from Chill Wave by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3498-chill-wave License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
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Spotify Spreaker Google Podcasts YouTube Amazon iHeart Radio Castbox Podcast Addict Podchaser Deezer AuthorMariah is the author of "Blood that Binds" and sole creator of the HI:W podcast. Categories
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March 2021
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