Last year, MPs were demanding for medical cover, including providing 10 million in patient cover per family. 300,000 for patient, 150 for maternity card, 75,000 for dental care. Do you think really we can manage this? Of course, you can interact with us on all our social media platforms, as we get to demystify the mystery behind all this. Probably coming back to you, Bona MCA. Yes. When you mentioned about the issue of unemployment, it becomes a hit to young people. Yes. Do you think your county on a personal level has done, what has it done so far for the young people? Very well. Can you go into the mic? Yes. Very well, we are all struggling. Yes. I can tell you, MPs want this, that goodwill. This is a goodwill to create job opportunities for them. Yes. We have tried our best, but we need to start elastic limit. This is where we cannot stretch more. We have tried to stretch our budget, so that we can accommodate our young people. But we cannot get, we are now almost, we have gotten to the optimum. We cannot get any more. But what we are saying is that, we are being demand by the council of governors and also the county assemblies forum that if you want to solve some of these challenges that are facing this country, those who aren't the famous, you know, it is true. The young people are not happy with the government. So, like for instance, we have a complex that is being a 26 story building for the national assembly, which is 5.8 billion. Now, 5.8 billion. If you define 5.8 billion to 290 constituencies, is every constituency 200 million. Now, with 200 million, you are able to put up a milk factory like the one in Makwen. We are also doing one of around 150 million in Embu. Now, if you look at it, that complex alone of 5.8 billion is able to have at least every constituency to have a milki plant of 200 million. What does that mean? 200 million worth industry is able to employ about 100 young people. So, if you say 100 young people times 290, 290 constituencies, you can get it. That is how we are able to solve an employment among the young people. But I want also to challenge the members of the National Assembly. When we were in the university, I was the university leader in Mo University in my time during my time in school, we were able to push for the National Youth Council. And I remember in 2012, 2011, 2012, we were able to have the National Youth Council in place. We were able to have an act of the National Youth Council act. And this was the body that was speaking on behalf of the young people. Because if you tell me to speak about young people, I'll speak yes, but I'll still speak on behalf of the old. I'll still speak on behalf of women. I'll speak on behalf of even the mid-raged because I'm elected by all. So, I will not primarily talk about the young people. I will not be biased. But when we have a body, we are already being appointed the other day. That is demeaning the young people. Does it mean we don't have young people who are equal to such jobs? So, what we are saying is that we need the National Youth Council in place so that we can have a body mandated under the act of parliament, mandated to speak purely on behalf of young people. The moment they killed it, the moment they killed that body, then the youth of this country has no voice. We will not speak on behalf of the young people. But we will not speak on behalf of the young people. So, let us have that body. And it was there. It was killed. Let us revive it and have a body that will speak on young people so that at 55 of the constitution can be reality in this country. Let me ask you. You mentioned about youth and politics in the universities. Are you trying to insinuate that we need to bring presidents on board discussions? Very well. We need them. We need around the table meeting. And I don't know where our young people went. When we were in university, we were very vibrant. We used to get... We were sitting with great men of this republic. We could push for our agenda. But nowadays, it's just a lot of clapping, a lot of men making. That is not the way to go. And this is where the politicians take advantage of young people that just go entertain them. Let them make sure there is a bash, a dinner, make them chachi, let them laugh, let them... That is not how you build your future. Our young people must now rise up to the occasion. And no, life is not just about clapping. Life is not just about drinking. Life is not just about bashing. There is much about life. Getting the equal share in this government. So, let me get this straight. Yes. So, your blame is towards the youth for being silent? Yes, yes. I'll blame them. They are so quiet. It's like things are okay. Things are not. They are clapping anyway. You'll find out what they are clapping. They must show their dissatisfaction so that their voice can be heard. What do you suggest people? What do you suggest? My suggestion is one, let them push the national assembly, the MPs to have a body, a national body under the act of parliament called the National Youth Council that will be a pure voice for the young people. As in the counties personally, I'm sponsoring a bill to create the county youth council so that we also have a body at the county level to speak the voice of the young people so that we can be able to solve issues of young people. At least we can give us 5-10 years we are able to square these things once and for all. But we cannot assume things are okay. The proverbial street, you just but I would assume after law what I need is food. Yes, I need food, but I also want to see young people are vibrant, productive and engaged in productive activities in the county. Let me probably bring you to both an understanding of this. I think there was a time, I think one month ago there was the big constitutional debate at the Funga Mana House. It was discussing about the issue of the wage bill and of course we had quite a significant number of young people attending that constitutional debate and the main issue that was really on that, the main thing that was roaming around was the issue of the wage bill and also the youth unemployment. Yes, so when we are mentioning about young people not really raising their voice because it was quite a time for young people to express themselves and they raise their voice out. But do you think the government is really listening to young people?   This is what we are giving you. This bill speaks about this. It's about the strategy to jump at the door. This is what we need as young people. We want in our boards, let us take stock. The many commissions how many young people are represented in those boards. How many young people are inferior in boards in this republic because what we are seeing is the recycle. How many young people below that five years are high commissioners, are ambassadors. How many young people are in cabinet. How many young people are in the executive committees in the counties. That is a well-continated voice. Then come up with a write-up, come up with a legislated proposal and give it as an assignment to MP. Give it as an assignment to MCA that this is the legislated proposal we are giving you. We need it as an act. Then let it pass, let it be approved. Then to the top leaders to the implementers this bill was enacted. Can we see it being implemented? That is the surest way that young people can have their space in this nation. Do you think young people are uninformed about the available opportunities? Do you think they are uninformed? They are not fully informed about the available opportunities?  No one will inform you about your right.  I will take advantage of you. So don't wait to be told this is the opportunity. Ateco 55 is making young people on the role of the state to the young people. Take advantage of that. If that is not implemented, this is a code. Just go in code and make and push for implementation of Ateco 55 where young people must be appointed in various boards and organizations in various institutions. Some of us, I remember the municipal board we were appointed at the age of 24 and it was not easy to push for it because we felt as young legislators, as young mcs we also need to show the youth that we are doing something and what we did. Let's shift gears for just a moment and let's talk about Wambora's crisis and also his accession. Since 2013 he has been with so much of issues like impeachment from the county assembly all the way to the senate. Has this really brought down the county? Very well. At least we are able to solve the issues and the impeachment came, of course, with some of the national leaders. Who wanted to be governors because when we went for election in 2013 so many people understood what the senators thought they were now the superior but only to realize they were inferior. Infact it's even better to be a member of national assembly than a senator in terms of power and what to control. And the role of the senate was not very clear. And so when Sam realized the position of the governor is quite, it's a good position and so many didn't now wanted to have it. And so the issues, of course, of impeachment and again the role of MC was not very clear to some of these governors and that's why you are seeing a lot of issues also with the new governors. Like you saw in Kere Nyaga what's happening you saw in Neraikipia, Kukwakimemia, Nyandarua it's because Sam is also in Kiambu because they never understood what the role of the MC is and some thought these are just mere counselors and if the MCs want to bring your government down they can do it. And you see a politician if you are ignored you have to flex your muscles and be recognized you are there. And so those are some of the issues that also brought about the impeachment. At some point the governor of course with his advisors could not even consult the MCs on failures project and there were issues but we were able to solve that and the people gave the governor a new term and we are working well. I can assure you there is a lot of peace and we are seeing a lot of development the succession politics our people are very well they really wanted but you see there all of them they are supporting the incumbent because of course they may want his blessings they may want his blessings so we are enjoying a lot of peace and a lot of support from all quarters nobody is pointing a finger because it's not more about Wanjiko now it's about how can I be blessed by the incumbent so that I can capture the position Let me ask Piza has the stand of experience in your county between the executive led by of course Governor Mambora and the county national assembly has the stand of really brought some hindrances in how the county really functions Yeah actually most of the counties as I have said they are really struggling right now you have not released simply because there is nothing in the national treasury and we are telling Wanjiko it's your people the people that you elected in the national assembly the members of parliament they have been able to take everything we are not able to offer the best medical services because whatever we are getting is insufficient there is a lot of demand for the health but we are not getting funds counties you can imagine up to last week that's when they were releasing for some funds so when you take a lot of time to release funds and even closer financial without releasing what counties budgeted for and that's why you are seeing the push and put between the senate the council of governors and the national assembly because how do you dear give counties lesser money than what you gave them last year when they see the commission 11 allocation proposed an increment because of course the demand the increase in population you want to improve more facilities so they are more the equipment that they brought to us for the ICU the oncology these are new department these are the new investment in the counties so that we are able to fight with these cancer and other diseases so it means you require manpower you require to employ currently we are facing a shortage of medics in our county because of the high demand of the employee for five years because the counties didn't require a lot of funds and also to achieve the four big agenda we may require more funds to ensure people are getting services let me probably get the statistics right your county probably because you are an emcee you relate to this has been really receiving every financial increment probably just for the statistics then for clarity 2012-2013 you received 296 million 2013-2014 the financial you received 3.3 billion 2016-2017 4.6 billion 2017-2018 4.8 billion and the latest ending 2018-2020 you received 5.5 billion it was a target rather not a clarity something clear it was a target you have been receiving every time it has been an increase an increase how was this really helped because you said that it's not really what it is now if you look at the demands one as I've said the wage bill now we pay nurses the medics only we pay them close to 1.6 billion now we have other cash 112 actually yes yes those are the medics only we have other staff so at the end of the day we actually paying close to 4 billion only the current we are left with only a billion for development our people require water we need to tamak runs and we've tried to tamak major roads actually we are really doing a lot of tamaking we need to improve infrastructure most of our level 4 hospitals I just hear people talking about taking the health to national government I wonder what they are saying some of these hospitals were shells with nothing they were empty just a building few buildings that now we are trying to improve our level 4 hospitals to be needed for force we are trying to keep them and I was the chairman budget I'm actually chairing the budget can we come kindly to the issue the cost workers it's quite an issue in Ambu of course not only in Ambu we also have experienced some Buru County still the same about the cost workers but now let's talk about Ambu County because we're talking about 1.62 billion and 1.1 billion and about the issue of the masses what is really happening? well I don't know about the narrative of ghost workers but we cannot overlook it what we'll be doing as account assembly and that's what we have said we'll start by the hand count and as in the committee of health we've said we'll be counting the medics that we have in more facilities so that we are certain and also their salaries so they are paid and the total sum because what we want to do we never meant that they are ghost workers but we said we want to justify the 1.62 billion because the salary we are paying we also need to see the fruits we must get the value for money we can't pay 1.6 billion yet people are still complaining we are not well served we are still suffering of the cute shortage in our level 4 and level 5 so we didn't want to be assured who is this that we are paying 1.6 and I think that's not the end we also want to know the entire the entire number of our staffs so that we are sure these are the people we have and you saw the Uduma number working miracles and the president was able to tell this nation how much they have been able to save by uniting the ghost workers so we have been doing an audit to our payroll we want to know how many workers we have and once we do it then you can invite me and be able to tell you if at all we will get the ghost workers but let me ask you do you think Embo has an excessive rate of employment is it really of a power? yes yes yes we have it's a shortage a cute one and we have so many young people with good grades with good courses because we have them in the university with us and our people are taking advantage of it we have several courses and although like the ECD we have so many teachers young people have pursued their careers on ECD unfortunately yes we will be employing but to see we have about 384 ECD centers so we can only employ 384 and most of these people are young people so once you employ it means once you have two for people one and people two until now the national attrition and also the and other issues so we may not really employ a lot because we are limited yes yes just to make something clear Governor Wambora in one of an interview in another media house there is for sure he said that for sure we are still struggling with the issue bringing people on board because he found people already while he was becoming the governor he already found people already there and he decided to confront do you think that has affected the employment issue? Yes that has also affected us as a county because we were the end quotas we were the end quotas of the provisioned quota and so most of the staffs were the post to the counties with huge high job salary very high job group job groups with very huge salaries and driver being paid 80,000 per man so we hand such but all we are saying what we need to do is to utilize them because manpower should not be an issue should not be a challenge we should make use of it so if you are the secretary several in the department like in the department of livestock in the department of agriculture then we should take advantage of the staffs that were secretary to us and make sure we make use of them and I think that would be the best the best way so that we don't so much complain but if they are productive if these staffs they make our people productive if you are training on beef farming go train farmers let them start honey let them start manufacturing honey if we make use of those workers then it means the turn over of economy atem country will be high and do not be struggling we will be able to get more and set more industrial factories really expound on that but because of time let me be straight and ask you have talked about MCAs and of course people knowing their responsibilities as governors and such kind of an issue these your second time as an MCA what have you come to realize about the responsibilities of an MCA oh my you know those you want to pursue in this politics want to tell them is not easy if at all you really want to serve your people your responsibilities in fact your constitutional mandate will only take around 20% if you stick to your constitutional mandate then you will not be able to serve because the constitutional mandate requires an MCA to carry out the oversight role over the national government over the county government you require the MCA to do representation you take the issues of your people the ideas of your people to the assembly and also just treat those three but it is beyond in fact you even become a pastor to your ward that you may be requiring to pray for your people out of the you must be very philanthropic sometimes you love people coming to your home coming to your office with so many challenges both financial and there is no funds set for that you must be ready to part with that you may require to you know to console your people I mean you must be ready ready to serve if at all you are interested in this position and that's what some of us were able to secure the second time and again we are living like people are really stressed I don't know why our nation is struggling and our people are struggling with something that we really don't know you know uncertainties and I don't know so we must also be able to speak to our people there is a lot of expectations a lot of frustrations a lot of stresses with the people that even if you do this thinking that you will be assisting them you still find there are those cropping issues people are really very unstable and so as an emcee you are not ready to sacrifice just forget about being an emcee for 2022 now that you cannot run for emcee again no the constitution allows me to run for emcee you can run again this is your second time this is my second time I can run can run at that time or fourth time so where do you stand there is no limitation for an emcee the people back there they think that an emcee should go for two times as a member of national it's only good to qualify to a people that it's only the governor and the president that have a term that is being limited by the constitution only two times ten years then you hand over the mantle but for others legislatures you can even do 30 or 50 times depending with your people because for me if you are able to be faithful with the literal then you can request for more if you feel the responsibility of the world is too small and you are seeing your people struggling I can tell you currently we have an issue that people are really struggling the increment on NIHIF is an issue that is thrown in the phrase of majority of Kenyans that cannot afford you know cannot afford to pay 500 per month and this reality is we have people are living below a dollar a day still at the poverty line and these people are almost 50% these are the people you are telling them to pay 50,000 and this 500 per month and yet you are requesting another wife to be insured honestly and at that point as an emcee I have said it very clearly to the clock of the county assembly if a state officer is being paid an emcee being paid 100,000 and above let us not see a peace leap you know a limitance of 1,700 if a member of national assembly an MP is being paid more than a million why is he being why is he limiting only 1,700 for insurance the NIHIF let us pay more so that we can be able to supplement for the other the low earning Kenyans the struggling Kenyans the hustler nation so that they can pay 250,000 so that all of us we include in that scheme but telling them to pay 500,000 yet with 100,000 you are paying 1,000,000 it's very unfair and these are the areas you want to to do once we get to the national assembly 2022 I will not run for the emcee again you will not run for emcee no no I will be running for the national assembly member of parliament I think I am mature enough and I have learned a lot and I can take them somewhere I know how to lobby I know what it takes and I know what being a member of national assembly means to the people that you represent thank you they are saying it's quite unengaging I want you to give your last remarks to the people of Niyanjes I want to take this opportunity once to thank the people of Niyanjes Central Road for giving me now this my second term ok very well I don't take it from Kranden that give me an opportunity to serve them as the emcee and as we have been interacting with them I will continue serving them we have started many things including tamaking of Niyanjes and upgrading our town so that we take it from the feeding level to a better town where infesters can come we have started feeding program for ICDs we have also tried to digitalize our education through providing screens to our ICDs and also we have tried to improve ICDs so we just want to assure them we will continue with the good work and let them be hopeful that's where you do great things to them thank you very much alright many thanks of course that has been Hon. Steve Simba MCA Niyanjes Central Ward and of course the deputy speaker of Embo County Assembly and those are justice sentiments on the current happenings and just to bring you on board about today's you can be looking at today the senator and the governor they said they will go to streets to strike over the county revenue allocation that's a story we'll be looking at of course today but also even the MCA is heading out to the supreme court over the case of the county allocation many thanks to the joe is coming up in just a few


Welcome back. My name's Cam. That's Cam with an M, not an N. It's not, it's not Can. It's weird that I even have to like correct people on that. It seems like in the last year, authors have been chronically lacking self-awareness. It seems like barely a week will go by now without some writer participating in some absolute clownery, further dividing readers from the people that write the books. I've watched this unfold all the time over on Twitter, and usually I don't say anything, but sometimes I might weigh in and give my opinion, so I decided that I will start a new video series here on my channel. A series I'll do every now and then where I will highlight and discuss all of the most recent instances of authors and writers showing us what not to do. Some of these stories are small and pretty insignificant, mostly just interesting or funny, but others are pretty bad. One of them in particular got me pretty steamed. I'm sure you'll know the one when I start talking about it, but without further ado, make yourself comfortable, get a snack, a drink, settle in. It's probably going to be a bit of a long video as we jump into Episode 1 of Writers. So I do want to start each of these Writers Badlands videos with at least one example of authors doing something cool or something great.  This man, this six foot seven bag of bones and talent, I don't know if that's his height by the way, I'm just too lazy to look it up and I like to imagine that he's like comically tall. In just two years, this guy wrote not one, not two, not six, that's too many. He wrote five books. Now the reader in me is absolutely ecstatic that we will have so many new stories by a writer that I think is arguably one of the best of our generation.  Anyway, the reason we're talking about this now is because Brandon is doing something rather unconventional here. Rather than releasing four of these books through the more traditional methods, he's actually started a Kickstarter that will act as a bit of a paid book club. There's been a bit of a back and forth about how good this actually is of an idea. There's a number of different payment methods over the course of 12 months, the cheaper of which will get you your choice of format of these four books, going about as cheap as $40 over the course of the year for those four books, which is a pretty standard pricing. However, the prices do jump up quite a bit to some more expensive ones, which will get you a number of different formats. Rather than just getting the ebooks, you could end up getting the hardcover and the audio book and the ebook. It can even go up to as far as $500 over the course of the year, which gets you the books in every format, as well as about eight swag boxes, which are basically just like subscription boxes. Those boxes will contain items based on Sando's various different books. Now, a lot of people think that that's too much money, that it's a bit of a rip off and that it's a bit of a cash grab by someone who is already one of the most wealthy authors that we're currently aware of. Personally, I think that's a bit of a premature stance to take considering we don't even know what's going to be in these boxes yet. If the boxes come out and they're filled with cheap garbage, then sure. But for all we know, you could be getting your money's worth or even more so with limited items, etc. Either way, I'm struggling to see a real downside to this. As of right now, Brandon Sanderson's secret novel project is literally the most funded Kickstarter in history, which is that's absolutely monumental. That's a huge achievement in itself, that the biggest Kickstarter in history right now is from an author. And that becomes even more impressive when you realize that there's still more than 20 days left and this Kickstarter has reached over $30 million at the time of me filming this video. So obviously, this kind of Kickstarter experiment isn't something that is going to work for all authors or even most authors. Calling it, let's say, the future of publishing is probably a bit of an exaggeration. Even the most successful and busy authors probably wouldn't be able to keep up with something like this. I think that having a large platform and being able to write a large number of books between releases is the real crux of this project working. And in fact, I don't even think it's something that Brandon Sanderson is going to be able to keep doing every year. With that said, personally, I think that Brandon is one of the very few people that this could have worked for. He's already notorious for writing so much and of such high quality, and his platform is obviously enormous. Something like this probably wouldn't work for almost anyone else, but I do think it would be very naive to think that publishers aren't going to take notice of this. Again, this has raised over $30 million in less than a week. It is the biggest Kickstarter ever. Once funding is completely done, once the month is over, it's very likely that this Kickstarter will have raised more than $10 million per book before the books are even being sold in store and online. That is, the significance of that is beyond words. Whether this affects the future of publishing or not, Brandon has made history here, and I think it's, I personally think it's a very good thing. I think even outside of the book and reader industry, people are going to take notice of this and they're going to see that the fantasy fandom is a lot more lucrative and large than they thought. For all we know, this whole project could be a big catalyst for future fantasy adaptations or games or who knows. I think it's entirely possible that we will see this whole Kickstarter project setting fires in the publishing industry's approach to how they do their releases. How that looks and whether it ends up being a good or a bad thing remains to be seen. There's been a lot of discourse over the last couple of years since the popularity explosion of Tiktok's Booktube counterpart, aptly titled Booktok. Make no mistake, if you didn't already know, Booktok has been skyrocketing books all then new to levels of success and popularity that are sending waves all through the industry. We saw a similar thing happen when Booktube was, you know, rising up, selling a lot of books and it was getting noticed by the mainstream media. However, the levels of success that Tiktok have been facilitating flows Booktube out of the water. I'm sorry to say, as someone who was a part of Booktube, I tried and I try sometimes to do Booktoks but it just rarely works for me. I just find that the short videos isn't a great platform for someone who likes to ramble so much. So not only are publishers seeing some of their titles literally transformed into fountains of money, okay maybe not literally figuratively, but this is extra notable because those publishers are fully aware that they didn't even need to spend an extra dime on all of this extra marketing. For publishers, Booktok has been the best thing in the world and a lot of people on Twitter have taken issue with this for quite a few reasons. Some of them I think are a little bit silly, others are I would say pretty important. So one argument is that the books being recommended on Booktok are all the same ones and could generally be described as generic or vapid romance and smut. Now that might be true although personally I think it's just a tad hypocritical because I mean I think a lot of the same points could be made about Booktube or especially Book Twitter especially when those communities were first you know blowing up and thriving. Seeing very surface level recommendations for books that everyone already knew about was what primarily brought attention to a lot of big Booktube and Book Twitter accounts. It seems like only the same popular books are being discussed or recommended on these platforms because by their very nature popular books are the ones that most people have read. They're the books that most people can relate with and engage with. Of course those Booktok videos are going to be more widely shared because more people can relate to it. Whether the books themselves are good or bad as we know a lot of popular books aren't. That's just how all forms of entertainment work. Like Booktube if you want more obscure recommendations or reviews they are there even on Booktok you just have to look a bit beyond the recommended feed. That's my thoughts on that side of the argument although there is a much more serious debate or round of discourse against Booktok and that is the normalization or romanticizing of abusive relationships. Bad boys have been and always will be a big staple in romance and smart but I do think there is definitely a conversation to be had about just how much the line is being blurred in particular for younger readers on Booktok. Having a DOM or a sub kink is one thing but seeing hundreds of pre-eutines thirsting over a TikTok writer's description of what is objectively a mentally abusive and controlling relationship is something else entirely. A lot of people much smarter than myself have pointed out that it's not only dangerous for people who end up with partners like this but it also sets a rather dangerous expectation for a lot of other people in particular young men who think that if they act controlling or abusive it will make them more sexually desirable. It's something that we see all over TikTok even outside of Booktok. People confusing some kinky roleplay for just straight up abuse. Some of the stories that are skyrocketing to success through Booktok are doing so on the backs of tropes like this and it can be pretty damaging to the reputation of romance and smart as a whole. There is also a very real concern that the insanely profitable nature of these style of stories through TikTok could shape the publishing company's preferences in future. If they see that these are the types of stories that are selling so much and making them so much money maybe they'll start accepting less hard work stories end up instead for quickly written trope heavy stories that we're more used to seeing on Wattpad. So that brings us to the next story and this is where it gets a little more serious it's much more disgusting and sad than it is interesting or funny. As I'm sure we're all painfully aware at this point the people of Ukraine are currently dealing with the invasion of their home by Russia through inhumanly violent acts of war. Most people would see the actions of Ukraine's president Vladimir Zelensky as brave but a few romance orders have taken it one step further and decided that this currently unraveling humanitarian crisis is perfect material for their next spicy book. I feel like Zelensky is going to inspire a lot of romance heroes in the future. Hashtag real hero, hashtag romance writer. I found myself outlining a story with Zelensky inspired hero during my morning pages it just spilled out. I'm literally writing a romantic suspense story between the president of a country and the widow of one of his former bodyguards and I am getting so much inspiration. Taking inspiration from real life events even the tragic ones for your book is fine if you ask me. Although I think there is something deeply sick about seeing a real life person that is leading his country through an active war and an invasion a man who's dodging multiple assassination attempts on his life, a man who is watching his home and his people die violently and getting horny or wondering how you can turn it into a fictional love story for your self-insert cold shower fantasy. What it comes down to is that there is a time and a place and the first battleground for the next potential world war is not it.  On a much lighter note, how does this tweet make you feel? Please know if you're someone who brings a book to the bar nobody likes you. So this tweet obviously received a pretty huge blowback. It was almost unanimously dunked on in responses like this one. I think the original tweet was pretty mean spirited and at the end of the day yeah if someone brings a book into the bar and they're not bothering anyone leave them be of course. However and bear with me here I do want to play devil's advocate for just one moment. I personally do find it a little bit obnoxious when someone brings a book into a setting that obviously doesn't allow for it and you can tell that they're doing it to build some kind of bullshit mysterious bookworm vibe. Like a casual bar is fine that's a perfectly fine place to read a book sure. But there has been times where I've seen people reading in the booth of places that could much closer be described as a nightclub and I know damn well you aren't reading the clockwork orange successfully while Doja Cat blasts your eardrums. I wouldn't go so far as to say no one likes you but I can promise you people are much sooner going to roll their eyes than come over to you and swoon but also who cares that's your business. So there's another interesting book based debate from Twitter and it comes from this tweet. Authors stop using pop culture references in books please. I'm not going to dunk on the poster of the tweet because they are a kid but I do find myself agreeing with most of the responses in this case. I can 100% understand people not liking pop culture references in books but personally I actually really enjoy them especially when it comes to like referencing songs playing in the background of certain scenes. Other pop culture references can ground the story in a particular time period that the book is written or set in which makes it all the more fun to read at a much later date. For example when you read a book that is written in or set in the 70s and the characters will mention the new Exorcist movie or the new Elton John song for me it helps to build the time period aesthetic and hopefully in another 50 years people will look back on our modern books in much the same way. In defense of this tweet though some writers can absolutely butcher it it's the how do you do fellow kids effect. Here's a really great example that I saw over on Twitter a while ago if you can't see it I'll read it out here. I need to do something or I'm going to go insane. She stood up from the bed and stretched her stiff muscles. The bed made groaning noises as she popped her knuckles and squared her shoulders. She did nothing but sleep, eat and stare into space for God knew how long. Watch me whip. She began. Watch me nay nay. The guard shot a glance her way curiously eyeing her as if she was some sort of weirdo. Valariana ignored him and went on with the task of entertaining herself. Every day I'm shuffling she did some shuffling somewhere along the chorus. Hey look one of those successful TikTok authors that we were talking about is in here. Piper C.G. in The Author made a noopsy. It's quite a saga so I am going to have to trim it down to the highlights. Piper published her book The Night and Its Moon and as of right now it's sitting rather awkwardly at about two and a half stars. A lot of the negative reviews coming in response to what's about to follow. So one Goodreads reviewer left a review that I personally think was pretty polite and constructive as far as Goodreads goes.  This particular review was as constructive as an author could probably hope to get. The only part that I think could even be close to being described as being mean spirited was this bit. You can pause and read that if you'd like but I'm sure you can see where this is going. So after the reviewer put up their review the author posted the very next day on their Instagram story. They posted screenshots of the review and other ratings from the reviewer's Goodreads page. Basically taking the piss. The other books that Piper was showing on an Instagram story from the reviewer's Goodreads was one that she thought was a picture book, an obvious attempt to insult the reviewer's intelligence and the other being a Columbine non-fiction and obvious attempt to question the reviewer's morals. Things got worse when Piper's editor also decided to weigh in and got involved responding directly to the reviewer on Goodreads with some wonderful lines such as, The greatest benefit to being indie is we can respond to you.  Which is just one of the most remarkable things that I've seen an actual editor say to someone. Now the reviewer in question relayed all of this to a TikTok user and that TikTok user posted it all online and that's how everything came to air and since then Piper has apologized both on TikTok and on YouTube. Now the video apology itself is okay. It does an okay job at owning up to all of the mistakes and in particular distancing herself from the editor and their actions, even if the apology does at times feel pretty self-pitying and almost comically dramatic. That's everything that happened in Dot Points and as far as my thoughts go I just think it's baffling. The level of unprofessionalism here by both the author and the editor is just it's mind-boggling. She's obviously a smart and educated woman it's very easy to see from her video apology. Smart enough at least to know what is appropriate or not when it comes to interacting with readers. This whole experience shouldn't have been the thing that taught her that. Blasting a reviewer on your social media is so obviously not okay and as much as she apologizes for it I think this is something that's going to follow her writing career around like the smell from a pair of skidmarked undies and to be honest good I think it should. I'm a very strong advocate for readers and authors to be able to communicate with each other. There seems to be this weird idea that they should not talk to each other at all and that as soon as the author publishes their book they should crawl back and say their cave and get to writing the next one and just shut up. However that communication should only come in a way that both parties are okay with. The author agrees to be critiqued when they sell their book but the reviewer does not agree to be personally vetted on that person's public profile when they give their feedback. If you're a reader and you tweet out some really nasty shit about an author and then tag them in it I think they have the right to respond but on a platform like Goodreads where the primary purpose is to leave reviews and a lot of those reviews are going to be negative that's not the place for authors to give their two cents. This whole situation just reminds me a lot of like the Kathleen Hale story albeit maybe not nearly as bad. AI audio reading looks to be working towards audiobook integration and the public response was less than stellar. Personally I don't really think there's anything to worry about audiobook narrations are a lot more than just reading words it's performance and I haven't seen anything even close to that from even the most advanced AI readers yet. Let's say though that they do come close enough to creating something that works well enough to not intrude on the immersion of the story. They create this AI that can read out a book and have it sound good enough that it doesn't distract you. Let's say they do that. There is a notable upside here. I'm someone with a full-time job and a pretty respectable income and there's still no way I could ever justify getting an audiobook narration done for my books. The price of narration for indie authors very often far exceeds what we could even hope to ever get back. It's just not affordable or profitable. I'm not saying that narrators charge too much it's a big job I get it but it is a whole medium of the storytelling that we simply cannot access. I think having a cheaper option with the trade-off of it being slightly lower quality than a human voice actor I think it would be nice. A very interesting bit of discourse has sparked up again recently although it's a conversation that's been being had for a long time. In short the oddly possessive nature of women in the romantic genre. In particular when writing male male romance.


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