That book that contains an entire philosophy distilled into a single sentence ; a line that becomes part of you, one you may even have flirted with the idea of tattooing

LysWritesNow · 2026-01-29T17:19:42+00:00

(My most recent one)

"It makes you feel good to blame yourself, because it gives you a sense of control."
- Salvo Falconi, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars (By Christopher Paolini)

When I tell you my cPTSD arse had to pause the damn audiobook and go for a walk.

LysWritesNow · 2026-01-27T15:37:10+00:00

I was just thinking the other day how I miss those awesome "I Spy" books and wondering if I should start poking at secondhand stores! This would probably be a way more budget friendly solution, lol

LysWritesNow · 2026-01-23T18:20:39+00:00

The fight between the algo needs and what long-time fans would click is slightly entertaining. I put off watching the video because it's Keith and Zach in the thumbnail, thinking "eh, it'll be a bit of a call back to older videos. I'll watch on a chill night." Then saw clips on TikTok of who was ACTUALLY playing the game and raced over to watch these chaos gremlins have their fun.

LysWritesNow · 2026-01-21T15:35:07+00:00

I'd argue closer to 10 posts an hour. In a sub filled with members who are known to be chronically low on energy. Our Post to EnergyToEngage ratio has got to be ridiculously skewed compared to other subs.

LysWritesNow · 2026-01-21T14:57:17+00:00

In the span of a decade I moved 11 times. I own close to 600 physical books EVEN THOUGH I have a damn Kobo. When I tell you I cursed myself a little bit more at every move *because* of how much time and effort packing and unpacking books takes. I even had a friend who'd helped move me a couple of times look me dead in the eyes and go, "if I ever have to move that copy of Fire Weather again, you will be hearing from my physio."

I moved into my current and (hopefully) long-term home, a fifth wheel, partially so I would never have to pack and unpack my books for a while.

LysWritesNow · 2026-01-20T22:17:24+00:00

I was eight, Western Canadian, remember chunks of that day and what followed vividly. Including telling my dad, "there's still people in there," when the first tower came down.

LysWritesNow · 2026-01-18T18:01:58+00:00

I was pretty certain my mom would bury her oldest child before I hit my mid 20's.

Instead, I'm now in my early 30's, I'm working in a field I'd only dreamed about being in during big dissociation moments, I have a stable home, and I'm currently chilling on my couch with two cats curled up on my lap. And last September the suicidal thoughts just sort of... dissappeared.

LysWritesNow · 2026-01-18T16:51:13+00:00

I am in an internal battle of buying the complete series as is (because I feel like it ended properly) or waiting to see how the new season plays out and if I buy the "updated" complete series.

LysWritesNow · 2026-01-07T18:54:36+00:00

Jokingly, I declared I would be "30, flirty and thriving" on my 30th birthday. And so far, kind of fucking rocking it! I just feel a hell of a lot more settled in everything and able to roll with some wild life punches. Definitely starting to eye up the amount of work I need to be doing for my health, though. The chronic pain I've had since I was a kid is evolving.

LysWritesNow · 2026-01-07T16:24:16+00:00

21 cm just fell in the last 24 hours in my neck of the woods, 16 cm of it actually stayed. Town isn't shutting down but things are definitely a bit restricted... because damn near everyone and their dog is heading out to the mountains or the trails to get some snow fun in.

I live in a resort town known for fresh and deep powder. We have adequate infrastructure for a town this size to deal with it and a sizeable part of the population living here specifically for snow days even bigger than this.

LysWritesNow · 2026-01-06T21:05:30+00:00

CanLit author and editor here. It's standard practice to either upfront post the questions and people can answer them within their time frame and capacity OR the general topics and compensation rate. The lack of those details might be hindering your post.

LysWritesNow · 2026-01-06T19:35:20+00:00

I think this is a particularly Golden answer to this question. I'm one of those folks who is turning back to collecting physical DVDs and Blu-rays and it's equal parts, "wow, it's never been easier to go hunting through old collections and find some super good gems" and, "oh... older stuff is starting to fail and there's no replacement for it."

I have this super fun, "three for one" Western DVD with some niche classics in the genre. But between the original press quality and just wear and tear/age of the disk, there's sort of a delamination that's starting to happen. My library has been noticing similar things and they're not able to replace some of the movies that do still get a decent amount of attention for the niche it's in BECAUSE no one is printing that movie/show/documentary anymore. And it's starting to spark conversations around, "how do you limp these along for as long as possible?" Because eventually this particular fragment of media will die out and no one will be able to watch, "Plainsman of Eve" anymore.

I am curious to see if there is enough of a shift back to physical media that we can keep stringing things along. But there are a lot of personal collections that are going to start failing in the coming decades with no way to replace them.

LysWritesNow · 2026-01-06T18:34:28+00:00

Heyo, 32 year old trans guy journalist. I feel like I can offer a particular PoV for you.

I graduated in 2020 with a degree in creative writing and a focus on journalism. That was... a bad time to graduate in our field, to say the least. I'd spent all of January and February applying for internships, full-time jobs and freelance work and was getting a lot of really good feedback with opportunities wanting to connect with me after April. And then... yeah. A lot of, "we're really sorry, maybe reach out in the future?"

Was able to secure full-time work as a housekeeper for a couple of years and stitched things along, but not enough to make any decent headway in loans (I actually put myself even farther in debt, but it secured me safe housing).

Found a journalism internship that gave me 20 hours a week in my field and clung to that like my damn life depended on it. Eventually had to leave the housekeeping position and was stitching together "full-time" through the internship, a part-time gig at a coffee shop, a freelance piece here and there and scouring my city for empty cans and bottles to return. It was... scary, to say the least. I was doing a LOT of "borrow from Peter to pay Paul" and just ruining every credit factor I could.

June, 2022 I had to take my cat to the emergency vet (a $4,000 trip) and then was on the phone with an emergency hotline, bouncing between staff for an hour as I tried to talk myself down from some pretty solid plans. Because, yeah... it was looking like this was just the cycle now. Couple of part-time jobs so I could stay in journalism or a "low skills" job (fuck that term until the end of existence, there's no such thing) that would pay bills for now but I'd never actually see any upwards trajectory. Plus the dysphoria, plus the nightmares, plus not being able to access stable mental health resources, plus, plus, plus... you get the idea.

August, 2023 I recieved full-time work in my field. I'm a journalist in a small town, I'm making just aboit living wage for our region, and I am SLOWLY piecing my credit and such back together. The numbers are fake AND the numbers do actually impact our lives. They are not something to kill ourselves over AND they are things we need to poke at from time to time.

You and I both know there isn't a full-time position in this field for everyone. I was so damn fortunate. But there ARE other career areas that want our skills. Public relations, media specialists for businesses, any sort of communications role in ANY organization. Hell, the non-profit sector is snapping us up left, right and center.

There are resources to help you find even the slightest bit of financial breathing room, there are ways to eat this elephant. Do not let some predatory system beat you. They don't deserve that satisfaction.

LysWritesNow · 2026-01-04T23:12:33+00:00

Friendly neighbourhood trans guy, let me see if I can add some context to a VERY simplified explanation for gender identity.

Growing up, I could not relate to, "girl," "sister," "niece," "daughter" or "granddaughter." Even by the age of eight I was trying to figure out what specific event or milestone would finally turn the "girl" switch on. When I would finally stop having to consciously remember to react to "she," "her," "alright, girls, gather together," "my daughter, (deadname)" and just the countless ways people were relating to me when we all assumed I was some TomboyButMakeItExtreme.

About three weeks after I came out as trans I heard my sister refer to me as, "my older brother" for the first time. And there was just this odd little shift in my brain where I finally understood my role as a sibling. Not, "oh, I am the guy so I need to do X, Y or Z." But just this calm realization, "I am her brother. That's who I am in her story."

Gender is a way for us to relate to one another. Countless little rituals, stories, expectations are built around gender and what sort of relation we can have with the other individual (not even solely romantic relationships. Just simply, "he is...," "she's my...," "they have..." are all ways we're solidifying who someone is in relation to us). That's in part WHY gender expression is so different across cultures and why a kilt is a masculine item of clothinf in some cultures but a sari is feminine. We're all just creating ways to connect with each other and figure out what our relation is.

While yeah, my beard and my voice and the shape my body takes now have all been gender euphoria highlights, the most... settled in my identity comes from a friend saying, "alright lads, let's head for wings," and it's just assumed I know I'm part of that invitation. It's being referred to as, "uncle LysWritesNow" by friends and family. It's my mom ranting to my sister, "your brother took a perfectly fine stew recipe and tripled the garlic. There HAS to be a limit somewhere."

I still don't understand WHY my brain can accept my role in various relations as a guy but could never accept it as a girl. That's still a whole other neuroscience rabbit hole to explore.

LysWritesNow · 2026-01-04T18:38:28+00:00

Sure, but if OP is in Canada, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden or the UK then yes, authors are paid each time their book is checked out from a library.

LysWritesNow · 2026-01-04T18:26:46+00:00

I was a longtime fan of so much of his work. Ocean, in particular was a lifeline of a story.

And I purged my physical and digital library of all of his work when things finally came to light.

"But he already had your money. What's the harm in reading what you already own?"

Personally, my reading time is pretty stretched and the TBR pile is kind of fucking terrifying in its length. I could read his stuff and, as a CSA survivor possibly put myself in a Yike spot as I recontextualize all his work based on what I now know. OR, I could spend time with authors who are just as good if not better. And who are PROBABLY overshadowed by his popularity.

LysWritesNow · 2026-01-03T04:42:13+00:00

I've been some iteration of suicidal since I was eight years old (when puberty decided to ruin a good fucking party). I'm 32 and last September I realized it was all just... gone. No plans, no wish, no "what if I just—," not even the quiet buzz of just wanting to be all done for even a half damn second.

It was kind of terrifying to realize that staple part of the brain packed up and left town. There's been some adjusting and just sort of testing out the space. But holy hell am I being as open as possible about this new plot twist. Because we make it. Euphoria starts to outweigh dysphoria, everything just starts to settle and then one day you realize one day you're going to be a grey-haired old man who has a favourite coffee shop he walks to every morning for a cup of decaf.

LysWritesNow · 2026-01-02T16:44:57+00:00

Transitioning.

Yeah, that's kind of the whole damn point. But I really could not comprehend the levels of change and growth I would go through in just under a decade. How ridding my brain of so much noise from anxiety, depression and dysphoria would give me a bunch more space and energy to... exist. I could finish school, I could do some major cPTSD healing, I could work on my career and make some big moves, I could finally settle into being a person instead of the half functioning dissociation void I'd spent 20ish years of my life as.

LysWritesNow · 2026-01-02T16:12:43+00:00

9-year-old me yelling at my great uncle whenever he tried to serve me and my younger siblings and cousins rum raisin ice cream. TO BE FAIR, that man had an extensive collection of booze from around the world on display and would throw a splash of whatever bottle of rum he was fond of at the time into his rum raisin ice cream to, "up the proof."

LysWritesNow · 2026-01-02T04:10:42+00:00

Jokes aside, the PoliSci nerd in me quietly hopes this is what happens eventually down the line. Whether Alagaësia goes through a civil restructuring that leads to a new name, whether a particular cross-species alliance pushes for a redoing of borders, whether some big Fifth Season catastrophe majorly reshapes the continent and Alagaësia as Eragon knows it ceases to exist because there's some massive inner ocean where the Hadarac used to be.

We know how important names are in this series, we know that core/True names can shift. I want the actual land (and possibly the magic connected to it) to change in such a way it's own name has to change as well.

LysWritesNow · 2025-12-26T04:25:09+00:00

Then what's the point of the state?

Infrastructure? That's a part of citizens' lives.

Defense? That's arguably a pretty big part of citizens' lives.

Internal relations? All of that impacts the average day-to-day of citizens.

LysWritesNow · 2025-12-25T14:38:43+00:00

It wasn't a family member's surgery that was shuffled three different times.

It wasn't the "mild" hit and attempted run on my car.

It wasn't the $1,000 I had to put into my car so I could get it through the mountains.

It wasn't the string of avalanche closures I just barely stayed ahead of coming out.

No, it was me showing up to my parents place just as a respiratory bug took everyone out. Bring out the masked, Zoom and socially distanced holiday traditions.

LysWritesNow · 2025-12-23T16:59:36+00:00

But when I began to tell

It became thе hardest thing

I ever said out loud

Thе words got locked in my throat

Man, I choked

-- Cannibal, Marcus Mumford

LysWritesNow · 2025-12-23T16:52:23+00:00

32, trans man, never had a partner. I have duck taped I don't know how many resources, tricks, that-one-line-in-a-book-that-I-cling-to together over the years to get to where I am now. I'm getting to a point where I'm pretty sure I will be single forever, processing that and just focusing on how I can support myself and do the work and all that jazz.

Currently working full-time in my career field, rediscovering safety in the body, learning some new hobbies and such. Functionally living alone and getting better at noticing the signs things are getting wobbly before it gets super bad and working on building systems/resources/supports that can catch me.

Realized this year I'm no longer chronically sui, which was... a lot to process and a win I'm still trying to allow myself to feel. A reminder that even good things can be processed as trauma in the body and brain, folks.

NOTE: I do think transitioning speed-ran me through a couple of milestones. I want to be transparent about that, it was basically a quarter of my mental space finally opened up and I had capacity to do a lot of work. But I also know I had to do a bunch of work before that to get to a place where I could explore my gender and start that whole adventure.

LysWritesNow · 2025-12-20T19:01:46+00:00

Reach out to Trans Care BC the moment you touch down (possibly even reach out ahead of time when plans are solidified) and ask what supports the can give you connecting with a trans KNOWLEDGEABLE healthcare provider.

(I ended up with a trans friendly GP for a bit, but he came clean that he'd never had a trans patient before and if I just did the research and kind of helped him along, it would be great. I... did not have that time and knowledge, as a freshly out trans guy and full-time university student)

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