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Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of people online champion the idea of Marvel somehow regaining the X-Men and Fantastic Four properties from Fox, so they can incorporate them into the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe.

I’m fine with that, where the FF are concerned, but as for the X-Men… Well…

I don’t want Marvel to get them back.

No, that’s not accurate. I’d be fine with Marvel getting them back if they kept them separate. What I do not want is mutants in the MCU.

Yes, it’d be cool to see Logan and Cap meet in WWII, Beast banter with Spider-man, all of that. But the concept of the mutants, as a hated minority, as a metaphor for PoC or gays or other marginalized groups? That just works better if they’re the only super-beings out there; and on the flip side, in the MCU, where everyone’s power has thus far has a source, the alien-blooded Inhumans are a more thematic fit.

(Yes, I’ve heard the arguments to the contrary. Some are even solid. I nevertheless feel that mixing mutants with other superhumans dilutes the "mutant as other" narrative.)

Plus, frankly, the MCU is already getting crowded. It can’t handle as many characters as the comics can.

I now step back so that you may yell and scream and throw tomatoes in polite disagreement. 😉

Okay, folks. The Dungeon Master’s Guild market/license for D&D stuff is a great opportunity and a lot of fun. I get why so many of you are eager to get material up there ASAP. But I hope you’ll accept a bit of free advice from someone who’s both a fan and a professional.

EDITING MATTERS.

You need to know how to put a sentence together, and you need to have your work read over by other people who know how to put a sentence together. I promise you–promise–that if you have obvious typos or overtly poor grammar in your product description, a lot of people are never going to even look at the product itself, let alone spend any money on it. There are many people who have already lost me as a potential customer based on a single sentence of their product entry, because it was so poorly written that I don’t trust them to be able to deliver a usable product.

Take your time and do it right.

For the first time in a couple of years, we decided to put some effort into Halloween. So, I present Rasputin, from Hellboy.

Okay, so I’m no Karel Roden, but I think it’s not too shabby, all things considered.  😀

I was just followed, on Twitter, by one of those "Buy Amazon reviews!" services.

I blocked them and reported them as spam. And the only reason I didn’t do more than that is that the "Crotch-punch poster over the Internet" attachment I ordered is out of stock.

Let me be clear. Authors rely on reviews. Word of mouth sells more than anything, and reviews are–and generate–word of mouth.

But that only works as long as readers believe that at least the majority of reviews are honest/accurate, at least where the reviewer is concerned. "Services" like this? They’re not helping you. It becomes real obvious, real quick, if a book is paying for good reviews. All you’re doing is damaging the readers’ trust–and not just of you, but of all reviews, and by extension, of all authors.

So, to the folks at the "service" who followed me–briefly–and to the folks at all other, similar services, and to the authors who use them…

Kindly piss the hell off, and stay there.

No love–and sadly, no ability to crotch-punch you via the internet,

Ari