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Squills 12/7/14-12/14/14



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Sun Dec 07, 2014 7:30 pm
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Welcome to Squills, the official news bulletin of the Young Writers Society!

What will you find here? Tons of interesting news about YWS, including but not limited to: articles about writing, art, and the world of humanities; interviews with YWS members; shameless plugs; link round-ups; and opinionated columns.

And where will all of this come from? Take a look at our fantastic creative staff!

CREATIVE STAFF


Spoiler! :
Editor-in-Chief
ShadowVyper

General Editors
BlueAfrica
Gravity

Friendly Neighborhood Robot
SquillsBot

The Adventurer
BlueAfrica

Link Cowgirl
megsug

General Reporters
JamesHunt
Aley

Past Editors-in-Chief
Hannah
AlfredSymon


Of course, our content can’t come only from our staff. We also depend on you to help keep Squills successful. You’re all a part of a writing community, after all. If you’re interested in submitting to Squills, pop on over to the Reader’s Corner to find out how you can get involved by contributing an article or participating in other Squills activities.

Well, that’s all I have for now. So, what are you waiting for? Enjoy!





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Sun Dec 07, 2014 7:34 pm
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KNIGHTS AND SORCERY
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written by JamesHunt < PM: >

Those of you who had participated in the November Review Day would know it was an event of epic proportions, but for those of you who could not participate, here is how it went.

The first person to join a review team was @KatyaElefant, who then proceeded to create Team Green's forums. Nineteen minutes later, @RavenMoonStone joined Team Black and did the same. In the days that followed, Team Green was dubbed "Earthbenders" and Team Black as the "Black Knights". @AfterTheStorm and @RavenMoonStone were elected as the respective teams' leaders.

In the early hours of November 30 (or in the late hours of November 29, if you live in the Western Hemisphere), anticipation was building as the minutes ticked by. Finally, the countdown reached zero and many an eager reviewer charged into the dreaded Green Room, while others preferred safer territory and explored the All Literary. An enthusiastic @theironnovelist wrote the first review of the Review Day, earning the Black Knights their first points, but many more reviews followed.

Hours later, the Earthbenders were in a clear lead and had written considerably more reviews than the Black Knights. Unfortunately, exhaustion spared no team, and the activity slowly declined until but a few souls were left reviewing. Nevertheless, a determined group of brave warriors from the Black Knights saw an opportunity, and grasped it with both hands!

Soon, the Black Knights were in the lead, having made a recovery of 4000 points, and as the day progressed, remained there. A constant flow of reviews from both teams ensued, and though it seemed like the Earthbenders would reclaim their lead, the Black Knights rallied and pulled away once more.

Much later, with two hours to go before the end of Review Day, most of the participants were back and ready for more! The Black Knights were still in the lead, and the top three reviewers were all among their ranks. Still, the Earthbenders had their soldiers close on the Knights' heels, and in the end, they united their forces and gave the mighty Black Knights a fight they would never forget! Said battle was fierce, but the Earthbenders finally snatched victory from the jaws of the black beast.

The Review Day was considered by all to be a great success. The Earthbenders had contributed 266 reviews, ending with 25495 points, whereas the Black Knights concluded with 243 reviews, for a total of 24918 points. Therefore, 509 reviews were written during Review Day, for a total of 50413 points - seeing as the goal was 450 reviews, everyone who had participated can give themselves a well-deserved pat on the back.

We can learn a lot from the November Review Day. Firstly, if a group of people are united, they can defeat even the most skilled of opponents. Secondly, if you are prepared to fight to the bitter end and never lose hope, there is nothing you cannot achieve. Finally, YWS is the best online community in the world! Where else could 128 people have participated in such an excellently co-ordinated event, and then make it a great success? So, while the YWSers who had participated are all awesome, we must be especially grateful towards the YWS Team , without whom such a fantastic event would never have been possible.





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Sun Dec 07, 2014 7:34 pm
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TGIO: A NANOWRIMO WRAP-UP
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written by BlueAfrica < PM: >

Well, Wrimos, it is December, and that means that our monthlong race against the clock is over for another year.

(Unless, of course, you participate in Camp NaNo in a few months.)

Whether you reached 50k or not, whether you finished your novel or not, give yourself a pat on the back for participating in National Novel Writing Month! November was a long and grueling month, but now we can say: TGIO—thank God it’s over! Take December off, read some books, and relax. You earned it, Wrimos.

Let’s see how our YWSers did this year, shall we?

@IamTraunt did not win, but she reached a respectable 30,281 working on a sci-fi novel that started off named Anomaly but changed names partway through the month to become Hunter’s Daughter. Did not winning get her down? Absolutely not! Here’s what she had to say about the experience.



I'll admit it... it was tough. I would have happily sat down and written for a whole day (which I did. Once), but life got in the way. On an odd occasion, I sat there and thought, "Ugh. What to write?", yet that didn't happen too often. I really did enjoy it! And I'm proud to say I hit 30k. There is absolutely nothing I have to be ashamed of, because I know that I tried my best. Yes, I was really down about having to cut down my time on writing, because life did decided to kick me in the butt, but I tried to see past that and say: "Hey, look what you have done so far! Just do what you can. No one is shunning you or here to say that you've lost." I'm so pleased and I don't want to stop writing! I beat my other novel, Truant, in word count in a month! Ha ha! The feeling is amazing. It is so encouraging, I want to burst. I'm rearing for next November already! Whoever hasn't tried doing NaNo, I advise you to have a good go at it. Or at least trial-run it in the Camps in April and July.



@BiscuitsBatchAvoy was another early winner. Her science fiction novel, Broken Biscuits, reached 50,069 words on Wednesday, November 26th. She says,



A lot harder than the previous years. I had more homework and a lot more friends on Skype for me to distract myself with. I also think I started overanalysing myself because I was thinking about what the reviews would be like if I posted it on here. As a result, I haven't finished it - BUT I WILL.



@Cheetah won on November 30th with 50,039 words completed for her YA novel Dreamers Will Fall. In her haste to finish on time, she left many subplots unresolved, but that’s what December’s for! That’s something she learned this month, as she tells us.



Before November, I was reading a little bit about it and one of the tips that kept coming up was: DON'T EDIT. I thought that would be really easy to do, but it actually wasn't at first. For any future NaNoers: It gets better. Trust me. It's strange when you aren't used to writing horribly with no attempt at fixing it, but it's worth it in the end. December and beyond is the time for editing.



Congratulations again to all NaNoWriMo participants!.

Some other NaNoWriMo 2014 participants and winners were:
@TimmyJake, @Gravity, @SparkToFlame (winner, action/adventure titled Spark, 50,275 words), @r4p17 (winner, romance titled Cords of Love, 69,994 words), and @Deanie (winner, post-apocalyptic titled Euphoria, 50,242 words)





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Sun Dec 07, 2014 7:36 pm
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HAUNTED HOUSE SHORT STORY CONTEST - RESULTS
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written by JamesHunt < PM: >

The whole of November and the first week of December has passed, so you must now be positively burning to hear the announcement of the results of the Haunted House Short Story Contest. Well, you will have to wait a little longer, as I have something important to say: Due to a smaller amount of submissions than was expected, there will be only one winner. Okay, the wait is over. The winning short story is...

Nobody Lives in the House by Gravity


Congratulations, @Gravity! Your short story truly was the best, and as a reward, you have won 3000 points, 2 reviews from yours truly on any work of your choice, and 1 review exceeding five thousand characters on any work of your choice. Your prizes will be sent to you at 5:00 AM EST.

And that concludes the Haunted House Short Story Contest. Furthermore, the time for frights are over - the time for spending time with loved ones has begun! Seasons Greetings to all of Squills' loyal subscribers!

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Sun Dec 07, 2014 7:36 pm
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TWO CENTS: JOHN MILTON
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written by Aley < PM: >

There is this guy who wrote after Shakespeare during the huge revolution of ideas about how states(nations) should operate in England. Well, that's not descriptive enough.

Aside from the United States, the world calls nations, nation states, or states for short. In British history there was a revolt against the monarchy about how the state should be run and one of the arguments that came up was that speech should be free. When they executed the king (first time for everything), they created a "free speech" law saying anyone could publish anything, but people really freaked out about that. Some of them said "everyone will start killing chickens in the streets" because there were some crazy pamphlets(random documents) floating about, while others started saying, "there's no quality to writing!" and also freaked out because of that.

Milton, being the amazing guy that he was, wrote a pamphlet himself called "Areopagitica" and in this text he argued for most of the famous things we know today. Why am I telling you this? I'm relating this story to you because John Milton is a character in history who everyone talks about, but few people know much of anything about. I feel like having an informed public. At the time, John Milton was quite a radical thinker. He supported women, he believed that people could read and decide what was a good argument and a bad argument, and in "Areopagitica" he said that to read liberally is to read intelligently. What he meant was basically the more you read the better you'll know what good writing is, a concept that thousands, if not all writers prescribe to today.

He also wrote a few epic poems including "Paradise Lost" and "Paradise Regained" which are works attempting to supplement the bible because even though he read the bible, he still had questions, so he wanted to attempt to compose his own answers for these gaps, and in so doing, decided to attempt to provide his answers to those gaps to other people. Still, why am I telling you this?

In some ways, it's because hope comes from the weirdest places. If you've ever heard that "You don't write good", or "Your generation writes horribly", or "Your generation is killing English", know this: Even John Milton's generation killed the English Language to the generation before him. If we've been degrading the English Language so much, don't you think the English Language would be dead? Oh, wait, it is. Their English is dead, but ours is constantly being reborn and revived. Why? because language is alive and as something living, it grows and morphs and change, but it's not going to die like the living, because language is not only alive, but fairly immortal. Dead languages are those which have no native speakers. Latin is a dead language, and even that is still around today. I suppose that proves the partial immortality. Some languages die and are never reborn again, but when that happens, when they finally throw in the towel, how will any English speakers be to blame? Most likely it would be because of another language taking over instead of ours changing.

John Milton pushed for free speech, he helps present evidence that even though we might read "bad things" as long as we read a lot, we will be able to identify the quality of what we read. John Milton is an icon when speaking about today's literature because he dared to dream big, and presented those dreams every chance he got.

Thank you John Milton, and as he said,

Read Promiscuously.





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Sun Dec 07, 2014 7:49 pm
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ASK GRUNO
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written by Gruno < PM: >

Dear Mr. Knows it All
Why doesn’t McDonalds sell hot dogs?
-Very Concerned


Dear VC,
Because McDonalds is a franchise concerned with very few things. Their first intiative is to make you fat. Their second is to suck all the happiness from you. And their third mission, the most important, is to abduct you while you sleep. That is why they do not sell hot dogs.
-Gruno

Dear Person/Satan/Whateveryouare,
How can you tell when you run out of invisible ink?
-Invisible Man


Dear Invisible Man,
Firstly, say hello to H.G. Wells for me. Secondly, you can tell when you run out of invisible ink because if you truly are the invisible man, that means your eyes are invisible which means your eyes can see invisible things. Therefore, you can see invisible ink to know when it runs out.
-Gruno

Dear Amy,
My friend says its impolite to catch a tiger by its toe, but everyone keeps telling me to do that. I'm conflicted about the etiquette of such an occurrence. Please advise.
-Tiger Troubles


Dear Tiger,
It is very rude to catch a Tiger by its toe. How would you feel if some Tiger just came up to you and grabbed you by your toe? It’s unacceptable! Pay no mind to those other people who tell you to do this, they are bird brains who know NOTHING about tigers.
-Gruno

Sadly, that’s all for this week. We need more questions. This week I did not get a lot of submissions and without you guys giving me your queries, I have nothing to answer. And then I’ll have to get a job at a gas station pumping gas. Please, click this link





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Sun Dec 07, 2014 7:50 pm
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DO THE FISH DANCE
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written by ShadowVyper < PM: >

Thanksgiving in a wonderful time of the year. It's a time to reflect on all the wonderful things that have happened in the past year, spend time with family and friends, eat an absurd amount of food, and enjoy time off of school. If you're in the U.S. you're probably looking back fondly at the time, wondering where all the time went, wishing it would come back. If you're not in the U.S. you're probably rolling your eyes at us, wishing you'd gotten a break. Regardless of where you are, though, the the holidays are coming soon! Stay strong!

If you are in the States, though, then there's a pretty high possibility that your family either has some weird interesting ritual that has been dubbed tradition, or that you have some sort of crazy story to tell about Thanksgiving 2014. Squills set out to hear all of those crazy stories.

What tradition(s) do(es) your family celebrate on Thanksgiving?




These days we mainly just eat a feast together and play football. But when I was a kid, my grandpa would take his collection of turkey feathers from the hunting season and hide them around the house for us kids to find, sort of like an Easter Egg hunt.






We don't really have any traditions.. we just meet up on the day of and the day after for food. :]







Well, I actually have two Thanksgivings! One for my mom's side of the family on the actual day, and one for my dad's side of the family on Saturday. While turkey is made by my mom's mom, the dish I always look forward to the most is chicken and dumplings. My dad makes the turkey for his family and is always up at three in the morning making sure it's cooking right. He's a maniac.






Everyone cooks all day and freaks out over food. Usually a few family members come over. But after the cooking is done we eat at like 2 in the afternoon. And then eat ourselves sick on food that is "traditional" but me and a few others don't even like. Then we eat pie and put leftovers away until we get hungry around 6, the REAL dinnertime. And then we eat ourselves sick AGAIN. So yeah. Lol that about sums it up.






[Well, I'm from Norway so I don't celebrate Thanksgiving, but] I can tell you about the fish festival. If I tell you, it needs to be in Squills. It's very personal to me.

Alright, every year on December 3rd, everyone in Norway gathers to celebrate fish.
We fish together.
We cook the fish.
Then we spawn.
After swimming upstream.
Are you writing all this down?
It's a complicated thing.
We strap fish to our heads and do the fish dance. Which is basicly just the twerk. We all pray to the twerk goddess Miley Cyrus. And we twerk to her, in appreciation.

But come December 4th, that's when we celebrate the birthday of fish Jesus.He died for our sins. But it's okay, because he respawned.
Get it, because fish spawn.
You know, upstream.

Trust me, I'm Norwegian.


~ @Birkhoff




We watch the parade and make a nice thanksgiving dinner. Maybe black friday, maybe not, it depends on the year.


~ @Elinor%20Brynn


There you have it. It sounds like most people have fairly mild traditions for Thanksgiving. I know that my family tends not to have a very exciting Thanksgiving. We hunt in the morning, eat in the afternoon, then tell mostly exaggerated hunting stories. Apparently Fish Festival traditions are far more intense in Norway... but let's not go there. Ask Birk if you want to know more about them. ;)

@Birkhoff's totaaaaally true tale, though, reminded me of the adventure I had this Thanksgiving. My mother decided it would be a good idea for me to fly home for Thanksgiving, even though I'd never set foot on a plane before in my life. Long story short, I picked up a stalker, lost my stalker, had a flight cancelled, broke my laptop, endured some sadistic employee putting on Christmas music (the bane of my existence), had my flight delayed, then had my last flight cancelled and had to have my mom drive 2 hours to come pick me up. All in all it took me over 24 hours to make it from SC to WV, and put a bit of a nasty taste in my mouth about airports and flying in general.

At least now I have a story to tell about my first time flying, though. Thinking about it made me wonder what stories other YWSers collected during their Thanksgiving breaks...


Any crazy stories to tell from this past Thanksgiving?




Unfortunately, no. xD






Um... Not really. This is my first year in college, so I was telling my cousins about my first (and perhaps only) clubbing experience that occurred this semester. Then I made a joke about it later on in one of my aunt's hearing, and I had to explain that the only club that allowed 18 year olds was a gay club, and there were transvestites that performed, thoroughly impressing me. My aunt promptly said that she wanted to see and we should go out sometime XD






YES. The family that came over was my pregnant sister (age 26, don't worry) her boyfriend and my Grandma. My sister's boyfriend has a very thick Southern accent. And my Grandma asked what country he was from XD XD XD Which isn't crazy as much as it is funny (in my opinion).






Hm, sorry, I don't think so! It was a pretty laid back thanksgiving!


~ @Elinor%20Brynn


Not much happened this time, sadly. :/
[off record] Shady, I am so boring, don't use me xD




That's it for now! Now go check out all the other awesome articles in your freshest edition of Squills.





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Sun Dec 07, 2014 7:51 pm
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NEW ARRIVALS
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written by BlueAfrica < PM: >

Take a moment to welcome this week’s newest members to the site!

@SlobsLikeToWrite has been really active in the forums so far. Go to his wall and say hello .

@RedWritingHood has already earned her first review star. Go to her wall and congratulate her .

@.

Other members who haven't had a chance to be as active, but are no less a member of our family are...


@kfoush@GoldenWanderlust@priceofwords@bellaclarke@rayoflight95@Wasabi@Rosegirl1798@ErinnVroom@VictoryStar527@DaVincisDemon@Christheis46@soullessoven@Cherrywarrior@KairiMangekyo26@TheBhorn1@LadyFiction@PoetryInTheMaking@ashtheawesome12401@fifa15coinsfast@TwistedInnocence@sadman@mfoley@Himangshu5dc@Malibu3366@thephantomhives@aleesha123@jessicax@HMSimmons@simmonsgirl@Sphinx140@sammiieannmarie@gema11@WrittenGirl46@Alexander444@HeartOfDemons12@dakota99@KingJalenTimberlake@Wysat@oliviamirette@retseek@lhykv • @SlobstLikeToWrite • @MusoNickz@Aisha214@fairouzalateeq@amaswami@ellierob@danniluvsbooks92@RedWritingHood@CLgilbert@emie343riot@hinkhink@PaperSnowflakes@Ruri@Kaitybrooke02@dec12@sung@sheh2013@surajchelat@MoonlitDream57@EricBarkman@dannibooklover92@HALtheinteractiveAI@angelbread13@princessappy@recklessjams23@mstroupe@Tacocat@SwordWalnut@AnneFrankTrust@MrPoet18@Zergimsi@kayzey@BiancaStar3@RosePetal8965@khushfehmi045@Mrcharlton • @FerranWright • @Ander@swim380@Shiikii123@MichaelRV@Arathorth@jenhasaden@wetzel18@Diamondback@TalHunter@Ananya@pbrigham@Kanaya@tanishavella@ValiantlyPink@drobinow4@SheridanStoker@hinarehman@FullMetalDragon@MaansiAnand900@3GirlsWriting@aricus101@pelicanswag@alexia4352@IrisLillyRose@Nayeem1 • @pavlinasigg14 • @Lett@Wesman16





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Sun Dec 07, 2014 7:51 pm
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THIS WEEK'S ROUNDUP – 12/7
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written by megsug < PM: >

You can tell people are excited with the blizzard of Christmasy threads in the forums.


@Lumi & co. are graciously handing out avatars that Christmas threw up on. All you’ve gotta do is say you want one, and they’ll do your avatar up to fit the season. I’ve gotta say that I’m loving @Zhia’s.



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Holiday apparel sold in select stores for a limited time only.


Lumi is continuing the Christmas cheer with a contest for the artists on the site. There are three different categories and each contestant can submit three entries into each. The prizes are bling to fill up your trophy page. Not to mention:



All entries will receive a participation badge per category they submit to




Start doing those art things some of you know how to do. Go! Now! You have until the 25th!


@AlexSushiDog wants to know what your favorite tune is. While there has been a variety of answers, @unknown391625’s answer intrigues me:



Christmas songs annoy me, but my favorite would have to be The Twelve Days of Christmas.




I’m intrigued merely for the fact that The Twelve Days of Christmas gets my eye twitching faster than any other Christmas song I know. What holiday song gets you in the spirit?


As the title says, this thread doesn’t have much to do with Christmas, but I think it does give off the Christmas vibe in a kinda-not-really-sorta way if you think of how much you’re with friends and family and... Okay, I’ll just move on. @kingofeli just asks for a shout out to your best friend on YWS whether that be the whole site or one person in particular. Let me pick @PenAndSword’s post out of the bunch:



My babies are @CowLogic and @Strangelove and @ForgottenMemories and @RavenMoonStone and @TommySneak and @ancientforever and everyone who is in chat frequently



And now I’ve tagged more people so they’ll come look at this article. My evil plotting ways! Seriously though, go tell your BFF(s) how much they rock and tell them Happy Holidays, so this link fits in with my theme. ;)





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Sun Dec 07, 2014 7:55 pm
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SUBSCRIBERS
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written by SquillsBot < PM: >

Find enspoiler-ed a list of our subscribers!

Spoiler! :
@SquillsBot@Carina@ShadowVyper@ArcticMonkey@Hannah • @Avalon • @Judas • @VeerenVKS • @megsug • @BlackNether12 • @Skydreamer • @Draknghar • @Aley@Rydia@Alpha@skorlir@KnightTeen • @AriaAdams • @neko@Aquila90@DudeMcGuy@kayfortnight@Cole@Blackwood@manisha • @fortis • @HighTop • @cgirl1118@KittyCatMeow • @Strangelove • @ChocoCookie@carbonCore@Auxiira@Iggy@Blues@Paracosm@Sparkle@FireFox@Dakushau • @AlexSushiDog • @wizkid515@yubbies21@PiesAreSquared@FatCowsSis@CelticaNoir@BenFranks@TimmyJake@whitewolfpuppy@WallFlower@Magenta@BrittanyNicole@GoldFlame@Messenger@ThereseCricket@TriSARAHtops • @Buggiedude2340• @RavenMoonStone • @WillowPaw1@Laure@TakeThatYouFiend@dragonlily@Cheetah@NicoleBri@Pompadour@Zontafer@QueenOfWords@Crimsona • @ddman18 • @vluvswriting@GreenTulip@Audy@EllaBliss@Isha@Deanie@lostthought@CesareBorgia • @Omniclysm • @magpie • @AfterTheStorm • @JamesHunt • @Autumns • @Wolfie36 • @Pamplemousse • @ReisePiecey • @gia2505 • @BiscuitsBatchAvoy • @Zhia • @Noelle • @Lylas • @Tortwag• @kingofeli


Do you, too, want to be enspoiler-ed and receive a personal weekly notification when the Squills newsletter is posted? Shoot a PM over to SquillsBot to let him know, and you'll be pinged along with the next issue!








"If I see an American in real life or a kiwi in a blockbuster, it feels surreal and weird, and like a funny trip."
— SirenCymbaline the Kiwi