Sad Boyz - The Fyre Fest of BookTok

Episode Date: May 10, 2025

Jarvis and Jordan discuss the disastrous book festival that took place last week in Maryland, and the stories of the attendees and authors in attendance. ⁠⁠Over 100 Bonus Episodes: Sad Boyz Nightz ✨⁠⁠Find Us Everywhere⁠⁠✨ 00:00:00 Welcome To Sad Boyz! 00:00:58 A Million Lives Book Festival 00:07:54 Panels On The Floor 00:14:31 Perspectives of the Authors 01:00:59 The Organizer's Response 01:07:09 Sad Boyz Nightz 112 CREW: Hosted by ⁠⁠Jarvis Johnson⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Jordan Adika⁠⁠ Produced & Edited by Jacob Skoda Produced by Anastasia Vigo Thumbnail design by @yungmcskrt Outro music by @prod.typhoon & @ysoblank

Welcome to sad boys a podcast about feelings and other things also. I'm Jarvis. I'm Jordan. Jacob. What face do I make during the intro? Do you think usually? It always seems like you're caught off guard a little Like this but but also thoughtful Exactly. It's like you're doing a thumbnail. Yeah, just keep that just hold that That's honestly a really we've talked before about the most humiliating part of anything related to our career is the thumbnails, wrapping up an episode, guest or no, and it's like, we're about to get it, maybe have lunch, we're gonna be like, oh, thumbnails. Do you remember? Do you, speaking of that, speaking of that, do you remember the wedding that we went to?

We had an insane week. It was a little twisted, I'll say it. Yeah. So on Sad Boys nights today, we share a birthday, fun fact say it. Yeah, so on Sadboy's nights today, we share a birthday, fun fact. It was our birthday on Monday, so we have some stories from that. But yeah, we're talking about that.

We'll talk about some people. We'll just, we're gonna have a good old time. It's gonna be just a grand old time over there. Okay, so there in the 11th hour, we were trying to think of things to talk about. We did have a bunch of stuff, so that's why there's other things on nights. But in the 11th hour, we were trying to think of things to talk about. We did have a bunch of stuff. So that's why there's other things on nights. But in the 11th hour, someone came to me with a pitch that I could not turn down, that I

cannot deny. It was award winning young adult novelist, Claribel Ortega. Shout out. DM'd me and said, this is the fire fest of book festivals. And I was like, quah. Those pieces that they bunch of people drowning on a beach or something. I was like, tell me more.

Yeah, it's when you get a piece of toast and cheese next to your Harry Potter book. So apparently there's this. And I don't know anything about this, but we do have a collection of TikToks that have been sent to us. It was held the second and third of this month in May in Maryland. There were several pricing options.

Tickets range from $50 to $250. I've got bad eyesight, but I can't read any of these pages. So the idea is like, what if the background was a piece of paper but like really zoomed in so you could see like all of the ruffles? Yeah, the pores. So you could see the pores in the paper. What if everything written on it was almost the same color? Yeah, yeah. That way it hurts your eyes to read.

And that's why you shouldn't read, everyone. Yeah, not a great sign for people putting on a reading-based event. Okay, so bad website doesn't necessarily mean bad festival. Million lives, also kind of bad name. I don't know what the inspiration is. Yeah, like what's? I feel like it's like when you're reading, you can live a million lives.

Live a million, okay. Oh, so romantic, I love that. Remember, okay. So there's a thing, speaking of reading, and the word million. When I was a kid, I wanna say there was a thing called Million Minutes of Reading. And I think it was like a thing where you would read

and log the minutes that you would read. And then there's like a leaderboard and there was nothing to stop you from lying, which I found weird. And then there's like a collectively a pushing towards? I guess so, like as a school. So we, I'm- And you get a book, that's the prize.

The prize is you get books. I'm a little older than you. And by a little, you get a book. That's the pride the prize is you get books Yeah, I'm a little older than you and by a little I mean a lot We just had a birthday. So we're closing it. You're closer now. You were gaining on me actually. Yeah I'm aging faster because I'm so fast Times arrows hitting me faster We had this really cool thing called the Pizza Hut book club where you read a bunch of books We had this really cool thing called the Pizza Hut Book Club, where you read a bunch of books. Talk about dominoes. You can't believe it.

You have to read it every time. After a certain number of books, you get a coupon for a free personal pan pizza. I read so many books, I won my school's top prize. And I remember my crush at the time, whose name I can't remember. I was going to shout him out. Ooh, that's going to sting. They gave me my little coupon for a pizza and a fake rose.

And he was sitting next to me on the floor, and he put the rose in my hair. Riz. Which is in first grade. Wow. Can you imagine having that much Riz in first grade? Yeah, I unfortunately can. From my experience. When I was in first grade? Yeah, I unfortunately can. From my experience.

When I was in first grade, we had nap time and when everybody was supposed to be sleeping, my crush came over and gave me a kiss, so. Damn. That's great. No, she actually gave me a kiss first. I know who you're talking about. And then we said, as a joke,

you should do it for Joe Sosa. Go. Wait. I was like, I was like. It's very good. Okay, so let's just jump in. So it was a disaster, but I don't know in what way. Was there like a one liner for like what this convention even is, festival even is?

Impossible to know, can't be read on this. Description, oh yeah. A million lives book festival is the perfect event to make more bookish friends. This event will include a vendor hall, a book store, a book store, a book store, Impossible to know can't be read description. Oh, yeah a million lives book festival is the perfect event to make more bookish friends This event will include a vendor hall panels a content creation room Okay, just a fandom cosplay meetups. It's finally a room. I can do content fandom cosplay meetups a cosplay competition and a ball dude now. They're actually referencing the dash-con

Wait go back Zach sure catch all is coming soon. Oh, it's been all right Fantasy ball. Oh, this is the ball. Oh my god, and she got all dressed up and it's probably Is Absolutely outrageous dude. This is the second coming of dash con. It's just missing the ball pit right And it's like a wireless speaker. And it's like a little Joby. Oh Steve. Like the guy. Oh. Wow.

You can't have something at your event have less production value. A gala of all things have less production value than the Willy Wonka event. It's so tough. Did people underestimate how hard it is to run events? It sucks. It's like a total shit. Everyone of my friends, like we have friends

who run events and stuff, I have the utmost respect because of how difficult, alright, A Million Lives. It's kind of like if you throw a party that's like singing your song at karaoke and then organizing a convention is like conducting an orchestra. It's like there's so many pieces that can go wrong. And that's why we get 5S, dash cons, this thing's,

they give it on. That's why it's better to under promise and then over deliver. So we've seen a little bit of the ball and we'll see more of the ball. Look, we'll expose as much of the ball as we have to. I love ball and But let's let's look at the perspective from your seal of vendor

Welcome to the million lives book festival an event so poorly planned that it's trending this is $10 wine I Mean look at this. Wow. Oh, wow. Oh, people put in so much effort. The cosplays look so good too. To summarize, I guess for anybody that, you know, you're doing dishes, you can't look at the TV right now. It's in the other room. You know, your boyfriend's watching it. You can't get there in time. Yeah, words like barren come to mind.

Yeah, wasteland. Empty. There was really not that many vendors there. I mean, it looks like vendors turned up at a regular empty warehouse. It should have crates. That's a locale that in Law and Order SVU, they go to interview someone,

they're like, damn, just from the box moving factory. Hey, I didn't see nothing. I gotta go into the empty warehouse and mix box. And so we, like you, were gonna try to piece together a mental image of what occurred here by hearing the perspectives of many people. This person is a, their name is Carmen Chantel, and they're an audiobook narrator,

and they were supposed to be at a panel. A couple weeks ago, I reached out to the organizer to see if I could possibly assist with the narrator panel. And the day before the narrative Narrator panel I was told that yes indeed I was able to moderate so I got to for the first time ever moderate a narrator panel amazing and My voice is a little bit weak right now because when I tell you that I used it I Fucking used it. I yelled as loud as I could with permission from the organizer

I announced that the narrator panel was going to be happening in 15 minutes I shouted that shit as loud as I could because I wanted people to attend. So my first question is like Where is she yelling this? pictures like in the main hall in the main hall Yeah, can be taken the beats pill Nobody had access to that right now. It was. Like I bet it was a room.

Yeah. If not that room that we just saw. Everything is in that room. You just have to shout out. It is, I mean it's a. Like a town crier. Hear ye. Ringing a big bell.

Does thou want to hear the novel adaptation spin off of, I don't know, Game of Thrones for kids? Narrated by the guy who did the Witcher books You guys are amazing you guys are troopers I want to apologize for Not being able to assist with better accommodations during the panel. It was a really great panel with really great narrators and really insightful questions. If you want to see what the panel looked like and at least the beginning and the end of it, my event PA live streamed the narrator panel. Here it is and thank you again. This is a narrator panel for a million lives.

This is a marriage panel for a million likes. This is a marriage panel. How do you book marriage are just like a form of being a voice actor. Oh my god. I mean, it's just... They don't have chairs. It can't have like... The set up, the set up was wild. It's um, waiting until everyone's turned up for the school dance.

You'd end up too early for the fifth grade. This is, yeah, you're, you're, you're someone who forgot to bring a lawn chair to camp out. Let's, I suppose let's culturally, we should set a standard. Uh, the fire first folks, the triple F's can take note of this as well. Any event air quotes that you pay for should have like better accommodations than a brunch that was organized the same morning. Yeah. Things I'm not seeing. Chairs. I mean, a stage would be too much to ask, I think. A stage would be too much to ask. I'm going to start at the ground level because we're sitting on that. And I'm going to say, let's get up off the ground with a chair. Maybe let's add a table.

And then also I'm thinking security. Mics. Microphones. Now you're asking a bit much. Now we go crazy. That's asking a lot. What are they supposed to do? Have them?

Especially for narrators, they can't be... They've got to protect their work. You narrate with your voice. Well, it's also like, I want to know how much each of these people that were at this panel paid for their ticket was it the $50 one, which also not worth it. Was it if it was the $250 one, what are you getting? Well, you get access to a room.

They should have got the $50 and then splashed on getting an office chair. Like for 200 for the low low price of $250 you get to be in a room. Yeah, which is exciting. You get your own fold out chair. Maybe I like that she gave us nothing in the setup for this I'd higher expectations The way she said enough I thought a crime in a girl. Oh, I kept you spinning my six shooters around I'm addicted dude. I gotta see more the panels were available to only people who paid 150

No way What do you get for the first one? the Just a minute you get to buy 50 for the Lola present 50 hours you get to go to the store I got the dude it's only on May 3rd dude. I got the Disney fast pass so I could go to the gift shop Okay, go home. Here's my thoughts on the $50 one because like whenever you go to like a Convention like it like a comic-con or something if I pay $50 for like a wonder con

You're a consman You got a con you're a connery You're pretty you've got your con hours and you've been yeah. Yeah, I mean I love a and I paid like what $50 to get into WonderCon and it's like most of what I do at a convention is walk the vendor hall and shop and go to artist alley but but what people are missing But that you are in a cool outfit because you get a cosplay Yeah, you get to your like dressed up as like an animatronic demon angel

bear like kind of really just take your take your pick of the animatronic that you are. I really just take like my normal outfit off for the day and then I'm in my room. Yes you're dressed up in of those conventions, there's Artist Alley, there's a lot of cool merch you can get, there's stuff you can't get other places. There's other non-depressed people. If you're going to a book convention, and you get to go- I forgot it was about books. You pay $50 to go see these authors, all you're buying from them is their books, which you could probably get for cheaper

just like online from them. I just realized, if there's one event at Jeff Jez, it's a reading event. Yeah. That's the main place people do it. I will, excuse me, I will say that like, it can, like I can imagine an artist alley type thing for people who are illustrators for books,

for like book covers. Yeah, cause like, in art style they usually have like comic book artists or like. So I'm like, I'm not saying, I'm actually saying a book convention sounds really cool. And it's like very cool to, and it seems like the community was excited to get together and Unfortunately the organizer Dropped the singular ball. Um

Okay, let's watch a little bit more of the voice actor panel. Let's see the Narrative it's a cut to the end when they got all the chairs in the stage. We are all pretty cool people. If you guys want to ask us questions, hit us up on Facebook. They're making the best of the situation, right? Email us on our websites. We're happy to answer questions. And that's it. Thank you. Happy million dollars. Thank you. I need to find out more. More! I've collapsed so many chairs just by sitting here.

Me too, dude. Yeah, okay, so this is someone's experience as a featured author of color. So they were reached out to or reached out about being a part of the festival. And so this is their experience as what would, one would imagine is a like elevated guest. Like, you know, if I'm at VidCon

and I've been lucky enough to be a featured creator there, they handle my hotel, they're, we're doing programming at the event. So I'm booked on panels and things like that. You don't have to go into a public space and yell, I'm on a panel soon. Right, I've got badges, I can rest assured that there's security to keep me safe.

So let's hear about what the experience is as a featured author of color. Okay, so yes, I was at a million lives festival this last weekend. I have a lot to say, but a lot of it has already been said. So this TikTok is nine minutes long, and we may not show the whole thing in full,

so I just wanna shout out Michaela Ornato, or Ornato, who is an author, and we'll link her stuff, but we'll show some relevant clips throughout. But we're gonna watch the whole thing, but you might not see the whole thing. This started a long time ago. January, I believe, of last year

is when I was reached out to. January of last year. To be a featured author. So when you are a featured author, there are certain things that are taken care of. Agree. But most of the time, when I hear about a horribly planned event, the thing that went wrong was that they were planning it last minute. Like things fell through or whatever. But this is

an abundance of time. Over a year. Usually the events that go really wrong is that they set their scope way too big. They book, say, like a venue that's way too big or in way too expensive a location. They think we'll have a room that'll have chairs. They're like shooting for the stars. We'll have like even like, I guess more than one chair in general.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll have a PA system that you just yell into a room and the echo saves money because it bounces your voice around the room. We'll have a vendor hall that isn't inside what looks like a giant refrigerator. And there'll be a ball. And there'll be a single ball pit for everyone.

You have certain perks, and basically it's supposed to be like, you have kind of a spotlight, right? You're a guest, you're adding value to the event by you being there. And that gets them through the door, and then they have the other value of seeing other people. It's like, and then you get this, oh, well, this author is going to be there and this person I like. And, and then that sells tickets.

Because not everyone is going to care about the same featured artists, but you're trying to cast a wide net to so that there's enough of everyone that people might like and people that might look vaguely appealing. And if they have a free hour, they see something new, discover something new. Right. I will say something I find especially kind of I don't want to say sinister because I don't think it was this any of this comes from a particularly malicious place that I can tell so far. But I. I'm not a much of a literature absorber. You know, I'm gaming out, actually play a game called Bellagio. I'm going to fucking with that right now.

But I do I have in the past, I used to my main industry was audio fiction and audio books in the production of, but also just like vast majority of my time, if we're not in season production, is communicating with artists and writers, mostly in YA in our case. And a lot of YA creators, that's like the most fervent fan base really that I've ever seen did anything.

And I would bet anything that that's a huge contingent of what the people that would attend this, but also the authors behind the work that people are attending to see and talk to. There is something so sad to me about the, this like super fervent ultra enthusiastic, super inclusive community, gathering around. And it was advertised on the website. Hey, you're looking for more bookish friends. Are you just looking for people to connect with with your interest and the assumption that like, you know, there's

a, there's a freaking cosplay section because there's a lot of crossover between those communities. It's fun to have that as like a conduit and to go and I, if anything, maybe the one good thing is that they will meet other people having a crap time. And Book Talk is like a, my, my like, uh, understanding is that Book Talk is a pretty large community on TikTok. One would imagine that this big audience who's planning something like this would say, Oh, Hey, yeah, there's a opportunity for an opportunity to bring people together here.

But then they had like 16 months. And then, but you only had 16 months is the thing. So I reached out two times through email and one through Discord because I didn't know where I was supposed to go. I knew that the Hilton was the room block. I assumed it was there, but I didn't know if I needed to give a confirmation number, if there was some kind of process that was given for the featured authors. I did not get a response for a long time and then not even 24 hours before check-in.

After I emailed multiple times, she responded to my email and said that I was moving to the Dazen, which is fine. A free hotel is a free hotel, but it was a very big jump from a, this very pretty Hilton that was, I think it was even connected to the convention center, like very close to the convention center to the Dazen. And the Dazen was across the street. You know, I said, whatever, I used to live in this area. I was going to see my friends. It was fine. They reach out in January of 2024.

And then there's not a lot of correspondence between January and December of 2024, which is crazy. It's like there's like an email, they're slow sometimes, you know? And right, it's true. It does take me 11 months. Sometimes I never respond. They told her in December that they sold 400 tickets, which is sizable. And so she's like, okay, I'll bring because she's an author and she's being featured here.

So she's gonna bring some number of books, 20, 30 books. And also as a part of being a feature creator or featured author here, she was gonna be put up in the hotel. One would think it's the hotel of the Con Block. She didn't know though, because no one communicated with her, which is wild. Which is the whole job.

Because one, she's traveling and then she's staying and they're responsible for her accommodations and surprise last minute she gets moved to the Dazen across the street. It's the thing, you know, the thing to do is, like if you're the restaurant, you gotta make sure the chefs are there. That's it.

And everything else can be crap, but that really does have to happen. Yeah, if there's one thing, I mean, there's two things. There's the attendees and then there's the people that you need to be there, both vendors and creators. You have to be on top of that stuff because if they're not responding for months.

I would have pulled out. Yeah, of course. I don't think I would have. I think the only reason she said she didn't is because it was local for her. So, you know, it's like a nice sentiment. It would mean a lot to people if it was what they were expecting. And, you know, it never hurts to go into a space and be a little more represented or see someone you're a fan of. Right. But it's the only answer is that they just hadn't booked it.

Right? Cause to go through the diligence of booking it in advance and not sending it. So I wonder if sometimes what happens is they're like, people are gonna buy tickets in advance and then we'll use that money to make it happen. The Ponzi scheme effect. And it's like, that's not how this stuff works.

You have to pay a bunch of money upfront. You do. You, that's not how this stuff works. No. You have to pay a bunch of money up front. You do. You have to- If you want it to run smoothly. Book all the hotel rooms up front. You have to like do all the stuff. Because the hotel's going to go, you didn't pay us, so we're not reserving this room block

for you. It's kind of why there's like not that many conventions. There's plenty, but it's not like- When one happens, it takes a lot of work. Yeah. And money up front. And a little too often, the bad story comes out of it because they fucked it up. And when they run well, it's usually a large team

of very dedicated people and volunteers, you know? An organization that you hire bespoke to do that too. It's like, I can just, I can figure it out. Why would those businesses exist? I mean, we're projecting all of this expertise onto these people. We don't know anything about the organizers. So maybe we'll learn something as we go.

Rub hands together. Immediate red flag. I almost wanted to turn around and go home. But again, I was seeing my local friends and at that point now I did have one pre-order and I knew of a couple of readers who were coming. So whatever, whatever, you know, we deal with what we're given.

So once it's time to check in to like the, or once it's time to unload into the actual convention center, I get there and my table is given away. Again, I'm a featured author and my table is given away. I don't blame the person who was at my table. I think it was a case of the map being a hot mess and the people who were helping us find our tables

not knowing where we were supposed to go. This is like a nightmare. So then she arrives, she's checking in, but she's like, okay, I've got friends here, local, it's fine, I'll just deal with it. Convention starts, and I'm surprised to learn that they have a map for the convention. Huge step forward.

And the map tells a you know, a perspective reader or attendee where they can find the featured authors, where they can find the people, the vendors that they want to find. That sounds useful. Sounds very useful, except for whoops, she's now at a different table. Dominoing.

So now the map is wrong. She knows of readers who are coming. They're not going to know where she is. There's going to be another vendor that turns up and is like, oh, my table is now taken also. I mean, musical chairs, to be fair, if, if a map isn't correct, it kind of stops being a map, you know, now it's just a drawing. It's an artist's interpretation of definition.

It's just some rectangles that you made. Yeah. I don't think we can call like, uh, like an 11th century interpretation of a map like Accurate anymore, right? We're gonna. Yeah, I gotta figure it out a little more later It's like it's I know it says Middle Earth, but this is actually New Jersey Seems like I don't know wrong to me. No, but all that it's it's right except for all of the places and names are different Okay locking that in the next time that I'm questing. The doors open. Nobody comes in. Nobody. Like nobody comes in. Um, over the next like two hours, maybe 15 people come in by the end of the day.

I would be gracious to say like 40 people came in on Friday. Wow. Dude, devastating. It's the part of the part of full event says starts at eight. You get a little anxious cause you're like, well, everybody turns up a little late. No, I don't want to be first. Getting to 9.30. I don't know. How about two hours after starting? Oh, and no one is there. Imagine if like packs or something,

like no one was there. They'd call the police. Like for a popular convention, it's like annoying how early people get in line for those things. Something, if a bunch of people, that many people, even proportionally, just didn't turn up at all in that amount of time, I think that there must have been a war. Like a war must have started or something.

Also, I don't know how to word this correctly. It was not my crowd. There were not people there looking for black and brown fantasy or queer fantasy. The moment I said the word those words, a lot of people lost interest. So I think it speaks to the type of environment that you set. You know, if you are another person of color or a queer person, you go where you think you will be comfortable. And I don't think that this was set up in a way where people of color or any marginalized people knew that they would be safe or that they would have things that they're interested in. I suppose you can't choose your taste, but she mentioned them not having the audience there. My first instinct was being like, wow, I feel like my experience of that audience is so diverse. And then I immediately remembered that usually you see a decent diversity of attendance to a

Usually you see a decent diversity of attendance to a successful event in like fandom space and the like, because it is communicated that that's going to be the case. So in advance, you can say to yourself, well, is this a space I'm going to feel safe and comfortable? Oh, well, the website has these authors I like that I think would represent me and potentially bring in people I feel, uh, share a space or experience, but they left everything so late to be shown that the only people buying tickets, I guess, are people operating on like, I'll be safe. Whatever. Who even knew about this? Who even turned out.

I was thinking like, how was this advertised? Yeah. Cause it seems like, especially if the featured authors weren't getting information. So they it's their Instagram that you'd be advertising on. Sure. That's what I'm saying. Like often, like if Jarvis is a featured creator at VidCon, VidCon will send him assets and say, OK, here's how you can post on your social media. And here's around the time that announcements

are going out. And so clearly they didn't do that. It's a coordinated thing. I've been told that the BIPOC panel was narrated by a man and that his questions were a little insulting. There's another panel where they sat on the floor, crisscross fucking applesauce. Saw that. Like it was kindergarten story time.

That was a little nostalgic. We once moderated a convention, a smaller convention. I mean, honestly, it sounds like there's more people there than this. There's definitely more attendees. It was a creator. It was a creator convention put on by Patreon. And we were like MCs of the event as the Sad Boys, which is very funny.

As the Sad Boys, prior to the Sad Boys really big project. Yeah, it was kind of a weird thing. It would be like if, you know, if you went up to a show and said, hey, we're the Bungle Boys. When theory, we're thinking about being the Bungle Boys in maybe like four years. My example was just a different word with boys. It's fine.

I didn't sleep that much either, man. I'm fucked up. Yeah, but we're into boys at this point. Okay, but uh, what? Dude, I say that alone. But anyway, we were in the audience because we were emceeing and there was a panel on the main stage and the main stage panel, there are a lot of female writers on stage and it was a panel around that.

I can't remember the specific focus of it. The general focal point ended up being whether or not it was the initial topic, it ended up being like, it's hard to break into this space and the online engagement. Dealing with harassment as a woman online. And wouldn't you know it, it was narrated by a man. Panel of women talking about their lived experience as being a woman online writing stuff And it was narrated by not just a man, but maybe the oldest man in the world He was Okay, no you joke so it was like it was like a man from like old radio or whatever and the one you're picturing

Style it is exactly the man from old radio. Anyway. It's the one you're picturing style. It is exactly that. So man from old radio. Anyway, it was like, it was, and he was moderating it, but he didn't know what questions to ask. And so it was like, so like, how do you deal with bullies online? And then every one of these women would have like a impassioned, like very well thought out response.

And then he'd be like very well thought out response. And then he'd be like, well, you were kind of asking for it, right? Yeah. It was actually amazing. It was like, what? And then he, I can't even remember. It was just like the most victim blame me, like old media, old white guy, like rhetoric. He's like, what about you sugar tits? So what with all those, you're the hot one. So I assume you,

now you've got a real set of gams on you. Do you think it's your fault or you could maybe dress up a little less. Yeah, you shouldn't have worn that you weren't expecting. She said tomato with legs that go all the way up. But then the ultimate I'm insulted. But if there's the one thing that creates conflict or internal struggle for fellas like that, it is when someone deigns, fucking dares to push back a little by saying something like, well, I don't know if your life experience applies as much to this.

Oh yeah. Which. And he got really defensive about it. So crazy. Because literally it would be like pushing back It was like literally These women talking about being these horrific stories of being like harassed Stalked like and then this guy was like mmm. I think you're exaggerating a little bit

I think it's like I don't know if you know what I experienced. I mean to be like a little less online I think that's part of what's doing. It was like whoa whoa whoa you're getting emotional. Yeah, like it was like it was It was like it was like a greatest hits of you know like an old musician or something They're like ah man. They've just got so many classics that was this Every classic dude it was crazy Asking for it. Oh my god, vintage, play the hits. You're so emotional.

And then... He's just playing Freebird, you're like, yeah, classic, of course. There was like, anyway, our co-workers and everyone started to like, go, what do we do, what do we do? And then just basically immediately stopped the panel and like kicked him out. He was moments later just gone. Yeah. And I believe if I remember correctly

was a little sore online briefly. Oh, I didn't, I completely forgot. He didn't have like, I don't think he had like the presence online for it to like reach the people involved. But it's like people don't want to work anymore or whatever. On his channel, which is like, you know, probably it's a picture of a microphone going down and it's like NWSYNNC Here's how you do a high pass field

You think that the story ended where it started but it had barely begun What was very- did you two have to follow that? We did so we go back on stage We did in our classic fucking millennial ass we go Everybody is like everybody's like standing. Oh, they're like, I think we basically just said fuck that guy I think on stage in front of all these like creators. We are at our jobs, by the way. We're not creators We work at this company and we basically just were like, uh, fuck that guy Everybody's like hell. Yeah, brother and we're like we still cool boss and then Bosses like yeah, it's like hell. Yeah, we just got to say fuck it works. Hey, well you guys got to understand about slightly

I just got to say, fuck it works. Say what you guys got to understand about slightly a millennial core 2018 comedy. Oh my God. Is that it fucking landed. It landed, dude. We knew our audience. You get rewarded for jingling the keys in front of the baby. All right, let's continue with the story.

On Friday night, I was told that I needed to pay for my own hotel room. What? Because her card declined and her identity was stolen. I worked in fraud for a long time. Not how it works. Okay, so. Back then it's a singular person is a point of concern.

And that they haven't already paid for the blocked operations. Yeah, okay, so now it's like not only like you're no longer at the con hotel, you're at the hotel across the street, whatever it's a day's in. It's not gonna like shame that. But then they're like, oh, JK, also the card declined.

Can you just pay for your room? Damn, I would have just booked it at the fucking con hotel then. No, it was declined and my identity was stolen. My identity was stolen and I got a cold. And you're bullying me for this. Stop bullying me, dude. What the hell?

This is classic brown person aggression. As a person of color in this space, we have to be particular about the things that we attach ourselves to. And I would like to officially detach myself from this situation, from this event, from this event organizer. this event organizer. The event organizer was someone that I trusted. She was one of my art readers. She'd been a reader of mine since the very, very beginning.

Hot Mess Express, if you were there, I'm sorry. I don't know what you had to do with that. But let's believe everybody and their experiences when it comes to this. You can hear the, like, how upset she is. Like, I don't think when people are like, oh, these artists, they're mad because they weren't pampered or whatever. It's like, they don't make that much money to begin with.

Yeah, first of all, they don't make that much money to begin with. Second, it's like a matter of respect at a certain point. Exactly. It is a matter of failing expectations and promises on delivered. And putting the amount of stress on someone who should be part of the reason why people love your event

and even go to your event. So I don't think we're going to show the whole thing, but in short she wasn't paid And maybe she'll get paid eventually because it's still a few days since the event but still you expect to be paid out already if they tell you you'll be paid and She she also needs to get reimbursed now for the hotel that she paid for but I can't believe that person's identity was stolen What a what a what a that's yeah, that's never fun. It's a good thing. There's protections around that Yeah, there any was stolen so they removed to that

Identity and started a whole convention Believe it from January of last year That wasn't me that was my stolen identity of last year onwards. That wasn't me, that was my stolen identity. That's what the guy from Five Fetcher's done. Who's this one? Okay, so this is from Kalista Neath, who's also an author. If any of my readers came here,

and you paid $203 for this, I am so sorry. I won't be coming back to any of these events. This is atrocious. It looks like school lunch. Wait, this is the hall also where the ball was yeah, yeah I think it's like yeah, but a lot of stuff happened in the same room I think it makes sense. There is something this has liminal energy This is back rooms core, and it's really cut. It's putting the heckles up on my neck

This is the same overhead lighting they have an interrogation room in a hospital Couldn't they have just turned the lights down a little bit? Yeah, did they get the... It didn't look like they turned... they barely decorated anything. They didn't do... change anything. The tables are still there. They had it decorated, but it was the same guy that did the decor for Guantanamo Bay. The tables are there, but not in the panel rooms. Not useful.

Doesn't... like, it seems like it's more work to not have the tables, because like, don't those rooms exist in the hotel or the conventions yeah, that's a really that I They're like they didn't pay for the tables Way those don't come with the venue Crazy yo TAC Pre-old bring your own tables and chairs. All right. Let's play.

That we're seeing right now. This, this is the ball. It's in the basement of a convention center. That's a concrete floor. My fucking knees hurt. I wouldn't even think about that. Yeah. Like they usually have chairs where you can sit down all day.

A million lies live. Some of you, not standing all day. A million lies. Live 7pm EST. Oh, she did a live stream about it? There was some text on the screen in that video saying that she got called a diva for complaining to an individual. Everyone's being very generous with not naming names and stuff. So this is from Percy J. Fantasy Author.

By the way, like, I have been, as we're talking about it, I've been looking up their Instagram and TikTok accounts, and all these authors look awesome. Yeah. Oh, yes, everyone. This was real. This was a real fantasy ball that I just attended. Not even 12 hours ago. Wow. This is fresh. I'm Percy J. And I attended a million lives book festival in Baltimore. It was even worse than what you're seeing.

It is 6 a.m. I have no voice. My body hurts. That seems like the consensus. Everyone's in pain, by the way. It's like there's a physical agony dude. To stand up for how long the convention was. No mics, everyone had to yell. Everyone was standing for hours. I bet unsure the food like was non-existent. What do you mean food?

Yeah. Dude, I would feel less threatened if I walked through the door into like a factory farm. This is, that's like the scariest room I've ever seen. And I'm in my pajamas because it's literally less embarrassing to be seen as a Dallas Cowboys fan than it was to be an author at this event. Damn, sports burn.

Is that like a cultural consensus? Well, Dallas Cowboys are like the rich. They're America's team in quotes, but they're like if the Yankees didn't win a lot because they're they're America's team. That's their branding. Their branding is America's team. That's smart. That happened when they were like really popular and good. Good time. They're still really popular, but haven't been good for a long time. Is that mean to say Dallas Cowboys fans? I'm not a big football person. So maybe this is, but this is what I think

the understood narrative is. I have no feelings about the Dallas Cowboys fans, I'm not a big football person, so maybe this is, but this is what I think the understood narrative is. I have no feelings about the Dallas Cowboys. It's like the Yankees where it's like, yeah, this like popular mainstream team. Well then we're America's podcast. If we're just allowed to say it. I wanna be America's podcast. We're America's podcast.

Oh, that's our new tagline. America's podcast. I'm America's podcast. Welcome to America's podcast. No, stop. I'm and this is my friend. We love you and we're America's podcast. We're America's podcast. Welcome to America's podcast. I'm and this is my friend. We love you and we're America's podcast. We should keep that.

I'm America's. Yeah, keep that in. Okay. I'm in the show in general. I'll try it. Everything I am is America's podcast. Everything I am talking about is something that I have seen with my own eyeballs or heard with my own ears. Even if I did experience it and it's not my story to tell, I have permission from my own eyeballs or heard with my own ears. Even if I did experience it and it's not my story to tell, I have permission from others to tell the story. And if I do put tea in here that I did not personally experience but only knew through other people, I will let you know that all of those facts are alleged but are important to the context of the overall story. Like when I'm

at a convention and it's nighttime, I am fucking exhausted. The lights are off. I'm like either asleep thinking about being asleep or like relaxing, trying to relax before the next day. You have that feeling of like dust on your skin. Yeah. Sweat kind of vibe. The fact that Percy here is so activated to tell the story on no sleep is a testament to how bad this event is. It speaks to a rage.

It speaks to a quiet rage. A possessed rage. Because this story starts 18 months ago. Insane. Because that's when we all put our deposits down. Oh. So I put down my $150 table fee back in February of 2024.

Of course. I am not from Baltimore, Maryland. I'm from Texas, which yes besties I flew out for this Oh, no, but I got in because a lot of my friends were going to I knew a lot of people attending Because the career reached out to a lot of people who are already pretty prominent in the Indie verse sphere And honestly, I was like the table fees 150. Why not? I paid more to me because so many people were going that I wanted to see and hang out with Now we're a lot of major life events around a million lives. I'm currently pregnant with twins Oh planned my million into like a cloud. I

Scheduled a million babies my uncle-in-law's funeral around this event. I even pay extra to sponsor this event. And let's get into that, shall we? Because you know, you know I brought the receipts, girl. Peep the date after Christmas of 2024. Okay, pause. Sorry, I gotta read. Hey, hi, Percy. Thank you for choosing to sponsor

a million lives book festival. Here are the options you selected on the form. Book lover, free, donating you for choosing to sponsor a million lives book festival. Here are the options you selected on the form. Book lover, free, donating items for VIP bags. Okay, so people get your stuff. Like when you go to a convention, a lot of times you'll get a little bag that has a bunch of stuff, a lot of it's sponsored stuff. Like when I went to PAX in 2012 or 2013,

I remember Wizards of the Coast had a little sponsorship and there were magic cards in there. And then me and Russell played Magic in line. That was maybe one of the last times I played Magic before I got back into it more recently. We got it, you said to him, we gotta grow up, man. It's time to move on from this. Yeah, and then we walked out,

we never played a video game again. Bookworm, $100, logo on website, author takeover day in Facebook group. Okay, I'm sure she's not paying for the takeover Facebook group day. Author focus day with several posts about you and your books on social media. Seems like a good deal for $100.

Small window or floor decal, I don't know what that means. Like, window decal where, what window? You get one of yourself. Yeah, oh maybe. Book wyvern or wyvern, depending on who you ask. I, you know, like when I'm killing fossil island wyverns in R, depending on who you ask. Like when I'm killing Fossil Island Wyverns in RuneScape, I say Wy.

I say Wyvern. Well, wouldn't Book Wyvern make more sense if the Book Wyrm was spelled with the Y, like that kind of worm? Right, I think Book, oh yeah, you're saying they should have called this Book Wyrm W-Y-R-M. Like that would be way better? Why did it jump from and that's the worst thing they did? That's the worst thing they did. That's the worst thing. Yeah, he's

Leave him alone. Yeah All right, so why is it like the same price to sponsor the event is to fucking go Any sense to me I ended up picking the highest tier of sponsorship because I was like, 250? Why not? It's a good deal. So I sent them all of my things, my headshots, my covers, my logo, all that stuff. And on January 20th, they received my $250. But after that email exchange, it's pretty much crickets. I did not in fact get my author takeover day in the Facebook group. There was not a single post about me or my books and I started counting the number of authors, vendors, and narrators that were actually coming to the event. It was slated at somewhere around 120.

Those numbers are huge. That's so many. But I had not seen any advertising on behalf of the management company for this event. And I looked up a lot of these authors and a lot of them were brand new on the scene, fresh new indie authors. And the math was not math and in my brain because you cannot have a hundred plus authors, vendors, narrators, and not advertise. Yeah. And then I saw... You can't have five.

...all the posts on Archer Fantasy Events socials were offering the tickets at 40% off. Oh no. Oh no. That's when I knew that like ain't nobody was coming. And on the Wednesday before we all flew out, the featured authors got an email saying, hey, my rep at the Hilton has not been answering my phone calls or emails over the past week. Cap. Just lying.

I wasn't in this situation over a month ago. Cap, bro. And said that she couldn't confirm bookings. And so she was instead moving all the featured authors to the days in across the street. I think people in general can be sometimes, I don't even mean the people in this video, globally, could be a little generous with accusing people of lying, like straight up lying. There is a type of lie that is only ever said when lying. Things like, quote, X or Y business professional business has

not been answering my phone calls that's you lied that's not hold a fib that's never happened yeah they can be being shitty business can be being shitty the Hilton wasn't not unless you called them once it's like if you're if your contact drops dead and no one fucking finds the body, then you call the Hilton up. It's crazy. And you go, has anybody heard from my contact? We're planning a giganto event.

It's just so, that's the stuff which only comes out as lies. Oh man, I have some. They didn't answer my calls and I got my identity stolen. Percy brought up a good point where she was like, they're not answering my calls this week. So what? This should have been sorted months ago. Yeah, nothing should be figured out the week leading up to it.

Especially like a Hilton or any hotel right next to a convention center. There's no way they're not answering unless they've suddenly shut down. It's happening at the hotel. Hilton's actually out of business. Oh, they forgot all the phones. I'll leave this in

because I want to maybe one day I will. But God, there's some stuff I want to say about liars that relate with this kind of email. Well, the thing just I got screwed over on that one. I guess the, yeah, that's funny that, Oh, I just want to talk about it.

The person that they owe me so much money. So this was the original author, vendor, narrator set up. I was number two over here. All my friends and other authors and vendors that I knew were also on the same row with me. Some of you who may have been to conventions before see this setup and go, hold up, I don't know if that's gonna fly with fire code.

And guess what? Shit. This wasn't gonna fly with fire code. So this was all completely different. Instead of having two big rows and then a bunch of other rows like this, it was all just up and down horizontal. Makes sense.

Yeah, cause if you have to run, like you can't, you're blocked, you have to do a fucking pole vault over're blocked you have to do a fucking pull vault If you have to pack man your way around the red Rover line Authors that are boxing you in I mean that's just that is Another like you just have to know basic shit and like I've uh Organized events like when I worked in museums where you have to talk.

World's largest book festival. I remember I did the grand opening for Disney World. Yes. Where you have to talk to the facilities person about setup. Right. You have to reply to emails, make phone calls. Yeah, okay.

I don't wanna. Wild Anastasia Factor story has been marked on the bingo board. I was wondering what to do. He does already. I think also we got an email from the event coordinator a few weeks, a few days before the event saying let's clear up some rumors, which that's how you know they're fighting their own demons. Oh yeah. Like cuz no one knows what you're talking about Addressing the haters like if I turn up for to record an episode and like it goes can we just not get into it today? Okay, I know

Yeah, it's okay. Well first I want to address the rumors. I Didn't do that if they had been communicating with people there wouldn't be rumors I didn't do that. If they had been communicating with people, there wouldn't be rumors. Well, maybe the rumor was they communicated with everyone and then they didn't reply. Some of the rumors are saying that we didn't plan this festival.

That is true. Another one of the rumors says that there's no chairs in the panel rooms. That is also true. Some unreliable sources might've made the claim that I have been in a coma from late January to late April. You got me on that one. That was very much the game. Some rumors are saying I'm not at inbox zero and I am. I actually deleted all of my emails and that's why I haven't seen any of them.

I don't know how to reply to stuff. I don't have an email. We had our lunch break at noon, and to announce the lunch break, the event organizer walked into the event hall and just screamed that we're taking a lunch break. No bullfork, no pay system. That's how we break for lunch. Eating. Jacob yells at us.

Lunch break! We start throwing food. School's out. Also, we didn't have badges. The badges broke. The VIP ticket holders didn't have swag bags. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. They broke.

Well, that's a lie, obviously. That's a, that's a... It's another one. The badges broke and the Hilton died and... And a dog ate the badges. And a dog ate my badges and also my, a dog ate my identity. I think it's, it's less, it would be more, it would be a stronger PR move to be like, sorry,

big logistical issue, we screwed up, no badges. Then to say something as absurd as- There's a part of their brain that's like, I need to protect, I need to protect my reputation. I have tricked everyone so far No one suspects a thing everyone needs to just think that I'm the unluckiest In the world if I tell them that I messed up the badges They're gonna realize I messed up other stuff right now. They think I'm crushing it. I'm currently trying to DDoS Hilton.com

Like fuck dude, I missed a phone call. No, no, Hilton, it's like a gigantic trillion dollar corporation. They don't have phones. I think they fell asleep. I think their phones fell over or something. Their phones fell off. The swag bags were thrown away by the convention center. The cab, dude, stop the cab.

They fell down a sewer. Yeah, dude, they... They got hit by a plane. An elaborate Rube Goldberg machine resulted in... the cat fell down a sewer Result in the badges and swag bags being shredded. I'm sorry Sorry guys the mistake I did make was I knocked over one domino which bumped into a nickel that Yes, yes, which rolled into a gun. Pulled the trigger of a gun. From the top of the cannon factory.

This is all an elaborate, elaborate scheme to steal a bunch of swag. Oh, hell yeah. Yeah, steal a bunch of bookmarks. Finally, my plan is almost complete. Gildan t-shirt. I'll never forget my place in a book again. I'll have a bookmark for every page.

I'll have a bookmark for a book again! That's what's been Oli the best. I'll have a bookmark for every page. Where's page 18? Oh, here we go. You'll have to read the bookmark that says 18. Oh, we've got the Hunger Games 2 bookmark for that one. So I know what you're thinking, there must have been a replacement for all of this. There must have been something.

There was something in that, yeah. No? I was like, what is going on? She's not driving, is she? She's making too much eye contact with the camera. I've been catching occasional strays. Oh, cool, cool, cool. Because it's reflected, right?

That's why they're on the other side. Right, right, right. Because for a second I'm like, which one's Britain, which one's America? People keep making TikToks and cars, but then most of the time, I don't think this happened to this, but TikTok marks your video as like a dangerous activity. Yeah, I've seen that before. It's like dangerous activity. Do not repeat. Yeah.

So do you spot when they just confirm or deny? They just did something that was kind of a humanerism. Did you see it? No. Like five seconds. There must have been something. No, I have seen you do that exact gate. That is actually spooky. Especially the...

No. Or like, no, no, no, you must think, you must think that this would be a normal situation, right? No. No. I... First lips, look. No. That's something I never realized that I do,

but as soon as you pointed out, I was like, oh, every conversation I have ever actually. I just know it was the lips included. That was like scary. I was like, yeah, she's like your VTuber or something. Did you do mocap for this? And I attended the Writing Diversity BIPOC panel because one of my really good friends was a panelist

I wanted to watch and learn. It did not take place at one. I couldn't remember if it was like 1.30 or two or what? It's a place on the floor. But now it's gonna bounce up against the Cruel Prince cosplay meeting. No! What a specific meetup on the main schedule. And how many people are gonna be cosplaying it when there's only 40 attendees? What is Cruel Prince?

It's gotta be a... I think it might be the name of a book series. Yeah. I could be wrong. That was my guess. He was just like a book series. Yeah, I could be wrong Yeah, just mean princes they're like oh type of guy That's cruel. Oh my god, stop. He spit on it and everything. Oh, I actually read this book. Mark it again on bingo.

I'm just going to make an entire bingo board. Mark it a second time. All of them are Anna Stang. I read this book. I read this book. I wrote this book. The author says Anna Zizhavico It's The Cruel Prince

by Holly Black. I've read this I've read the...it's a series It's pretty fine Did you read the series of books? Yeah It's good! It's very YA Would you do a cosplay meetup?

No, I don't even I can't even That's cuz it's words on a page yeah, you've got to use your Imagination they're like fairies so that it's a realm so okay cool ears Here's cool So the content creation room was open on Friday I don't have a picture of it But I'm gonna need you to trust me. You know that infamous picture from dash con The ball pit in the empty room picture that exactly without the ball pit

Earlier that is god that's miserable Imagine when they said Contergration room. Because what the fuck would you put in a Contergration room? It's just another room. It's a room. It's just a room. Away from the scum.

You'd think there'd be some ring lights and some stands and some backdrops. Maybe one of those little like, uh, stands you stand on the camera goes around and you're friends. Yeah. Something fun like that. Like a bull pit. I think the best way to wrap this up, especially with the reference to DashCon, is to hear from the creator of DashCon themselves.

I have a question with people who attended the Million Lives Book Festival. What made y'all look at that and determine that was a trustworthy event you wanted to spend money on? Not the victim blaming. If you were an author, what made you feel confident attending as a guest and promoting that to your followers? No judgment.

I did create DashCon, so glass houses, but I just took a look at the website and every single thing about it screams that this is somebody who has no idea what they're doing. That while there are no malicious intents or anything, that that whole thing is run by somebody who has very big dreams and no experience. That is the most glass house. I would say that's a sand house. I think you live together. Maybe that website hadn't been created when people signed on for it.

Yeah, it's like one of those things where it's like, okay, I'm not gonna victim blame the creators. What did the comments say? Also, it sounds like a lot of them personally knew the organizer and trusted them. Yeah, they were in the community and then they had mutual friends. And it's a, I feel like it's the network effects of a community that bring people to. It's a matter of scale, right? Like you can overshoot and under deliver, but that doesn't mean you have no chairs. That's a different thing.

If they followed through on this small promises, it would have been fine. It wasn't impressive, but. I truly don't understand that clip of the lady saying, I planned my pregnancy around this. You did what for a party? But that's her career. Yeah, that's her career. It's not a party.

Yeah, it's not a party. It's her job. Here's the thing. I look at this and I do understand the basic sentiment of like, guys, we hear stories about terrible events all the time. Maybe when I think about it, I'm like, I would probably execute like a little bit more diligence.

But this is a career that is completely reliant on connections and networking. And if you live, you know, you're working at home and you're writing. And in her case, she's about to have even more full time obligation at home. You don't get a lot of chances to try a swing. And she thinks, OK, well, even if there's a 75% chance that this is a waste of time, it's 250 bucks. I can do it. I'm going to make it happen because there's always the off chance I need somebody really good or at least have a positive time.

That is like that's not what Fire Fest was. That was people doing something. They did. It was kind of optional and it looked kind of fun. And they could have executed like maybe a little more cynicism. Yeah, this is like, which is a career, a career opportunity. It's one could imagine to what you said earlier, Jordan is that they have it hard enough. Like these indie authors, you do everything yourself. Half the time they're publishing their own work too. So it's like, and you're promoting your own work, you're doing all of this yourself.

It's not a industry that really helps people out. So yeah. And it's lonely. Like that's another part is it would be really nice to go somewhere and actually get to spend time with other people that understand you. Yeah, knowing your friends are gonna be there, oh cool, awesome, I'll do it.

That's the weird thing to me. I'll never understand this victim blame-y. And if you feel that way, I don't understand posting about it. Yeah, especially if you made DashCon. Especially if you made DashCon. Because when she said glass houses, I don't feel like it is enough to acknowledge.

Because it's like- I don't know if she knows what that expression means. Yeah, because she's like, I'm a know if she knows what that expression means. Yeah, because she's like, I'm a mega hypocrite, but mega hypocrite thing. Glass houses is kind of, that's like not one of those things you confront porch with. You know, if you go like, well, you know.

Glass houses. Hey, I'm John Wayne Gacy, but I don't think anyone else should kill. Why would someone kill? I think someone goes, no offense, but it's like you're about to offend someone. Yeah, execute tact. That's what she just did.

OK, so one thing I want to read here, author Genevieve James. This wasn't the event company's first event that was alluded to in one of those TikToks. I signed at their last event and it went fairly well. They responded. The the people at Archer Fantasy Management, whatever Archer Fantasy Events. Maybe this is grace that we've heard so much about 16 seconds 16 seconds comments off

and they go, sorry, and then they get off. 16 seconds comments off is crazy work. I've seen people make longer apologies related to like, disrespectful play at a fighting game tournament. She's not even gonna finish her ukulele intro. She's not gonna be able to get it out in time. Yeah. Everybody, I am wanting to issue a formal apology. I do understand that the ball tonight

was not set up to standards. There were a lot of issues with getting set up and it was not set up well. I want to apologize. If you would like a refund, please contact me and I will issue a refund immediately. Thank you. So the apology was only for the ball. That was really nice. I will I'm there to be fair their identity got stolen and their phone fell in the toilet.

And they threw away all the tote bags. The convention center did it. It's literally like when someone does the thing where they're like, well, you're evil and you're annoying. And you go, well, hey, I'm not annoying. Yeah, relax. Do they have any other posts, the person who posted the 16 second apology

inside of a washing machine? Did you hear the audio of that clip? That's the ambient sound that I imagine that whole way would have. That's the, it's in the walls, like moaning Myrtle. Their whole account is just like screenshots and photos. Oh, there's refunds. Let's check in.

I wholeheartedly apologize for how the event. I'm from outer space, I got a little- Oh wait, hold on, hold on. I need to jam out to the apology beat. Why? Drop it. Wait, wait, wait. Bring that shit back, Jacob.

Run it. I wholeheartedly apologize for how the event turned out. We are currently- Oh. We are currently processing refunds as fast as we can. All refunds will be process by May 31st We think and appreciate you for your patience for your patience Thanks for reading sorry about the Gala sorry the ball was below standard didn't even that's the funniest way to apologize

Below standard it was a standard dude. That's a putting it lightly I do apologize you know looking at it now It was I think worse than the Met Gala. I would say we took a step down It would have been funnier be on this if she had said I'm sorry you were disappointed Oh, sorry, you're such an idiot put like Howard and shit. Am I okay? I'm not in book talking I'm not in fantasy and I'm not in any of these worlds. However, Archer Management sounds like a fucking real estate company and not a fantasy events company. Why isn't it like Pixie Dreamboat Productions?

Smiths and Brothers Fantasy. Jacob, can we go to the apology? Because there's something insane in that one, the one that says just watched. So this says we take full responsibility for the way AMO was handled. We are doing refunds for every attendee, author and vendor. We are also canceling all of our future events.

And we'll be processing refunds for those as well. Is there a song on that? Dude, it's from Aesthetic Beats, so that's how you know it's good. Oh, shit. It's the same one. Audio jungle. No. Give up. Fuck me.

We take full responsibility for the way AML was handled. Woo! Do a refund for every attendee, period. Author, period. Inventor, period. We're also canceling our future events. What a ludicrous choice. Ludicrous.

That is, Ludicr- That would have been more appropriate. Canceling our future events. What a ludicrous choice Sorry, I don't it's just the image of this lady Choosing so I get three possible options and goes this is the one people were mad at me 3.1 million views on that apology, but that's maybe just shouldn't have done it. That's so crazy. But the views, she's getting views. Come on, man. That's generating the revenue to pay people. They should probably, maybe this is mean

and maybe this is kicking them while they're down. They should probably take out the elegant nocturnal social October 2025 out of their bio. They should definitely take out a million lives book festival. Yeah, well that one makes sense, cause you gotta know. You gotta know.

I was gonna say, what's their most popular post? I'm an idiot. We don't know what their most popular one is. I'm dumb as a brick. What is that? Wait, what's that one at the top right? Oh, I'm tired. That was a lot of fun, guys.

Who's this? I don't know. Wow, I hate him. It's crazy. My name's Pixie Dreamboat. I like him less. I I'm like 9000 years old, but I'm like really small. Oh, yeah, okay, so it's still right then I hear Okay, a lot of people with like All right Even by association I'm worried you put sex stuff in your head

He's just me and say anything about that. I just want to wholeheartedly apologize I think I think I'm a relatively friendly guy. I hate you Okay, um so That's I think where this tale ends We sorry if it was a little bit scattered we kind of decided to talk about this last minute because we became obsessed You're taking this journey with us. Yeah, and we know you love drama, and we're all about that shit We're all about it. Sorry He's dying, and I hope he is.

So yeah, we end every episode of Sad Boys. Wait, thanks again to Clarabelle for sending me TikToks about this. We did draw a few ourselves, but it is really, I think if you hadn't sent that, we probably wouldn't have done this. So we'll link to her books. She writes a series called Witchlings, which is like a young adult fiction series. The book world was, everyone was a chatter about this. I mean, it made it all the way to Senorita Dashcon. So it managed to get to me and I literally, I don't know if you've never read a book in

my house and they mainly exist to sit on the coffee table. You're like, oh yeah, I'm into like shit. It made it to me and I'm like a 9000 year old pixie I'm gonna press you like doesn't do any sex stuff crush you with the Bible no not that okay so um we're gonna go ahead and we're gonna have a little lunch don't lock me up and then we are going to go on over to you at Patreon.com slash sadboys. Don't forget, does he, to do our episode of Sad Boys Nights, extra bonus episode, just for the real ones.

The character that has been present for the last few minutes will not be there. Mostly because I'm in a book. Yeah, I'm gonna make sure of that. I'm gonna lean on the book for long enough to where you become like a dried pet. It's hard for me to, I can't breathe. He's talking though.

These are my last words. Okay, go ahead. We in every episode of Sound Boys with a particular phrase. We love you. What was the new phrase that we had? It was like. We love you and we're America's podcast.

We love you and we're America's podcast. We're America's podcast. Okay, we're back in and it was like an action movie getting back to the airport. We were wearing suits. Oh, yeah, that was pretty cool. It was like we were both DB Cooper. We were mad men.