Don’t forget the shampoo. Many dogs don’t like that.

Smart girl!

Can you imagine yourself doing all kinds of “bubble work”? The writing of your books, lecturing the books of others, cover design, maybe teaching writing to a small class, enabling you to stay inside the writing bubble? Then you have a better chance. This is similar to how other artists make a living. As a painter you’ll do all kinds of image-related work like logo design, gretting cards, prints for cloths and so on. As a musician you make loops people listen to while on hold, sound effects for all kinds of media, sample libraries for other musicians (basically virtual instruments), some audio engineering for small gigs and so on. Those are the people who can actually make a living with no or rare occasions of having to work a normal job. You still need to have a frugal lifestyle but it helps to not get lost in the usual grind. Lots of small jobs which aren’t paid that great, but ideally it adds up and you can your bills. This is something I would recommend as well. You’ll learn many things which will be helpful later on.

They’re harmless to humans. They’re actually very shy. Some wildlife photographers had the opportunity to come close to them and they all say that cheetahs are very gentle. Example: https://dailybbnews.com/heartwarming-cheetah-photographer-encounter/

So no reason for “oh no”, you can go full “aww”. ;-)

Not kind of. Germany is so ahead in certain aspects Russia copied it. Example: Data preservation. Germany is not a safe haven. Never was, never will be.

Germany is turning into a mass surveillance state.

Germany? Yikes.

I used to make a living with helping artists stepping up to a higher level. I’ve seen a lot fail but a few succeeding.

Don’t look for your niche, create it. Write something that is too unique to be replicated easily - not by humans, not by AI. This applies to both content and style. It’s also important to be present as an author so (possible) fans can get in touch with you (“The artist next door”). Try to get a foot into other fields as well. How about writing stories and scripts for video games for example? This also helps with networking and slapping your name onto all kinds of products.

Another tip: Attend business classes. Learn how economy works. You would be surprised how many successful artists did that silently. This alone gives you a huge advantage over most artists who don’t know anything about starting (and keeping) a business (Heck, they don’t even know anything about taxes). Turn yourself into your own company. With this mindset you will work more efficient and effective. It’s no fun but it’s very helpful in the long run if you want to make a living with art some day.

It’s the same as with fictional horror. It gives you a sense of control. You can play and you can stop at any time.

Thanks for answering again. Good to hear that.

I can recommend it. Works really well.

Thanks for answering.

Another question: Do people get punished who protest against the Netanjahu regime and its actions regarding Gaza? If so, how serious are they?

How tense is the situation among citizens regarding Gaza? Does it divide friends and families?

Such a complicated way just to add more RAND() to formulas.

“I know you’re scared; we’re all scared, but that doesn’t mean we’re cowards. We can take these skeletons, we can take them, with science.”

Trump does what Putin wants. And Putin wants the NATO to fall apart. This is not the usual TACO stuff. If it was, then Trump would threaten the other members at least once per week to withdraw which is not the case.

You mean per day, right? Please don’t tell me for an entire year. Because that would be worse than what I assumed. That’s nothing, that’s not even enough to pay a tax adviser. Sorry, but… are you still just a kid or teenager?

There is still a chance but it’s so tiny that you better leave it out of the equation. Almost nobody makes it to the top, with the top beginning at “I can focus purely on writing my books and don’t have to do side jobs like lecturing, writing bogus articles for tabloids, teaching writing at evening school, making covers and frying burgers anymore”, but you’re still sitting in a tiny broken apartment and eat cheap ramen, you’re still forced to shit out 300-page-books every 1-2 months for some niche genre and you’re still working at least 80 hours per week and you’re still only self-publishing using Amazon’s print-on-demand service and you still have to crawl all kinds of social media groups and forums to advertise your books and to remind your audience that you’re still alive. This is how it was before the AI boom. How many decades can you go like that, hoping to reach the point where you get an actual contract with a publishing house? Twenty? Thirty? And even then you’re still far from that point when there’s a demand to translate your books into another language (which would be the point where you can actually rent a small house and earn enough money to feed a pet like a cat or dog too). Do not fall for the apex fallacy. This is hard work. Ask yourself how much shit you can eat and if shit cakes are your favorite thing in the world. Because this would be your life then. Most authors give up because they want to live at some point.

So ask yourself: How much are you willing to sacrifice? If the answer is “Everything!” without any doubt or hesitation, then you might get somewhere in a few decades. If you’re talented enough, insane enough and very lucky. And if the AI bubble bursts too of course. This is the hard truth.

I worked in several art-related industries. You obviously didn’t. You don’t know anything.

I have experience. You don’t.