Heart of Horror #20: Near Dark
"Blooming Stone".
Hey everyone, welcome back to another Heart
of Horror.
I am one of your hosts.
My name is Bo.
With me, as always, the abulient, the
literary, some might even call bookish, or
perhaps even sexy, librarian-esque.
"blooming Stone".
Kate Pollock.
blooming?
Stone.
Um, thanks, sure, hi.
Well, it's funny.
It's kind of ironic that you called me
bookish librarian, because the first word I
don't know what it means that you used
Right, I'm clearly not that bookish.
But no, actually it's funny that you
mentioned that because I just got off
interviewing another author for my new show,
plug Plug.
Yes, and what is that called and where can
people find it?
It's called Kate Anjou's book reviews.
Ornju is about A-N-J-O-U it's my middle
name because I just I don't know, I don't
know why I just didn't want to use my last
name on it and it.
You know, I had this joke where it's like
it sounds better than Kate Pollock tracks
book bollocks.
But apparently everyone thinks that that's
a better name.
It's pretty good.
It's pretty good.
But no, I went with Kate Ornju's book
reviews and I've done all the logos and I'm
now like four episodes in.
So it's that one, I'm afraid, guys, but my
next one maybe I'll say Kate Pollock tracks
book bollocks.
But yeah, so you can find that.
You can find that in pretty much all your
normal places, but I also have a YouTube
channel what what?
Yeah, so it's just Kate Anjou's book
reviews and, essentially, if you want to
follow me on socials Facebook, instagram
and TikTok Instagram and TikTok have little
full stops between each word, but it's just
still Kate Ornju's book reviews.
So go follow me and stuff on there, because
it's all about promoting and reviewing
indie books, primarily fantasy and horror,
although I'm open to most things, but like
it's, a lot of the indie authors I know are
in those genres and it's my kind of like
favorite genre and I also interview the
authors of the books.
So yeah, so there's like two little
episodes where there's one's a review and
then one's like an interview.
So I just got off interviewing the lovely
Seren Farangray who does dark fantasy
romance.
So lots of lots of spice, lots of gore,
lots of demons.
It's great.
I think, most importantly, how do I get on
that show?
You ought to write a book.
Have you written a book?
You've written a book, haven't you, I have
written a book.
You haven't.
You can go on and say it.
But it's been a long time and it almost
feels like that would be cheating, although
I've been you know, the itch has certainly
been there of late and I think I may do
that over the summer.
I think that may be my summer project, just
to write a novel.
Okay.
Well then, yeah, you have to follow me and
shit, and then, you know, slide up in my
DMs.
Sure, that's.
That's what I'm known for.
You can just pop me a message and ask me
like an old person.
Yeah, yeah.
Like you ask, you ask my kids.
They will tell you that I'm pretty much the
sliding into DMs type.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
They're like look, we don't know much,
we're still, you know, just young people,
we're just ninth graders.
Yeah.
But one thing we do know for sure is that
Mr Randsell is the coolest person.
Yeah.
That has ever lived 100%.
I thought they need to know.
They don't need to know anything else.
You know information will see them through
life.
Okay.
So I you know I was making fun of myself,
of course, because my kids think I am an
old nerd and and rightly so.
That's.
That's not a lie, that's a pretty accurate
representation of me.
But I did have a genuine, like a moment
where a kid was genuinely impressed by me
and, at the end of the day, like you can't
really give a shit because they're
teenagers and they don't know anything.
So like their opinion of you can only
matter so much, otherwise you're, you're
fucking finished.
No, I definitely seek validation from
teenagers.
I ain't going to lie.
I do to an extent, but at but also you have
to understand that they're fickle.
Yeah.
And so you can't like like a teacher goes
through that thing that a parent does where
the the teenager is like too cool for you.
Yeah, but it happens all the time.
Like it's just now and she's five.
And it really sucks because you're like I
know that you want to hang out and have fun
and talk, but it would seem like you, you
would.
You would seem unusual to do so.
But the point being is that I'm at my desk
today and a couple of the kids are doing
some, some other shit nearby, like drawing
on the dry race board and stuff, and
because you know I don't actually teach
anything, I'm just like, look, I'm just
keeping you off the streets for 45 minutes,
that we had had a lot of testing today and
blah, blah, blah.
So we weren't like it wasn't a regular
class.
But one of the kids mentioned one of the
girls, I will say for the time being and
for the sake of argument in my class who
recently came to me and was like hey, I
want you to call me this other name because
I'm kind of going through a journey right
now and I was like oh, okay.
Fucking whatever sounds great.
I hope it's.
I hope it's bringing you happiness and
peace.
Fuck yeah.
And so you know, I've been calling her by
that name for I don't know, you know if you
weeks now and she wasn't there today.
But one of the other, one of her friends,
was talking about about her and was like,
oh yeah, they're not here today and and use,
you know the new name, and so forth.
And I was like, oh yeah, I've been meaning
to ask about this because I suspected that
this was the case.
But is she now like, is she identifying as
non binary?
And they were like, yeah, you know, at this
point they preferred their pronouns to be
they, them, they, them.
And I was like, okay, got it.
I didn't.
I felt awkward about asking them directly,
but now I know that and I got it, okay,
registered, and it one of the kids like
genuinely was taken aback by it and was
like so, like you don't care.
And I was like no, no, no, whatever, you
know, whatever makes them happy, then
that's what, that's what we'll do, like,
it's not my position to tell them one way
or another.
You know what their pronouns are, that's
their business.
And, and they're like so many of the other
teachers were like Well, that's not what it
says on your, your file, or whatever.
And I was like oh, that fucking sucks.
But it's also Tennessee and I get it.
And but I had.
But it was a nice month where like a kid
was like, oh okay, so not like I'm a cool
teacher, but of like, oh okay, you're a
decent person.
Yeah, there's a respect.
Right, yeah, it really was a nice moment of
like oh, okay, so we're safe with you about
this stuff.
Okay, good, that's so important for kids to
feel that way about their teachers, Like
it's more in fact, I would say it's more
important than the educational side of
things like, at least in terms of a child's
wellbeing is just to feel like that they
have that safe space, that there is someone
in like outside of the family, that they
can trust and talk to when they maybe don't
want to talk to their family.
Cause, even if you have the best
relationship with your parents, there's
still something you don't really want to
talk about with them, especially at that
age.
So the fact that you know you, you've
displayed the type of person that you know
they can, they can trust with that kind of
stuff and know that they're going to be
respected that's so fucking huge.
Like, yeah, like that's so fucking huge,
that's awesome.
Yeah, I mean, look I, that's bare minimum
shit, right, no it?
absolutely is, but unfortunately we live in
a world where bare minimum isn't even being
met.
Yeah.
So half the time.
So you know, a little goes a long way.
Yeah, yeah, and you know what?
What you said is true.
I think that, more than like all the
grammar and shit that I try to teach these
kids To varying degrees of success, but
beyond that, it really is just about like,
hey, here's how you be.
Like, just not an asshole, yeah.
You know, like right now, you're at your
ninth grader, you're a freshman in high
school and you're an asshole, and that's
not entirely your fault.
Like that's hormones and so forth.
Like there is a reason that, yeah, like
there, there is a reason that you know,
these kids are assholes for the most part.
Some are, but, but most of them are you
know, but it's that's just, that's fucking
how it goes.
