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"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.