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Lurking Merkins - Volume Two of Under the Duvet of Darkness

314 replies

Boiledbeetle · 04/11/2023 08:00

"Under the Duvet of Darkness Volume Two Lurking Merkins" is now live on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CMJZ43VZ

This a thread about a book about a thread about a book about a thread! (I think I’ve got the correct number of books and threads in there)

There are over 160 poems written by over 40 different Mumsnet usernames contained within its 208 pages.

There are also 12 Lurking Merkin poems lurking throughout the book!

It can take a few days for it to become fully searchable so the link below will take you straight to it:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CMJZ43VZ

It's available worldwide so if anyone needs the link for a site other than the UK let me know and I can give you the link to the relevant Amazon site.

IMPORTANT BIT:

Whilst written entirely by Mumsnet users this book is not, I repeat NOT, published with Mumsnet’s express permission or co-operation.

It is published with the express permission and co-operation of the individual writers themselves.

Can anyone who tweets about it link directly to the book on Amazon or my Twitter profile:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CMJZ43VZ
or
https://twitter.com/TheBoiledbeetle

rather than to this MN thread.

Thank you everyone who let me use their poems, without you there would be no book!

Boiledbeetle XX

Lurking Merkins - Volume Two of Under the Duvet of Darkness
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Thread gallery
98
Motorina · 05/11/2023 16:43

My copy has landed! Woohoo!

CervixSampler · 05/11/2023 16:05

I've had a quick flick and shed some proud tears at the chapter 14 title page and laughed at the triangle of femininity lurking at the end 🤣

howdoesatoastermaketoast · 05/11/2023 16:02

I found one!!! Soo honoured! A lurkin merkin!

CervixSampler · 05/11/2023 15:59

I've written a dedication to GCD on the blank page at the front and have wrapped it for her. She's due home any minute and hopefully will be thrilled and not go all teenager on me.

Original poster
Boiledbeetle · 05/11/2023 15:58

howdoesatoastermaketoast · 05/11/2023 15:55

I'm being disciplined and reading from front to back observations

a) so far it's captivating!
b) it's beautifully edited and laid out

And now @Boiledbeetle it'll really test my willpower to not flick ahead as your comment is most intriguing! But I'm pretty sure I won't mind.

flick ahead. do it. do it. do it!

I got a bit more creative with my layout this time! (Last time I was too wrapped up in not actually knowing whether it would actually get published and trying to get everyone's permission secretly!)

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Original poster
Boiledbeetle · 05/11/2023 15:55

I don't think its boding well with mine that is has just come up with the option to reschedule the delivery! Why does the universe always choose me to mess with!

OP posts:
howdoesatoastermaketoast · 05/11/2023 15:55

I'm being disciplined and reading from front to back observations

a) so far it's captivating!
b) it's beautifully edited and laid out

And now @Boiledbeetle it'll really test my willpower to not flick ahead as your comment is most intriguing! But I'm pretty sure I won't mind.

Original poster
Boiledbeetle · 05/11/2023 15:52

howdoesatoastermaketoast · 05/11/2023 14:46

I've got mine!

I hope you don't mind what's at the end of one of yours Bb x

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Original poster
Boiledbeetle · 05/11/2023 15:51

I'm really happy for you all with your delivered copies!!!! whilst my bloody copy is still at the depot and saying it will be delivered by 10pm this evening! I'm not feeling in the slightest bit jealous that you have your copies whilst i don't! not at all!

@Waitwhat23 I have you to thank for the Enlightenment heading for a good while it just said 'waffle'! honestly though the Enlightenment bits took forever. I was going loopy with some of them! Nicolas chapter I just kept putting off and putting off as I just couldn't face wading through all the headlines about her!

the 'letter to my daughter' one of the enlightenment pieces provided by the poem writer, had me welling up quite a lot of the times I was trying to check it. I still well up now!

@LarkLane My copy is never going to arrive is it!! Honestly, the reward is seeing people see their poems published! and the fact that people have bought it! I'm still in disbelief that nearly 500 (488 at the moment) copies of the first one have been sold!

@Whatthechicken Your poem is bloody fantastic! I'm not surprised you outed yourself to your husband to show it him!

@CervixSampler excellent name news and im rather jealous of both your two books and Tunnock's Caramel Wafers!

And to those mentioning the back page - do you mean the very very very back page, as I'm fairly sure that will be just stating where it was printed along with a bar code! or the back page before that in bigly letters.... or the other thing?

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CervixSampler · 05/11/2023 15:31

Behold!

Lurking Merkins - Volume Two of Under the Duvet of Darkness
CervixSampler · 05/11/2023 15:20

It's 6 stops away!!

No, not going to change my name. Out and proud!

howdoesatoastermaketoast · 05/11/2023 14:46

I've got mine!

Whatthechicken · 05/11/2023 14:16

@Boiledbeetle Thank you so much for your hard work and congratulations! And thank you to all those that contributed. I wrote my poem out of frustration and now it’s in print!! My husband now knows my username 😬! I’ve had it an hour, so I think I’ll but another copy, because this one is going to be well read!

The last page!! 😂😂Genius!

Lurking Merkins - Volume Two of Under the Duvet of Darkness
LarkLane · 05/11/2023 14:16

Still waiting for the van to arrive here. @Boiledbeetle if I could send you a wee present I would feel privileged. You put in so much work to these two books of poems for no reward, just because you care so much.
Blessings to you and a big cheer from me.😊

Waitwhat23 · 05/11/2023 13:54

Had a quick skim while making lunch and will sit down later and read it properly.

I'm astonished at the sheer amount of work you must have put in, Beetle. The Enlightenment bits are so detailed and give so much background that it's like a piece of history.

I've cried at least twice - at letter to my daughter in particular.

Some poems I hadn't even seen before and loved reading.

The absolute back page is a work of genius.

Standing ovation to Beetle

oprah winfrey GIF by Golden Globes
Original poster
Boiledbeetle · 05/11/2023 13:50

CervixSampler · 05/11/2023 13:43

I'm wondering if I should change my name now.

I don't think anyone got any grief after the first one. But if you are thinking of a change now is a good a time as any!

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CervixSampler · 05/11/2023 13:43

I'm wondering if I should change my name now.

Original poster
Boiledbeetle · 05/11/2023 13:40

According to my account For Women Scotland's copy has just been handed to them by the delivery driver!

Mine is still sat back at the depot!

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Waitwhat23 · 05/11/2023 13:28

Dancing now

Season 3 Victory Dance GIF by Friends
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Boiledbeetle · 05/11/2023 13:28

Waitwhat23 · 05/11/2023 13:26

Loooooook!

That's the first one I've seen without not for sale printed on it!!

Happy Well Done GIF by Top Talent
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Waitwhat23 · 05/11/2023 13:26

Loooooook!

Lurking Merkins - Volume Two of Under the Duvet of Darkness
Original poster
Boiledbeetle · 05/11/2023 13:17

BonfireLady · 05/11/2023 12:43

All this has inspired me to read the first few poems of Volume One.

The foreword was fantastic and it's great to see that Nicola Sturgeon inspired all this creativity. I knew there had to be a point to her existence, over and above the bit where she helped to open the eyes of countless numbers of people (about the impact of compelled belief in gender identity) by trying to create a separate rapist-gender identity.

I've read some great poems already. I'll be thumbing my way through the book every now and again to read more. Whetting my appetite for Volume Two 👍

I won't lie, I'm rather excited that I'm a published poet now with the second book. Albeit just the one poem.

Going back to that Volume One foreword, it really does illustrate how far forward this has already come in the public discourse. There's still a long way to go, but it's definitely getting there. The progress over a year is also illustrated in the chapter and poem titles in Volume Two.
Onwards 💪💪

I've just gone back and read the introduction and everything to the first volume! God it all seems like so long ago now since Isla Bryson was photographed with those pink leggings! And the three sexes, man woman and rapist!

I can remember though how bloody angry and dismayed everyone was over Christmas and new year!

And the map of anger!

I haven't kept the times on the poems this time, just the date, but I'm glad I kept them on the first volume (plus the poems are in date and time order in the first volume within each chapter, which changed this time) as you can see how quickly people were responding to each others poems.

Some of them never made them to the book because they had been typed directly into the message box and then were swiftly deleted by MNHQ so even the writer didn't have a copy!

we've definitely covered a lot of ground this year from where we where 12 months ago even if it doesn't feel like it some days!

I've put information with a lot of the poems this time as otherwise what they were about will get lost over time.

If nothing else when peoples grandkids find them in years to come when sorting through dead grannies stuff they will be an interesting read which can be very definitely pinned downed to a particular period of time!

And some will be left wondering if dear recently dead grannie was one of the poem writers because if she was she never bloody mentioned it!

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BonfireLady · 05/11/2023 12:43

All this has inspired me to read the first few poems of Volume One.

The foreword was fantastic and it's great to see that Nicola Sturgeon inspired all this creativity. I knew there had to be a point to her existence, over and above the bit where she helped to open the eyes of countless numbers of people (about the impact of compelled belief in gender identity) by trying to create a separate rapist-gender identity.

I've read some great poems already. I'll be thumbing my way through the book every now and again to read more. Whetting my appetite for Volume Two 👍

I won't lie, I'm rather excited that I'm a published poet now with the second book. Albeit just the one poem.

Going back to that Volume One foreword, it really does illustrate how far forward this has already come in the public discourse. There's still a long way to go, but it's definitely getting there. The progress over a year is also illustrated in the chapter and poem titles in Volume Two.
Onwards 💪💪

Original poster
Boiledbeetle · 05/11/2023 11:58

I'm back to your parcel has arrived at an Amazon facility! Which doesn't bode well!

Last time this happened a copy spent two days travelling around London before the person it was going to finally received it!

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CervixSampler · 05/11/2023 11:50

Mine are out for delivery too! I'm not sure I can wait until Christmas to read it.