After what we're seeing at CBS, if today is not the perfect day for everyone to find some independent journalism & nonprofit newsrooms to support... what day could be better?

On this day, December 21, 1968: The first photo taken of the whole Earth in one frame by a human from Apollo 8. It was the first circumnavigation of the Moon by a crewed spacecraft, and the furthest humans had ever travelled away from the Earth. 📸NASA

Puerto Rican Governor, Jennifer Gonzalez, has signed a law that recognizes natural personhood to any being conceived in utero This is amazingly fucked, and apart from needing to be repealed yesterday, be aware that PR is where a LOT of experiments get tried out before rolling them out stateside

CBS paid the president of the United States millions in bribe money and now they censor news reports so it does not annoy him. I don’t know how much plainer we can put this.

For anyone in the US or Canada, Wooing the Witch Queen is on sale for $2.99 on Amazon, Kobo, and B&N for just 7 days, starting today. Enjoy! www.amazon.com/Wooing-Witch... www.kobo.com/us/en/search... www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wooing-the... www.indigo.ca/en-ca/wooing... #romancelandia

one of the stories i haven't been able to NOT think about this year is "Will He Speak with Gentle Words?" by A.J. LaRocca in @diabolicalplots.com the twists and turns of language of this one are lovely, along with the song and the fun of it. can't stop thinking of it.

"Never Surrender", the documentary about the making of Galaxy Quest, is a real treat as well.

It's truly remarkable how there will be news organizations and journalists who correctly identify that RFK is a menace and that HHS can't e trusted when he pushes stuff about vaccines or Tylenol causing autism... but cover the anti-trans stuff like "Well, HHS says so, and we should trust HHS!"

Freso, Ohio is a better name than the current name of the city

Weird how The Free Press was able to publish all of these without comment from the Washigton University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital.

Last month, the first installment of my serial novel for @michaelastackpole.bsky.social's Chain Story project came out. You've got just TWO days to read it and catch up before part two comes out! December 24th sees the release of IN THE LAND OF THE GIANTS! Watch www.chainstorycore.com for it!

It's backup day! 📂🎉 Back up your art, your writing... everything! Repost to remind a friend!

I have seen some suggestions that Bari Weiss wouldn't know about things like asking for comment from a source because she comes from opinion journalism, and this is just incorrect. Any competent opinion journalist is doing interviews and asking for comment. She's a bad journalist but that's not why.

hi i'm on the train again

Both my physical and mental health are rough right now. Most days, the pain is overwhelming. If you'd like to do something for me? I have a request. Do something kind for someone else. Invite an extra person to holiday dinner. Donate to mutual aid. Help your sister pack. Anything for anybody.

I look at the world, at the forests and the mountains here, the sky, and it's all right, as it should be. But we aren't. People aren't. We're wrong. We do wrong. No animal does wrong. How could they? But we can, and we do. And we never stop.

i think, maybe, drinking the entire pot of Darjeeling overnight was not the best idea

Daily bunny no.3176 catching the sun

Things are Terrible, but this isn't. Be weird.

i was working at the radio station (CD101, Columbus) when the news of this came through. the whole place went into mourning. was a very sad day, still is sad to think about. definitely not forgotten. an icon.

Worth noting, I guess, that inside of a year we've gone from administration officials taking selfies of themselves at CECOT and bragging about how it's hell on earth to now getting their horrible little media worms to kill stories about it

on this longest night for some reason i decided to take a train across the Eastern Time Zone because i am a monster to myself

Year's Longest Night, this side of the world. Wrap up inside the welcoming dark & bring it in to carry with you, in the light. The light will come tomorrow & we'll welcome that too, & the clarity & warmth it brings— but for now, esp in this era of weaponized surveillance, appreciate the dark, too

Most accurate 2025 map I’ve seen yet

I've seen some people saying that the new SFWA rule on "AI" in the Nebulas will prevent people from being transparent about their LLM use. Newsflash: They wouldn't have been anyway. It would cost them readers. It would cost them votes. It would potentially cost them opportunities with publishers.

I have said it before and I will say it again, Debate Kids are the ones actually ruining the country.

ANYWAY happy Friday! Today is a good day to get THE BUTCHER OF THE FOREST and read it safely indoors! :D (Or wrap it up and give it to some unsuspecting person, I don't know your life.) A finalist for the Nebula, Hugo, Aurora, Locus, Ignyte, and World Fantasy Award! 🦊🦄🍎

Deep breath Ok I'm going to try and stay calm But I'll point out that AI translation is literally causing translators to be fired (see the whole Harlequin line in France) (1/?)

One day something will happen — a wedding, a graduation, a job promotion, Jake Paul getting knocked out, Andrew Tate getting knocked out the next day — and you’ll want the right outfit to celebrate. Buy that special outfit now, so you’re ready when that next unexpected moment arrives.

“You write books? For a living? Are they published?” “No. I generally just sit on top of salt bins in town centres and bark paragraphs from them at strangers. If someone particularly enjoys a metaphor or adjective they sometimes throw me a coin or two. You’d be surprised at the way it mounts up.”

the past tense of "grinch" is "grunch"

Tis the season.

Huge missed opportunity: Marvel should combine two of Robert Downey Jr.'s biggest franchises and clarify that he's playing Doctor Doomlittle

It's funny how many are indoctrinated to think politicians don't owe us shit. Yes they do! Their job is to give us what we want & need. It's bad enough that the politicians don't think they owe us anything, but the fact that they've brainwashed so many to agree with them so people won't even ask?

Holy crap, Trump Take Jim Bean

this bullshit “automatic teller machine” hasn’t told me anything at all . it’s been 5 hours

how to handle the what now

I keep seeing that “Gen Z Republicans, let’s ask them what’s up” thing going around and honestly I remember a bunch of kids my age having those beliefs when I was younger, too. It’s not some new thing. Regressive ideas get taught and reinforced all the time.

“In the daylight, I pretend nothing can hurt me, but we both know that has never been true.” Cyanide Constellations, by Sara Tantlinger Narrator: Tanja Milojevic Host: Alasdair Stuart Audio Producer: Graeme Dunlop pseudopod.org/2025/12/19/p... CW: suicide, 2nd person POV

this is how you know you have a good friend

Every picture of Gavin Newsome looks like a Changeling from Deep Space Nine thast slowly grown to develop a more human face but you know its not because it has none of the humanity behind the eyes

he realized he is also in the epstein files

🌌 A tea specialist-turned-assassin embarks on a quest to rescue her sibling. 🪐 Scientists & soldiers try to colonize a planet, only to discover their new home can fight back. There are a few signed copies of THE SPLINTER IN THE SKY and THIS WORLD IS NOT YOURS at @greenapplebooks.bsky.social in SFO!

My response to anything over the next two weeks

"you're a man" ad hominem "you were born a boy" sunk cost fallacy "you're amab" false dichotomy "you have xy chromosomes" false equivalence "trans people are mentally ill" non sequitur "changing your sex isn't possible" skill issue

i don't want to write today, but i am going to get this WIP to 35k words. this is an accountability post.

When we see that @teoshannon.bsky.social book on the poetry longlist