Enhance a book! Catch 22 and Also These Hands

I just saw that a theater near me is showing Kiyoshi Kurosawa's CURE soon. I don't think I've ever remarked on it here, but CURE is one of the most unsettling films I've ever seen, a police procedural horror movie that explores what happens when inexplicable violence spreads. Underrated classic.

"Why, what could they have done, being what they are? / Was there another York for them to burn?"

Required reading.

A free and democratic society cannot silence comedians because the President doesn’t like what they say. This is an attack on free speech and cannot be allowed to stand. All elected officials need to speak up and push back on this undemocratic act.

Ezra Klein’s role is to legitimize elite views. See: his shifting opinions on Gaza, which grant centrists permission to discuss genocide, etc. He doesn’t lead, he reflects. His recent work (even pre-Kirk killing) shows liberals truly don’t understand the threat before them.

My short story "The Rise and Fall of Storm Bluff, Kansas" is featured in WE WILL RISE AGAIN: Speculative Stories and Essays on Protest, Resistance and Hope, out from @sagapressbooks.bsky.social on December 2nd. Preorder the collection now at www.simonandschuster.com/books/We-Wil...!

My 2013 essay "HOW LONG 'TIL BLACK FUTURE MONTH" is featured in WE WILL RISE AGAIN: Speculative Stories and Essays on Protest, Resistance and Hope, out from @sagapressbooks on December 2nd. You can preorder the collection now at www.simonandschuster.com/books/We-Wil...!

These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart by @izzyxen.bsky.social (From @tachyonpub.bsky.social) 📰 Near-future post-collapse Kansas City 🏴 Anarchist commune politics 🧬 Cloning and designer drugs 🏳️‍⚧️ The trans agenda ❓ JUICY DETAILS I WANT TO HINT AT BUT ARE DEFINITELY SPOILERS

BABES, I HEARD YOU LIKE QUEER SFF MYSTERY NOVELLAS FROM TINY PRESSES.

@izzyxen.bsky.social's story has got to be my favorite so far. I got goosies.

Today's read is a book I'm incredibly excited for - last year's award-winning cyberpunk anthology from @neonhemlock.bsky.social and @robotleblanc.bsky.social! Huge shoutout to the team at NH for the review copy, let's give it a whirl ✨

Some dipshits have taken to calling the majority of humans "NPCs". Meaning we lack agency and don't think for ourselves. These are the same folks who want us to become dependent on A.I., which will make us lack agency and be unable to think for ourselves. My latest: buttondown.com/charliejane/...

settings > content & media > autoplay video & gifs = off

Hard to say how this isn't willful murder at a population scale. Seniors with chronic respiratory conditions getting denied covid vaccines.

I have a story in this month's Lightspeed: "On an Unusual Kind of Spatially Distributed Haunting." It will go up on the website on Sep 18: www.lightspeedmagazine.com

A reminder that if you like the work I’ve been recently making, you can support me via PayPal (paypal.me/brandonobrien), Patreon (patreon.com/therisingtithes), Itch (therisingtithes.itch.io), or Ko-Fi (ko-fi.com/therisingtit...)!

Anyone who looks at America in 2025 and thinks, "maybe we can fix this by throwing trans people under the bus" 1) doesn't have the brains to understand what's going on or how we got here 2) doesn't have the stomach for any of the fights ahead and 3) is vice signaling to their MAGA friends.

Your law students/law firm coworkers should never have used this tool; Open AI has been clear that they would disclose information to law enforcement this entire time But since APPARENTLY this has to be said several THOUSAND times before people digest it, DO NOT f***ing use this, lawyers

that NEA "we cancelled the creative writing fellowships program because we prioritize fostering AI competency" letter is a really good example of a genre of what we might call found horror

Hi authors! Please remember to file a claim!

James Dobson is dead. If you know that name, you were probably done harm by his words, just as I was.

And yet at undergrad level the humanities are extremely profitable for universities and consistently subsidize the more costly sciences. (At grad & research levels the funding world is turning upside down with gov’t changes but it sure looks like sciences are losing more funds than humanities)

This! My modest contributions to the genre are all about writing for my fellow lovers of literary extremophiles.

ICYMI, I have a new story out. It features: Mothman! Road Trips! Cryptozoology! Feelings!

I made a new crochet creation (using a Crafty Intention pattern)! It's up for grabs actually. I'll mail it to the first person who donates $100 to @clarionwest.bsky.social Write-a-thon. (US only, sorry international shipping rates are ridiculous right now) givebutter.com/2025cw-write...

If you've ever wondered "what if Izzy wrote a story that WASN'T extremely grim?" this is the story for you!

The bundle also includes excellent books by @izzyxen.bsky.social , @kateelliottsff.bsky.social @itsamia.bsky.social @samtasticbooks.com @jamsternazzy.bsky.social @nalohop.bsky.social Patricia McKillip 😍 and other wonderful writers - I hope you check it out.

Tachyon's 30 year anniversary bundle includes two of my Birdverse books - Yoke of Stars (World Fantasy finalist!) and Geometries of Belonging (Le Guin Prize for Fiction finalist!) for all your Birdly needs. www.humblebundle.com/books/tachyo...

@worstbestsellers.bsky.social continues to be brought to you only by Steaks and Cakes, the fictional restaurant from Christian Mingle the movie. (and for real our beloved Patreon patrons).

Hey Bluesky folks: what's your favorite tarot or oracle deck and why?

Have you read “A Half-Built Garden” by Ruthanna Emrys? There’s also @izzyxen.bsky.social’s cyberpunk novella “These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart”.

Help me out, bsky: what novels centering eco/anarchist communes do you recommend? (I’ve read The Overstory and Creation Lake and would like something that’s accurate and nuanced for a change)

Is this my chance to say "strong intersex women exist"? I guess this is my chance!

Check out the solicited poets! ‪@prosperifeanyi.bsky.social‬! ‪@angelvleal.bsky.social‬! @aniyonsenga.bsky.social‬! @izzyxen.bsky.social! @franwilde.bsky.social! @theodoragoss.bsky.social! www.kickstarter.com/projects/unc...

Also read These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart by @izzyxen.bsky.social! Trans urban noir centered around an anarchist commune and synthetic drugs and cloning and SEVERAL JUICY DETAILS I SHOULD NOT SHARE HERE BECAUSE THEY ARE TECHNICALLY SPOILERS. A very fast paced novella that YOU SHOULD READ.

I HAVE WANTED TO YELL ABOUT THIS SINCE DAY ONE (but my brain has not been great lately) BUT I JUST LEARNED I HAVE TWO DAYS AND EIGHT HOURS LEFT SO HERE WE GO IT IS GO TIME.

Pride month ends and so does the Pride Storybundle! Make sure to pick it up if you want a bunch of queer books, including one of mine, and also by @brentclambert.bsky.social @izzyxen.bsky.social @mercwolfmoor.bsky.social @littlebadger.bsky.social @blueterraplane.bsky.social - storybundle.com/pride

Tennessee's youth transition ban is straightforwardly discriminatory. It bans puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries *only* when they are used to affirm a trans identity www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/113/Bi...

Ends tonight!

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (myreadinglife.com/2025/06/18/s...) A touching story of love and family. "She Blooms and the World is Changed" by @izzyxen.bsky.social‬ (2023) — 2,337 words (about 10 minutes for the average reader) Originally published in @lightspeedmagazine.com‬ issue #156, May 2023.

Come celebrate #Pride with the 2025 Pride Bundle, curated as always by Catherine Lundoff & Melissa Scott! Includes @izzyxen.bsky.social's acclaimed debut THESE FRAGILE GRACES, THEIR FUGITIVE HEART buff.ly/at4OIua @storybundle.bsky.social @qospress.bsky.social‬ #lgbtq #pridemonth

Trans_lucent, my trans cyberpunk short story collection, is out now! 🎇 Exploring sex, tech, community, and gender across six stories. foxenlock.itch.io/trans-lucent 🌈🚀💫 #Booksky 💙📚

Did you read @izzyxen.bsky.social "Come Back Wrong" yet? What are you waiting for???? strangehorizons.com/wordpress/po...

Here is my first thread of my favorite quotes from the winners of the 2024 Transfeminine Review Awards. (Please feel free to tag anyone I missed. All errors in the quotes are mine. This is not a full list, as I am still trying to track down a few books.)

Super happy to be included with my short story collection Power to Yield! (Now a Locus finalist!) Awesome lineup with @izzyxen.bsky.social @mercwolfmoor.bsky.social @blueterraplane.bsky.social @brentclambert.bsky.social @littlebadger.bsky.social @davering.bsky.social & more!

We're Here 2023 (edited by @littlebadger.bsky.social and myself) is part of this year's Pride StoryBundle with so many awesome books (by @brentclambert.bsky.social @izzyxen.bsky.social @bogiperson.bsky.social @mercwolfmoor.bsky.social & more)! Go check it out and treat yourself storybundle.com/pride

My god can you even imagine

Dropped by @ravenbookstore.bsky.social with @rblemberg.bsky.social and we signed some books while we were there! I also bought the new Palestinian poetry anthology ed. @intifadabatata.bsky.social + Noor Hindi - ravenbookstore.com/book/9798888...