I love having a favorite Arthurian side character. a full millenia of intermittent mentions with wildly variable characterization to get excited about. a book will be like 'he is not appearing in this text, because he's off fixing the drains' and I'm like 'classic my guy! he IS fixing the drains!'

deepest of deep breaths feeling nervous about this one, friends! I've written about the mainstreaming of pull-to-publish, its impact on fandom, and what it means for an increasingly corporate and IP-driven creative landscape.

Many stories I loved, some I did not, and Diana WHERE is the rest of the dragon riding matriarchal polyandry evil wizard dad book.

It's always hard to keep our rule not to look ahead and NEVER HARDER than in this episode. Hexwood when?!?

thank you all so much for all the amazing questions you've sent in for our Q&A!! FOR THE RECORD, although we planned to record that ep today, life events plus the realization that people might have thoughts about the shorts has caused us to reschedule for NEXT THURSDAY 9/25

ahhh! this little book is one I'm very fond of.

Fancy some #FridayFun? Here are Solaris' recs for #SapphicSeptember! From Scifi heists & cons to alluring housekeepers & vulnerable brides in crumbling Scottish mansions, regency romantasy to anarchist fantasy, vampirates & wuxia rebels to blind space nuns, we've got it all! Ft authors below👇 1/3

love it when you read the book upon which a movie is based and they're different enough that you immediately realize you have no idea what's about to happen. who's the spy. could literally be anyone

🎂🎉Happy Book Birthday to @voidcricket.bsky.social 's AN UNBREAKABLE WORLD, out in the US today and the UK on Thursday! 🚀“Hutchings is a bright light in space opera.” — Bethany Jacobs 🌠“Unmissable. Ren Hutchings is on my must-read list.” @garethlpowell.bsky.social Buy now geni.us/unbrw

- As You Like It - Hamlet takes up more brainspace but if I'm being honest to my heart the one I most like to see is a good R&J

I want to send out a huge thank you to all the incredible SFF authors who read AN UNBREAKABLE WORLD early & offered such lovely words about it in their blurbs!📖💫 Please give them a follow & check out their fab books (I'll tag them all below!) 🪐 AUW is out on Sep 9th from @solarisbooks.bsky.social

that said, if you're looking for a reading list beyond DWJ herself, this is the episode for you: in addition to Farah's own book (linked below) we discussed fellow critics Catherine Butler, Teya Rosenberg and Martha Hixon, & authors Ruth Manning Sanders, Jo Walton, Hilary McKay, Anne Fine, and more!

transcript available here: drive.google.com/file/d/1pUoT... and in our next bonus episode, we'll be covering the short stories of the seventies and eighties, as collected in Unexpected Magic and Mixed Magics!

for the first of our S2 bonus episodes, we had the absolute joy of talking with critic and historian @effjayem.bsky.social for an hour and a half about historical context, book-hunger, and DWJ as a critical writer of critical texts zencastr.com/z/MEQO-ixY

I love this! From their FAQs in response to “what’s the point?”: MOCKERY IS A USEFUL TACTIC AGAINST FASCIST REGIMES.”

The Fantastic Fiction at KGB series has raised $7K, enough for two years. THANK YOU TO ALL DONORS! We'd like to raise another $7K, for a total of four years. Can you reshare to make that happen? Details here: @datlow.bsky.social www.gofundme.com/f/fantastic-...

@voidcricket.bsky.social's excellent and ✨orange bannered✨ UNDER FORTUNATE STARS is on sale for 99c! Get yours now and preorder the sequel, AN UNBREAKABLE WORLD!

one of the things I like best in fiction is simply when characters the readers like are allowed to dislike each other and do not ever have to learn better about it. all of my fictional friends do not have to be friends. in fact sometimes it is better when they are enemies, for petty reasons

Got my miles in for @theyoungcenter.bsky.social's Waymakers mileage challenge! Wanna help fight for immigrant kiddos? We spent the weekend in detention facilities, in court, at airports, stopping the govt from illegally deporting Guatemalan children. Help us all Sept! runsignup.com/Race/IL/Chic...

Hey, the Unbound for Gaza fundraiser is here, starting September 25th. www.32auctions.com/unboundforga... The auction raises money for charities operating in Gaza. There are a LOT of super-cool items, many of which would be AMAZING holiday gifts for book nerds.

🚀💫Two ships. One chance to save the future. To celebrate next week's release of @voidcricket.bsky.social 's #anunbreakableworld, we've discounted their first standalone space opera in the same universe, UNDER FORTUNATE STARS, to 0.99 across all platforms! Grab a bargain: geni.us/9BMN4

Seattle: I’m teaching a photo cyanotype workshop in October! After learning the basics, students will use their own photos to create fine art cyanotypes, and also take home their transparencies for use in future printmaking. The class is beginner-friendly 🦋. www.studiopianonobile.com/shop/the-cya...

There's just under a fortnight to go until @voidcricket.bsky.social /Ren Hutchings' AN UNBREAKABLE WORLD hits the shelves! Here's what some other brilliant authors have to say about why you should pick it up... Preorder now: geni.us/unbrw

Look what arrived!

This quarter's Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast fiction offering is An Encounter with a Lady by Catherine Lundoff. Pirates and spies! (And you can find other stories in the same series in the fiction index.) alpennia.com/blog/lesbian...

The submissions for the new Massachusetts seal, flag and motto are up, and my friends, they are a *trip* www.mass.gov/doc/massachu...

the last two pieces of media we watched were, respectively, KPop Demon Hunters and the last two episodes of We Are Lady Parts. in the words of @epbirdsall.bsky.social, really funny accidental wine pairing

i'm sorry

Delicious in Dungeon / Ryoko Kui Exhibition is coming to New York (October 10-26, Chelsea Walls gallery).

Guatemala’s Historical Archive of the National Police, "long associated with the struggle for transitional justice and historical memory" has become "a casualty of intense government hostility," suffering from drastically reduced funding & restrictions on public access, per @nsarchive.bsky.social 🗃️

UPDATE: Relics of Ruin is an Endeavour Award FINALIST.

I have not expected literally anything that's happened in Leonora Carrington's 'The Hearing Trumpet' (although I have been delighted by much of it) but I should have anticipated this from a book blurbed by both Buñuel and Bjork

Today, Knight Foundation is committing $10M to the Public Media Bridge Fund — part of a nearly $37M effort to support public media. We’re calling on others to join us in ensuring public media remains a pillar of civic life. Read more in @nytimes.com: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/b...

🌑🌕AN UNBREAKABLE WORLD & UNDER FORTUNATE STARS: 2 standalone Space Operas by @voidcricket.bsky.social set in the same wider world - welcome to the Hutchings-verse! Time rifts, revenge schemes, memory issues, history nerds and bird monks - they've got it all! UFS geni.us/9BMN4 AUW geni.us/unbrw

Oh hey, the ebook of Murder by Memory is $2.99 right now! Get your sapphic spaceship murder mystery novella while the gettin’s good! us.macmillan.com/books/978125... 💙📚

There's Birds Out There

I had a phenomenal time at the Hugo awards in all ways except for the water bottle whose contents seeped into my backpack over the course of the ceremony. So, giveaway! Quote with your favorite poem for a chance to win a slightly waterlogged but still readable book that has had adventures.

Congratulations to all of the #HugoAward finalists and winners!!

it's been ten hours and I still have not successfully processed this! huge huge congrats to all the winners and nominees, an truly unbelievable set of stars among whom to spend an evening, and, also, what?? what????

in this episode @emilytesh.net immediately converted me to her conspiracy theory regarding the True Time City Ending and I can't wait for everyone else to join me

Did you know that @rebeccafraimow.bsky.social 's LADY EVE'S LAST CON was one of NY Times' Best Romance Novels of 2024? "Propulsive fun." @freyamarske.bsky.social "A charming, space-hopping, queer rom-com" @voidcricket.bscky.social Buy now: geni.us/5unVd

Courtesy of catsitter friend, please behold Mina when she sneaks up behind you on the bed and judges you for not playing with the string toy already

Tomorrow evening (8/13) is my last cyanotype scarf workshop for a while 🦋. After this, the next scarf printmaking class is on December 17th. To sign up for tomorrow’s class: www.studiopianonobile.com/shop/the-cya...

Next, here's where to find @randeedawn.com @rebeccafraimow.bsky.social @isabelcanas.bsky.social and @mkhardywrites.com Learn more at: seattlein2025.org/program-and-...

Okay, deep breath. I need your help. My friend set this up for me because financial stress is making the whole cancer stress a lot worse. www.paypal.com/pools/c/9gAG... If, like me, you don't have money atm, if you have read and enjoyed any of my books, please can you tell people about them?

Would you help our friends at Paivapo Publishing fund the translation of three books? $5, $10 help so much - and there's also an Art Shop with many names you'll recognize! Please help spread the word. Time is running out for book 2, but the author is excited, and I know we can *do* this:

RFK Jr. backs down all the time when he gets push back, so if anyone wants to call, here's the HHS number 1-877-696-6775. I'd also call your senators/reps as well.

I feel ashamed of myself for even posting this and asking, but I need the help to take some of the stress and pressure away - me and my husband, and our three beautiful dogs, are hoping that you can help raise emergency funds to try and find a new house. gofund.me/061cd1b4

The praise keeps flowing in for @voidcricket.bsky.social 's AN UNBREAKABLE WORLD! “Unmissable. Ren Hutchings is on my must-read list.” @garethlpowell.bsky.social "An instantly engaging premise and unforgettable characters.” @rebeccafraimow.bsky.social Out September 👉 geni.us/unbrw

once again confronted by my As You Like It Problem, which is that it seems so clear to me that 80% of Rosalind's dialogue is trolling and no director has ever agreed with me